SURAH 70 — Al-Ma‘ārij — المعارج — “The Ascending Ways”

• Revelation Order: 79
• Event Anchor: Late Meccan response to demands for divine punishment (c. 619–622 CE)

Explanation:
Al-Ma‘ārij responds to Meccan skeptics who demanded that divine punishment be hastened if Muhammad’s message were true. The surah counters with descriptions of the Day of Judgment, emphasizing how swiftly and inevitably judgment will arrive. It also paints a portrait of human nature—anxious, impatient, greedy—contrasted with the steadfast qualities of true believers. This rhetorical stance fits the late Meccan environment, where opposition had hardened and mockery often took the form of taunts demanding immediate proof. The surah confronts this challenge by reframing divine timing and exposing the moral inadequacy of such demands.

Verse	Verse #	Meccan v Medinan	General Index
A supplicant asked for a punishment bound to happen	1	Meccan	5376
To the disbelievers; of it there is no preventer.	2	Meccan	5377
[It is] from Allah, owner of the ways of ascent.	3	Meccan	5378
The angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him during a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years.	4	Meccan	5379
So be patient with gracious patience.	5	Meccan	5380
Indeed, they see it [as] distant,	6	Meccan	5381
But We see it [as] near.	7	Meccan	5382
On the Day the sky will be like murky oil,	8	Meccan	5383
And the mountains will be like wool,	9	Meccan	5384
And no friend will ask [anything of] a friend,	10	Meccan	5385
They will be shown each other. The criminal will wish that he could be ransomed from the punishment of that Day by his children	11	Meccan	5386
And his wife and his brother	12	Meccan	5387
And his nearest kindred who shelter him	13	Meccan	5388
And whoever is on earth entirely [so] then it could save him.	14	Meccan	5389
No! Indeed, it is the Flame [of Hell],	15	Meccan	5390
A remover of exteriors.	16	Meccan	5391
It invites he who turned his back [on truth] and went away [from obedience]	17	Meccan	5392
And collected [wealth] and hoarded.	18	Meccan	5393
Indeed, mankind was created anxious:	19	Meccan	5394
When evil touches him, impatient,	20	Meccan	5395
And when good touches him, withholding [of it],	21	Meccan	5396
Except the observers of prayer –	22	Meccan	5397
Those who are constant in their prayer	23	Meccan	5398
And those within whose wealth is a known right	24	Meccan	5399
For the petitioner and the deprived –	25	Meccan	5400
And those who believe in the Day of Recompense	26	Meccan	5401
And those who are fearful of the punishment of their Lord –	27	Meccan	5402
Indeed, the punishment of their Lord is not that from which one is safe –	28	Meccan	5403
And those who guard their private parts	29	Meccan	5404
Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed –	30	Meccan	5405
But whoever seeks beyond that, then they are the transgressors –	31	Meccan	5406
And those who are to their trusts and promises attentive	32	Meccan	5407
And those who are in their testimonies upright	33	Meccan	5408
And those who [carefully] maintain their prayer:	34	Meccan	5409
They will be in gardens, honored.	35	Meccan	5410
So what is [the matter] with those who disbelieve, hastening [from] before you, [O Muhammad],	36	Meccan	5411
[To sit] on [your] right and [your] left in separate groups?	37	Meccan	5412
Does every person among them aspire to enter a garden of pleasure?	38	Meccan	5413
No! Indeed, We have created them from that which they know.	39	Meccan	5414
So I swear by the Lord of [all] risings and settings that indeed We are able	40	Meccan	5415
To replace them with better than them; and We are not to be outdone.	41	Meccan	5416
So leave them to converse vainly and amuse themselves until they meet their Day which they are promised –	42	Meccan	5417
The Day they will emerge from the graves rapidly as if they were, toward an erected idol, hastening.	43	Meccan	5418
Their eyes humbled, humiliation will cover them. That is the Day which they had been promised.	44	Meccan	5419