The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

7: 48
The Heights 97
saying, ‘Where are those you used to call on beside God?’ they will
say, ‘They have deserted us.’ They will confess that they were disbelievers
and 38 God will say, ‘Join the crowds of jinn and humans
who have gone before you into the Fire.’ Every crowd curses its
fellow crowd as it enters, then, when they are all gathered inside, the
last of them will say of the first, ‘Our Lord, it was they who led us
astray: give them double punishment in the Fire’– God says, ‘Every
one of you will have double punishment, though you do not know
it’– 39 and the first of them will say to the last, ‘You were no better
than us: taste the punishment you have earned.’
40 The gates of Heaven will not be open to those who rejected Our
revelations and arrogantly spurned them; even if a thick rope a were
to pass through the eye of a needle they would not enter the Garden.
This is how We punish the guilty – 41 Hell will be their resting place
and their covering, layer upon layer – this is how We punish those
who do evil. 42 But those who believe and do good deeds – and We
do not burden any soul with more than it can bear – are the people
of the Garden and there they will remain. 43 We shall have removed
all ill feeling from their hearts; streams will flow at their feet. They
will say, ‘Praise be to God, who guided us to this: had God not
guided us, We would never have found the way. The messengers of
our Lord brought the Truth.’ A voice will call out to them, ‘This is
the Garden you have been given as your own on account of your
deeds.’ 44 The people of the Garden will cry out to the people of the
Fire, ‘We have found what our Lord promised us to be true. Have
you found what your Lord promised you to be true?’ and they will
answer, ‘Yes’. A voice will proclaim from their midst, ‘God’s rejection
[hangs] over the evildoers: 45 those who turned others away
from God’s path and tried to make it crooked, those who denied the
Hereafter.’
46 A barrier divides the two groups with men on its heights
recognizing each group by their marks: they will call out to the
people of the Garden, ‘Peace be with you!’– they will not have
entered, but they will be hoping, 47 and when their glance falls upon
the people of the Fire, they will say, ‘Our Lord, do not let us join the
evildoers!’– 48 and the people of the heights will call out to certain
a Not ‘camel’. The roots of the words for ‘camel’ and ‘thick twisted rope’ are the
same in Arabic and ‘rope’ makes more sense here (Razi).