The Town (Al-Balad)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ I swear by this city (Makkah); 1 in which you are now living 2 and by parent and offspring, 3 Verily, We have created man in toil. 4 Thinketh he that none hath power over him? 5 He says: "I have wasted a great deal of wealth." 6 Thinketh he that none beholdeth him? 7 Did We not make two eyes for him? 8 and a tongue, and a pair of lips, 9 And guide him to the parting of the mountain ways? 10 But he could not scale the steep ascent. 11 Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Ascent is! - 12 It is the freeing of a slave; 13 or giving food upon a day of hunger 14 to an orphan near of kin 15 and downtrodden destitute person, (so that he would be of) 16 and, then besides this, he be one of those who believed, and enjoined upon one another steadfastness and enjoined upon one another compassion. 17 Those are the companions of the right. 18 As for those who disbelieve in Our revelations, they are the people of the left 19 who will be engulfed in the fire. 20