The Town (Al-Balad)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ I swear by yonder city 1 And you shall be made free from obligation in this city-- 2 And (the mystic ties of) parent and child;- 3 Certainly We have created man to be in distress. 4 Does man think that no one will ever have power over him? 5 saying, 'I have consumed wealth abundant'? 6 Does he then think that no one sees him? 7 Have We not appointed to him two eyes, 8 And a tongue, and a pair of lips?- 9 And did We not guide him to the two elevated things? 10 But he has made no effort to pass on the path that is steep. 11 And what do you know what that difficult steep is? 12 The freeing of a slave! 13 Or, feeding, in a day of privation, 14 of an orphaned relative 15 Or the poor in distress; 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 These are the people of the right hand. 18 But those who disbelieved in Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.), they are those on the Left Hand (the dwellers of Hell). 19 over them is a Fire covered down. 20