The Town (Al-Balad)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nay! I swear by this city 1 and you are a lodger in this country. 2 And by the begetter and that which he begat, 3 Verily, We have created man into [a life of] pain, toil and trial. 4 Thinks he that none can overcome him? 5 He says, "I have spent enormous wealth." 6 Thinketh he that none beholdeth him? 7 Did We not grant him two eyes, 8 And a tongue, and a pair of lips?- 9 And shown him the two ways (good and evil)? 10 Yet he has not scaled the height. 11 And what can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult pass? 12 It is the freeing of a slave 13 Or the feeding on a day of hunger. 14 An orphan near of kin, 15 Or a poor man cleaving to the dust. 16 And then being among those who believed and advised one another to patience and advised one another to compassion. 17 Those are the companions of the right. 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 who will be engulfed in the fire. 20