The Town (Al-Balad)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nay! I swear by this city. 1 in which you are now living 2 or by the great father and his wonderful son (Abraham and Ishmael) 3 Verily, We have created man in toil. 4 Thinks he that none can overcome him? 5 He boasts, "I have spent wealth abundant!" 6 Does he believe that none has seen him? 7 Have We not given him two eyes, 8 And a tongue and two lips? 9 And shown him the two ways (good and evil)? 10 Yet he has not scaled the height. 11 And what have you understood, what the valley is! 12 The freeing of a slave! 13 Or the giving of food in a day of hunger 14 An orphan near of kin, 15 Or of a homeless needy person! 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 who do so are the people of the right hand, 18 But those who reject Our Signs, they are the (unhappy) Companions of the Left Hand. 19 Upon them is a fire, in which they are imprisoned, closed and shut above them. 20