The Town (Al-Balad)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nay! I swear by this city 1 And you are free to live upon it, -- 2 and [I call to witness] parent and offspring: 3 Verily, We have created man in toil. 4 Thinks he that none can overcome him? 5 He says, "I have spent enormous wealth." 6 Deemest he that none beholdeth him? 7 Have We not made for him two eyes 8 And a tongue, and a pair of lips?- 9 and shown him the two highways [of good and evil]? 10 But he could not scale the steep ascent. 11 and what shall teach thee what is the steep? 12 It is the freeing of a slave 13 Or the giving of food in a day of privation 14 An orphan of near relationship 15 or some needy person 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 Those who do so are the people of the right hand, 18 As for those who rejected Our Signs, they are the People of the Left Hand. 19 over them is a Fire covered down. 20