The Town (Al-Balad)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ I CALL THIS earth to witness -- 1 And you, [O Muhammad], are free of restriction in this city - 2 and [I call to witness] parent and offspring: 3 indeed, We created man in trouble. 4 Thinks he that none can overcome him? 5 He says: “I have squandered 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 unto him the two highways? 10 But he did not venture to scale the difficult steep. 11 Would that you knew what Aqaba is! 12 It is the setting free of a slave 13 Or the giving of food in a day of privation 14 to an orphaned relative 15 Or the poor in distress; 16 And to be of those who believe, and urge upon one another to persevere, and urge upon each other to be kind. 17 They are the people of the right hand (and will succeed). 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 [with] fire closing in upon them. 20