The Town (Al-Balad)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nay! I swear by this city. 1 and thou art a lodger in this land; 2 And by the giver of birth, and whom he fathered, 3 indeed, We created man in trouble. 4 Does man think that no one will ever have power over him? 5 And he saith: I have destroyed vast wealth: 6 Does man think that no one saw 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 What could let you know what the height is! 12 It is the setting free of a slave 13 or, in a day of famine, the feeding of 14 of an orphaned relative 15 Or of a homeless needy person! 16 And to be of those who believe and exhort one another to perseverance and exhort one another to pity. 17 These are the fellows of the righthand. 18 But those who disbelieve in Our verses, they are the Companions of the Left, 19 [with] fire closing in upon them. 20