The Town (Al-Balad)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ I do not (need to) swear by this town (Mecca) 1 in which you are now living 2 and by parent and offspring, 3 That We created man in toil and trouble. 4 Does he think that never will anyone overcome him? 5 He boasts, "I have spent wealth abundant!" 6 Does he think that none has observed him? 7 Have We not given him two eyes, 8 One tongue, and two lips, 9 And shown him the two ways (good and evil)? 10 Yet he has not assaulted the steep; 11 And what have you understood, what the valley is! 12 It is the setting free of a slave 13 Or the giving of food in a day of privation 14 of an orphaned relative 15 and downtrodden destitute person, (so that he would be of) 16 and being, withal, of those who have attained to faith, and who enjoin upon one another patience in adversity, and enjoin upon one another compassion. 17 These are the people of the right hand. 18 But those who deny Our revelations are the people of the left hand: 19 with the Fire closed above them. 20