The Town (Al-Balad)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ NAY! I call to witness this land 1 – this city wherein you have been rendered violable– 2 and by parent and offspring, 3 Verily, We have created man in toil. 4 Thinks he that none can overcome him? 5 (He boasts and shows off) saying, "I have spent a great deal of money (for the cause of God)". 6 Thinks he that none sees him? 7 Have We not made for him two eyes 8 and a tongue and two lips? 9 And did We not guide him to the two elevated things? 10 But he hath made no haste on the path that is 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 An orphan, of kin, 15 or to a destitute lying in dust; 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 Such are they that have attained to righteousness; 18 whereas those who are bent on denying the truth of Our messages - they are such as have lost themselves in evil, 19 and the Fire will close in on them. 20