The Town (Al-Balad)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nay! I swear by this city. 1 And you, [O Muhammad], are free of restriction in this city - 2 by the begetter, and that he begot, 3 That We created man in toil and trouble. 4 Thinks he that none can overcome him? 5 He may say (boastfully); Wealth have I squandered in abundance! 6 Thinketh he that none beholdeth him? 7 Have We not given him two eyes, 8 One tongue, and two lips, 9 and guided him on the two paths (of good and evil)? 10 But he has not broken through the difficult pass. 11 And what do you know what that difficult steep is? 12 It is the freeing of a slave 13 or the feeding in times of famine 14 an orphaned relative 15 Or the poor 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 These are the People of the Right Hand. 18 But those who deny Our revelations are the people of the left hand: 19 The Fire will be shut over them (i.e. they will be enveloped by the Fire without any opening or window or outlet. 20