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Al-Balad · The City
سُورَةُ البلد
About this chapter
Sūrat al-Balad is the ninetieth chapter of the Quran, and most commentators believe this chapter to be early Meccan. Some, such as Suyūṭī, believe it was revealed in the middle period of the Prophet’s life in Mecca, after Sūrat al-Qāf. A minority of scholars, such as Ālūsī, suggest that the first four verses are Medinan as they were revealed after the conquest of Mecca.
The introduction sets out when the chapter came and what it addresses; the merits gather what the narrations say of reading it. Both are written as units of the tafsir, with their own footnotes.
The verses
Each with the first line of its translation
Verses you have read are marked; the one you are on is shaded
- 1–2 I swear by this town,
- 3 And by the father and him whom he begot.
- 4 Certainly, we created man in travail.
- 5 Does he suppose that no one will ever have power over him?
- 6 He says: ‘I have squandered immense wealth.’
- 7 Does he suppose that no one sees him?
- 8–9 Have We not made for him two eyes,
- 10 And shown him the two paths?
- 11–12 Yet he has not embarked upon the uphill task.
- 13 [It is] the freeing of a slave.
- 14 Or feeding [the needy] on a day of starvation.
- 15–16 Or an orphan among relatives,
- 17 While being one of those who have faith, and who enjoin one another to patience, and enjoin one another to compassion.
- 18 They are the fortunate ones.
- 19 But those who defy Our signs, they are the people of misfortune.
- 20 [Imposed] upon them will be a closed fire.
Works cited in this chapter