Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
90. Sūrat al-Balad 1
the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.
1 I swear by this town,
2 as you reside in this town;
3 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 Have We not made for him two eyes,
9 a tongue, and two lips,
10 and shown him the two paths [of good and evil]?
11 Yet he has not embarked upon the uphill task.
12 And what will show you what is the uphill task?
13 [It is] the freeing of a slave,
14 or feeding [the needy] on a day of starvation,
15 or an orphan among relatives,
16 or a needy man in desolation,
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 People of the Right Hand.
19 But those who defy Our signs,
they are the People of the Left Hand.
1 The sūrah is named after the ‘town’ (balad) mentioned in verse 1.
