البلد

1NAY! I call to witness this land –

2this land in which thou art free to dwell -

3and [I call to witness] parent and offspring:

4Verily, We have created man into [a life of] pain, toil and trial.

5Does he, then, think that no one has power over him?

6He boasts, "I have spent wealth abundant!"

7Does he, then, think that no one sees him?

8Have We not given him two eyes,

9and a tongue, and a pair of lips,

10and shown him the two highways [of good and evil]?

11But he would not try to ascend the steep uphill road...

12And what could make thee conceive what it is, that steep uphill road?

13[It is] the freeing of one's neck [from the burden of sin],

14or the feeding, upon a day of [one's own] hunger,

15of an orphan near of kin,

16or of a needy [stranger] lying in the dust –

17and being, withal, of those who have attained to faith, and who enjoin upon one another patience in adversity, and enjoin upon one another compassion.

18Such are they that have attained to righteousness;

19whereas those who are bent on denying the truth of Our messages – they are such as have lost themselves in evil,

20[with] fire closing in upon them.