By the one who is denoted by the name Allah (who created my being with His Names in accord with the meaning of the letter ‘B’), the Rahman, the Rahim.

 

1. I swear by this city (the world in which I live)...

2. That you are free of restriction herein!

3. And (I swear) by the One who gives birth (to man) and that which is born of him,

4. We have certainly created man in stages of difficulty!

5. Does he now think that none can overpower him?

6. He says, “I have spent much wealth.”

7. Does he think nobody can see him?

8. Did We not form two eyes for him?

9. A tongue and two lips...

10. And showed him the two ways (of falsity and Truth)!

11. But he did not have (the courage) to climb that steep hill!

12. Do you know what that steep hill is?

13. It is to liberate from slavery (to free consciousness from its enslavement to the body)!

14. Or to feed another while hungry!

15. (To feed) an orphan of near relation.

16. Or to feed the impoverished one who is in distress.

17. And then to be of those who believe and advise patience and mercy to one another.

18. These are the people of the right (the fortunate ones).

19. But those who deny Our signs, they are the people of the left (the unfortunate ones).

20. They are enclosed and trapped in Fire!