This Surah (Revealed) Meccan, consisting of 20 verses.(Al-Balad)
Ayah 90:1 الأية
بِسْم ِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Ayah First 1 الأية
Tafseer
I swear (lā is extra) by this land, of Mecca,
Ayah 90:2 الأية
Tafseer
and you, O Muhammad (s), have free disposal of, sanction for, this land, in that
you will be given permission to fight in it â and indeed God fulfilled this promise to him on the day of the
Conquest [of Mecca] (thus this is a parenthetical statement intervening between that by which the oath has been
sworn and that which is a supplement thereto).
Ayah 90:3 الأية
Tafseer
And [by] the begetter, that is, Adam, and that which he begat, that is, his
descendants (mā, âthat whichâ, [actually] means man, âwhomâ).
Ayah 90:4 الأية
Tafseer
We certainly created man (al-insān: the generic noun) in travail, in [a state
of] toil and hardship, struggling with the tribulations of this world and the calamities of the Hereafter.
Ayah 90:5 الأية
Tafseer
Does he suppose, does the strong man of Quraysh, namely, Abūâl-Ashadd b. Kalada,
presume, on account of his strength, that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, its subject
omitted, that is to say, annahu) no one will have power over him? Yet God has power over him.
Ayah 90:6 الأية
Tafseer
He says, âI have exhausted, in enmity of Muhammad (s), vast wealth!â, great
[wealth], piles and piles of it.
Ayah 90:7 الأية
Tafseer
Does he suppose that (an, in other words, annahu) no one has seen him?, with
regard to what he has expended to know the quantity thereof; God knows the quantity thereof; but it is
not [in reality that much so as] to be considered a great amount, and [in any case] He will requite him
for his evil conduct.
Ayah 90:8 الأية
Tafseer
748 Have We not given (an interrogative meant as an affirmative, in other words, âWe
have [certainly] givenâ) him two eyes,
Ayah 90:9 الأية
Tafseer
and a tongue, and two lips,
Ayah 90:10 الأية
Tafseer
and guided him to the two paths?, [did We not] point out to him the path of good
and that of evil?
Ayah 90:11 الأية
Tafseer
Yet why does he not assault the obstacle?, [why] does he [not] surmount it?
Ayah 90:12 الأية
Tafseer
And what will show you, [what will] make known to you, what the obstacle is?,
that he is to surmount â intended to emphasise its enormity (this statement is a parenthetical one). He
explains the way to surmount it by saying:
Ayah 90:13 الأية
Tafseer
the freeing of a slave, from bondage,
Ayah 90:14 الأية
Tafseer
or to give food on a day of hunger,
Ayah 90:15 الأية
Tafseer
to an orphan near of kin (maqraba means qarāba),
Ayah 90:16 الأية
Tafseer
or a needy person in misery (matraba: literally means] âclinging to the dust
[turāb]â because of his poverty; a variant reading has two verbal nouns in place of the two verbs [fakka, âhe
freedâ, and atâama, âhe fedâ], the first being in a genitive construction, fakku raqabatin, âthe freeing of a
slaveâ, and the second with nunation, itâāmun, âto give foodâ, in which case there is an implied iqtihāmu before
al-âaqaba, of which the said reading becomes the explication);
Ayah 90:17 الأية
Tafseer
while being (thumma kāna is a supplement to iqtahama, âhe assaultedâ; thumma is
for the ordering of things to be mentioned) in other words, [what is meant is that] at the point of the
assault he was: one of those who believe and enjoin one another to steadfastness, in [pursuing] obedience and
in refraining from disobedience, and enjoin one another to compassion (marhama means rahma),
towards creatures.
Ayah 90:18 الأية
Tafseer
Those, the ones described by the said attributes, are the ones of the right
[side] (al-maymana means alyamīn).[90:19 الأية
Tafseer
749 But those who disbelieve in Our signs, they are the ones of the left [side]
(al-mashâama means al-shimāl).
Ayah 90:20 الأية
Tafseer
Over them will be an enclosing Fire (read muâsada or mūsada), closed on top [of
them].