0% studied · Top
Surah 90 · Makkah · 20 āyāt
Phase 02 · Going public — and the persecution(c. 10–8 BH) — view in timelineAl-BaladThe City
البلد
An early Makkan surah sworn by Makkah itself — the city in which the Prophet ﷺ was, at that moment, treated as if his blood were licit. It moves from an oath, to a description of man created into toil and struggle (kabad), to the boastful spender who thinks no one watches him, to the two given faculties and the two highroads shown to every person, and finally to the 'steep path' (al-ʿaqabah) that most refuse to climb: freeing a captive, or feeding an orphan or a destitute stranger in a day of hunger — joined to faith, patience and mercy.
Why it was revealed
Revealed in Makkah while the Prophet ﷺ lived there facing rejection and harm from his own tribe, in the very city that Allah had made sacred and inviolable.
Drawn fromṢaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 104, 1832; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 104, 1832 (on the sanctity of Makkah and the Prophet's ﷺ single hour of licence on the day of the conquest); Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1834 on the sanctity of Makkah; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3852 and elsewhere on Abū Bakr's freeing of Bilāl and others; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 90:1–2; Reported from Mujāhid via a weak chain, cited by Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī on 90:6, who both flag it as not firmly established; al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah; Ibn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah (as preserved in Ibn Hishām)
Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما said concerning 'And you are free [i.e. lawfully resident/unrestricted] in this city' (90:2): meaning, it was made lawful for him on the day of the Conquest of Makkah to fight or execute whom he wished among them — referring to the single hour of daytime when the Prophet ﷺ was granted a license normally forbidden to anyone else in the sacred city.
Cited toṢaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 104, 1832 (on the sanctity of Makkah and the Prophet's ﷺ single hour of licence on the day of the conquest); Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 90:1–2
In the Prophet's ﷺ life
Born and raised in the sanctuary of Makkah
The Prophet ﷺ was born and grew up in Makkah, the city Allah swears by in this surah — a land He had made a sanctuary of safety even before Islam, where bloodshed and hunting were forbidden.
Recalled in āyah 1, 2
لَآ أُقْسِمُ بِهَـٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ
I swear by this city [i.e., Makkah]
وَأَنتَ حِلٌّۢ بِهَـٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ
And you, [O Muḥammad], are free of restriction in this city
Cited toIbn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah (as preserved in Ibn Hishām); Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1834 on the sanctity of Makkah
- Madd — 2 vowels
- Madd — 2, 4 or 6 vowels
- Madd — 6 vowels (lāzim)
- Madd — 4 or 5 vowels (wājib)
- Ghunnah — 2 vowels
- Qalqalah
- Ikhfāʾ
- Ikhfāʾ shafawī
- Idghām shafawī
- Idghām with ghunnah
- Idghām without ghunnah
- Idghām mutajānisayn
- Idghām mutaqāribayn
- Iqlāb
- Hamzat al-waṣl
- Lām shamsiyyah
- Silent letter
Tajwīd markup and colour convention: Quran.com API (v4) — text_uthmani_tajweed. Recitation audio: Quran.com / Quran Foundation Audio API (v4).
The oath by this city, and man created into struggle
Allah swears by Makkah itself and by parent and offspring, then states the condition of every human being: created into kabad — hardship, striving, exertion — from birth to death, in body, provision and trial.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
لَآ أُقْسِمُ بِهَـٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
I swear by this city [i.e., Makkah]
وَأَنتَ حِلٌّۢ بِهَـٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
And you, [O Muḥammad], are free of restriction in this city
وَوَالِدٍ وَمَا وَلَدَ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
And [by] the father and that which was born [of him],
لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ فِى كَبَدٍ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
We have certainly created man into hardship.
From the tafsīr
He swears by Makkah while the Prophet ﷺ was resident in it — a mark of honour for both the city and the one dwelling in it; 'wālid and what he begot' is a general oath by parent and child covering Ādam and all his descendants, or specifically Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl عليهما السلام according to some.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Kabad is exertion and hardship — man is created to labour through pregnancy, birth, teething, growth, earning a living, sickness and finally death; no stage of life is free of striving.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Some early exegetes read lā uqsimu as an emphatic oath ('I do indeed swear'), others as a rhetorical denial before the oath — both readings converge on the same meaning: the city named is truly being sworn by.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- A sacred place does not exempt anyone from struggle — even in Makkah, life is kabad.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The oath ties the Prophet's ﷺ own presence in the city to its honour.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Recognising universal hardship is the surah's starting point, not its complaint — it prepares for the harder path asked for later.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
Where have you resented ordinary hardship as if it were unfair, rather than as the shared condition the surah names?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
How is man's created state described by kabad?
Question 2 of 2
Why is Makkah singled out for the oath in āyah 1?
The boastful spender who thinks no one sees
Man assumes no one has power over him, boasting of the wealth he has squandered, imagining that no one has seen his affairs — a rebuke of arrogance that forgets it is being watched and will be questioned.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
أَيَحْسَبُ أَن لَّن يَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ أَحَدٌ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Does he think that never will anyone overcome him?
يَقُولُ أَهْلَكْتُ مَالًا لُّبَدًا
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
He says, "I have spent wealth in abundance."
أَيَحْسَبُ أَن لَّمْ يَرَهُۥٓ أَحَدٌ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Does he think that no one has seen him?
From the tafsīr
He imagines that none has power over him, thinking his strength and wealth make him unaccountable, and he boasts, 'I have spent great wealth' — heedless that Allah records every last dirham.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
A report attributed to Mujāhid, transmitted through a weak chain, names this as said of a man of Quraysh who spent wealth opposing the Prophet ﷺ; this identification is not firmly established and should not be treated as a confirmed occasion of revelation.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
'Does he think no one has seen him?' is a rhetorical rebuke — of course he has been seen, by Allah, who will call him to account for how the wealth was earned and spent.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- Wealth spent without accountability in mind becomes a boast rather than a good deed.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Feeling unwatched is an illusion the surah directly names and refutes.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The identity of the boaster is secondary; the pattern of heedless boasting is the lesson.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
Do you ever speak of what you've given or spent in a way that seeks praise more than reward?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
How reliable is the report naming a specific man of Quraysh as the subject of āyah 6?
Question 2 of 2
What does āyah 5 say man wrongly assumes?
Two eyes, a tongue, two lips, two highroads — and the steep path untaken
Allah lists the faculties given to every person — sight, speech, and the showing of the two paths of good and evil — then names the 'steep path' (al-ʿaqabah) that most refuse to attempt: freeing a captive, or feeding an orphaned relative or a destitute stranger in a day of hunger.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
أَلَمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُۥ عَيْنَيْنِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Have We not made for him two eyes?
وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْنِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
And a tongue and two lips?
وَهَدَيْنَـٰهُ ٱلنَّجْدَيْنِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
And have shown him the two ways?
فَلَا ٱقْتَحَمَ ٱلْعَقَبَةَ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
But he has not broken through the difficult pass.
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْعَقَبَةُ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
And what can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult pass?
فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
It is the freeing of a slave
أَوْ إِطْعَـٰمٌ فِى يَوْمٍ ذِى مَسْغَبَةٍ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Or feeding on a day of severe hunger
يَتِيمًا ذَا مَقْرَبَةٍ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
An orphan of near relationship
أَوْ مِسْكِينًا ذَا مَتْرَبَةٍ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Or a needy person in misery
From the tafsīr
'The two highroads' (al-najdayn) are the paths of good and evil, made clear to every person by innate disposition and by revelation; al-ʿaqabah is likened to a steep mountain pass that requires real exertion to climb — hence its being paired with kabad from the opening.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Fakku raqabah is freeing a slave from bondage entirely; dhī masghabah is a day of severe hunger or famine, when giving food costs the giver the most and therefore weighs the most; dhī maqrabah specifies an orphan who is also a relative, doubling the claim upon the giver; dhā matrabah describes one so poor he is pressed to the very dust (turāb).
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Iqtiḥām al-ʿaqabah — 'plunging into the steep path' — is used because most people, when a hard test of sacrifice is placed before them, turn back rather than push through it; only the sincere attempt it.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- The faculties named — sight and speech — are basic gifts that carry responsibility, not neutral conveniences.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Guidance toward good and evil has already been shown to every soul; ignorance is not the excuse it is claimed to be.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The steep path is deliberately hard: freeing a captive and feeding the needy in famine, when it costs the most, is what climbing it actually looks like.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Kinship and severe need are named as intensifiers — a needy relative or a starving stranger both raise the weight of the deed.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
What would 'the steep path' look like for you specifically — the costly, inconvenient form of generosity you tend to avoid?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
Why is feeding someone specifically 'in a day of severe hunger' (dhī masghabah) emphasised in āyah 14?
Question 2 of 2
What does al-najdayn refer to in āyah 10?
The two companies: the right hand and the enclosed fire
Climbing the steep path is joined to faith, mutual advice toward patience and mutual advice toward mercy — this is 'the company of the right'. Those who reject Allah's signs are 'the company of the left', met with a fire that closes over them.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
ثُمَّ كَانَ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلْمَرْحَمَةِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
And then being among those who believed and advised one another to patience and advised one another to compassion.
أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْمَيْمَنَةِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Those are the companions of the right.
وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا هُمْ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْمَشْـَٔمَةِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
But they who disbelieved in Our signs - those are the companions of the left.
عَلَيْهِمْ نَارٌ مُّؤْصَدَةٌۢ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Over them will be fire closed in.
From the tafsīr
The deed of freeing and feeding is not complete on its own — it must be joined with īmān, and with mutual counsel toward ṣabr (patience under hardship) and marḥamah (mercy toward creation), for it to place someone among aṣḥāb al-maymanah, the people of the right hand.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Muʾṣadah describes the Fire as sealed shut over its inhabitants — closed doors with no opening or escape, the opposite fate of those who climbed the steep path.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Aṣḥāb al-mashʾamah, 'the company of the left/of ill omen', are those who denied Allah's signs — their fate is stated plainly as consequence, not arbitrary punishment.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- Good deeds are completed by faith and by a community that reinforces patience and mercy in each other.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The surah ends where it began — the hardship (kabad) of life either becomes the steep, rewarded path, or is refused and met with a sealed fire.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Mutual advice (tawāṣī) implies deeds are not meant to be solitary; believers actively encourage one another.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
Who do you actively encourage toward patience and mercy, and who encourages you?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
What does the word muʾṣadah mean regarding the Fire?
Question 2 of 2
What completes the deeds named in āyāt 13–16, per āyah 17?
Upload your handwritten notes
Photograph or scan the pages you wrote in class — several at once. Each page is transcribed, translated into English if you wrote in Arabic or Urdu, matched to the theme it belongs to, and added to your notes for this surah.
Up to 3 pages at a time · JPG, PNG or HEIC
10 of 10 free AI pages left today
Roots from this surah
Learn the three-letter root and you unlock every word built from it — across the whole Qur'an, not just this surah.
ب ل د
āyāt 1, 2a town, city or land — a fixed settled place
- بَلَدcity, town
- بِلَادlands, countries
- بَلْدَةa locality, settlement
ك ب د
āyāt 4exertion, hardship, toil; also the liver (seat of felt strain)
- كَبَدhardship, struggle
- كَبِدliver
- مُكَابَدَةenduring hardship, striving through difficulty
ق د ر
āyāt 5to have power or ability over something; to measure/decree
- قَدَرَhe had power over
- قُدْرَةpower, capability
- قَدَرdivine decree
ع ق ب
āyāt 11, 12that which follows or comes after; a steep mountain pass
- عَقَبَةsteep path, mountain pass
- عَاقِبَةfinal outcome
- عَقِبheel; that which follows
ر ق ب
āyāt 13the neck; to watch over, to be responsible for
- رَقَبَةneck; a person held in bondage (a slave)
- رَقِيبthe ever-watchful one
- مُرَاقَبَةvigilant watching
ط ع م
āyāt 14to feed, to taste
- إِطْعَامfeeding
- طَعَامfood
- طَعْمtaste, flavour
ي ت م
āyāt 15to be alone, left without a father
- يَتِيمorphan
- يَتِيمَةa unique, unmatched thing
ص ب ر
āyāt 17to hold oneself back, to endure patiently
- صَبْرpatience, endurance
- صَابِرone who is patient
- تَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِthey urged one another to patience
Carry this with you
- No place, however sacred, exempts anyone from struggle — man is created into kabad.
- Feeling unwatched and unaccountable in how wealth is earned or boasted about is a delusion the surah names directly.
- Sight, speech and moral guidance are basic gifts given to everyone, carrying responsibility rather than being neutral.
- The good path is deliberately steep — it costs something real: freeing a captive, or feeding the needy when it hurts most to give.
- Kinship and severe hardship intensify the weight and reward of a good deed, not lessen the obligation.
- Good deeds are completed by faith and by a community that urges each other toward patience and mercy.
- There are, in the end, only two companies — the outcome the surah closes on is not incidental to the path chosen.
Where this surah connects
Cross-surah threads
Parts of the Qurʾān explain other parts. Each thread below opens the same subject as it is argued across every other surah you have studied, in revelation order.
Sources behind Sūrah Al-Balad
Every line of context, tafsīr and takeaway on this page traces back to one of these references. Ḥadīth numbers open on sunnah.com and āyah references open on quran.com, so you can check the claim rather than take it on trust. The Arabic text itself is fetched live from a verified public corpus.
Ḥadīth4
Tafsīr12
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 90:14
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 90:20
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 90:4
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 90:6
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- Ibn Kathīr on 90:5
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 90:1–2
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 90:10
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 90:17
- Reported from Mujāhid via a weak chain, cited by Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī on 90:6, who both flag it as not firmly established
Seerah & history2
- al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah
- Ibn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah (as preserved in Ibn Hishām)
Full exam — the whole surah, from memory
Every question from every theme, interleaved and reworded. Interleaving is what turns recognition into recall. Each answer updates your review schedule, your mistakes list and your mastery score for that theme.
Al-Balad — full exam
1 / 8 · 0 correct
8 questions across 4 themes.
Al-Balad · The two companies: the right hand and the enclosed fire
What does muʾṣadah describe in āyah 20?
Arabic (Uthmānī script) and the Ṣaḥīḥ International translation are fetched live from the Quran.com API (v4), sourced from the King Fahd Complex muṣḥaf — api.quran.com API docs · Translation: Ṣaḥīḥ International · Integrity & testing protocol