'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

Tafsir of Surah Al-Balad

It is Makki according to the majority of the commentators, while some say it is Madani.

His saying, exalted is He:

﴿I swear by this city﴾ ﴿and you are lawful in this city﴾ ﴿and by the father and what he begot﴾ ﴿Indeed, We created man in toil﴾ ﴿Does he think that no one has power over him﴾ ﴿He says, 'I have wasted wealth in abundance'﴾ ﴿Does he think that no one has seen him﴾ ﴿Have We not made for him two eyes﴾ ﴿and a tongue and two lips﴾ ﴿and We guided him to the two pathways﴾

Al-Hasan ibn Abi Al-Hasan read "I swear" and the majority read "I do not swear." They differed - Al-Zajjaj and others said: "No" is an emphatic additional particle, and he began his saying, exalted is He, "I swear." Mujahid said: "No" is a refutation of the previous statement regarding the disbelievers, then he began his saying, exalted is He, "I swear." Some of the interpreters said: "No" negates the oath by the city; Allah, exalted is He, informed that He does not swear by it.

There is no disagreement among the commentators that the mentioned city is Mecca. They differed in the meaning of His saying, exalted is He: ﴿and you are lawful in this city﴾. Ibn Abbas and a group said: Its meaning is: And you are permitted in this city to kill whom you wish, and this was on the day of the conquest of Mecca. Based on this, the statement of those who said the surah is Madani and was revealed during the year of the conquest follows, and based on this interpretation, the statement of those who said: "No" is negating, meaning: Indeed, Allah, exalted is He, does not swear by this city, and its people have come with deeds that necessitate the violation of its sanctity. It is also possible that "No" is not negating. Some interpreters said: ﴿and you are lawful in this city﴾ means: a state residing in this city, and based on this, the statement of those who said it is Makki comes, and the meaning is in affirming the oath, and in its negation, it also leads to the meaning: I do not swear by a city that you are its resident regarding the harm of these people and their disbelief. Al-Thaalabi mentioned from Shurhabil ibn Sa'd that the meaning of ﴿and you are lawful in this city﴾ is: They have made you lawful to harm and expel, and killing is permissible for you if they were able, and the grammatical analysis of the city is an explanatory conjunction.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿and by the father and what he begot﴾ is an independent oath according to the saying of those who said "No" is negating, and it is conjoined to the saying of those who said "No" is not negating. People differed in the meaning of His saying, glorified is He: ﴿and by the father and what he begot﴾ - Mujahid said: It is Adam, peace be upon him, and all his offspring. Some narrators of tafsir said: It is Noah, peace be upon him, and all his offspring. Abu Imran Al-Jawni said: It is Abraham, peace be upon him, and all his offspring. Ibn Abbas said, in meaning: The father and the son here are in general; they are names of a genus that includes all animals. Ibn Abbas, Ibn Jubair, and Ikrimah said: ﴿and by the father﴾ means: every one who has offspring and gives birth, and His saying: ﴿and what he begot﴾, nothing remains under it except the barren one who is not a father at all.

The oath is based on His saying, the Exalted: "Certainly, We created man in hardship." People have differed regarding "hardship." The majority of people said: "Man" is the name of the entire species, and hardship means difficulty and struggle, meaning he struggles with the affairs of this world and the Hereafter. From this is the saying of Labid:

O eye, why did you not weep for the pale one when we stood and the opponents stood in hardship.

And the saying of Dhī al-Isbaʿ:

I have a cousin, if the people were in hardship, he would remain steadfast with nobility, aiming at me.

And the majority interpreted it as the difficulty in the various conditions of man. Al-Hasan said: Allah, the Exalted, did not create a creation that struggles as the son of Adam does. Ibn Abbas, Abdullah ibn Shaddad, Abu Salih, Al-Dhahhak, and Mujahid said: "In hardship" means standing at the midpoint of the stature. Ibn Zayd said: "Man" refers to Adam, peace be upon him, and "in hardship" means in the sky, which he called hardship. These two statements are weak, and the first statement is the correct one.

It has been narrated that the reason for the verse and what follows it is Abu al-Ashdayn, a man from Quraysh who was very strong, and his name was Usayd ibn Kildah al-Jumahi. He thought that no one could overpower him. It is said that it was revealed concerning Amr ibn Wudd, as mentioned by Al-Naqqash, who was the one who breached the trench in Medina and was killed by Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, behind the trench. Al-Muqatil said: It was revealed concerning Al-Harith ibn Amir ibn Nawfal, who sinned and sought a ruling from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and he commanded him to perform expiation. He said: "I have wasted wealth on expiations and expenditures since I followed Muhammad." Each of them claimed that he had spent much wealth to corrupt the affairs of the Prophet, or on expiations for what had preceded. Thus, the Quran addressed the rebuke for the mentioned individual and for the name of the entire species.

And "he can" is in the accusative due to "not" and "that" being a light form of the heavy one. The statement of this disbeliever: "I have wasted wealth abundantly" is a lie from him. Therefore, he said: "Does he think that no one has seen him?" meaning that he was seen and his actions were counted. So why does he lie? And whoever said: "The intended meaning is the name of the species, not the singular" made His saying, the Exalted: "Does he think that no one has seen him?" mean: Does man think that he has no guardians who see his deeds and count them until the Day of Judgment? The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "The feet of a servant will not move on the Day of Resurrection until he is asked about his life and how he spent it, his body and how he wore it, and his wealth from where he acquired it and where he spent it."

The readers differed in his saying 'Labadā'. The majority of the people read: 'Lubadā' with a dammah on the lām and a fatha on the bāʾ. Mujahid read: 'Lubadā' with a dammah on both, and that is the plural of 'lubdah' or the plural of 'labūd' with a fatha on the lām. Abu Ja'far Yazid read: 'Lubbadan' with a dammah on the lām and a fatha on the bāʾ and with a shaddah, so it would be singular like 'zummal', and it would be the plural of 'lā budd'. It has also been narrated from Abu Ja'far: 'Labdān' with the bāʾ being silent. The meaning in all these readings is much wealth that is piled up, some of it above others, from abundance and multitude. Al-Hasan read: 'Lam yarhu' with the rāʾ being silent due to the succession of movements.

Then, the Exalted counted His blessings upon man, by which the proof is established, and they are his limbs. The Exalted paired 'the lips' with the tongue because the blessing of expression and speech is not valid except with all of them. In the hadith: 'Allah, the Exalted, says: