The Surah has been so named after the word al balad in the first verse

90. Surah Al-Balad – The City

Ibn Kathir:- Read Tafseer on Surah Al-Balad

Yusuf Ali:- Read Tafseer on Surah Al-Balad

Maududi:- Read Tafseer on Surah Al-Balad

Period of Revelation

Its subject matter and style resemble those of the earliest Surahs revealed at Makkah, but it contains a pointer which indicates that it was sent down in the period when the disbelievers of Makkah had resolved to oppose the Holy Prophet (upon whom be Allah’s peace), and made it lawful for themselves to commit tyranny and excess against him.

Theme and Subject Matter

In this Surah a vast subject has been compressed into a few brief sentences, and it is a miracle of the Quran that a complete ideology of life which could hardly be explained in a thick volume has been abridged most effectively in brief sentences of this short Surah. Its theme is to explain the true position of man in the world and of the world in relation to man and to tell that God has shown to man both the highways of good and evil, has also provided for him the means to judge and see and follow them, and now it rests upon mans own effort and judgment whether he chooses the path of virtue and reaches felicity or adopts the path of vice and meets with doom.

First, the city of Makkah and the hardships being faced therein by the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) and the state of the children of Adam have been cited as a witness to the truth that this world is not a place of rest and ease for man, where he might have been born to enjoy life, but here he has been created into toil and struggle. If this theme is read with verse 39 of Surah An-Najm (Laisa lil insani illa ma saa: there is nothing for man but what he has striven for), it becomes plain that in this world the future of man depends on his toil and struggle, effort and striving.

After this, man’s misunderstanding that he is all in all in this world and that there is no superior power to watch what he does and to call him to account, has been refuted.

Then, taking one of the many moral concepts of ignorance held by man, as an example, it has been pointed out what wrong criteria of merit and greatness he has proposed for himself in the world. The person who for ostentation and display squanders heaps of wealth, not only himself prides upon his extravagances but the people also admire him for it enthusiastically, whereas the Being Who is watching over his deeds, sees by what methods he obtained the wealth and in what ways and with what motives and intention he spent it.

Then Allah says: We have given man the means of knowledge and the faculties of thinking and understanding and opened up before him both the highways of virtue and vice: one way leads down to moral depravity, and it is an easy way pleasing for the self; the other way leads up to moral heights, which is steep like an uphill road, for scaling which man has to exercise self- restraint. It is man’s weakness that he prefers slipping down into the abyss to scaling the cliff.

Then, Allah has explained what the steep road is by following which man can ascend to the heights. It is that he should give up spending for ostentation, display and pride and should spend his wealth to help the orphans and the needy, should believe in Allah and His Religion and joining the company of believers should participate in the construction of a society which should fulfill the demands of virtue and righteousness patiently and should be compassionate to the people. The end of those who follow this way is that they would become worthy of Allah’s mercies. On the contrary, the end of those who follow the wrong way, is the fire of Hell from which there is no escape.

THE HOLY QURAN FACTS

• The Quran is the Holy Books of Muslims.
• The Quran has 114 Chapters also called “Surah” or “Surahs” in the Arabic Language.
• Each Chapter, meaning each Surah has Verses also called as “Ayah” or “Ayahs” in the Arabic Language.
• Each Chapter consists of Verses. In other words, each Surah consists of Ayahs.
• Surah Baqarah is the longest chapter/surah with 286 verses in The Holy Quran.
• Surah Kauther is the shortest chapter/surah with 3 verses in The Holy Quran.
• The longest verse of the Quran appears in Surah Al-Baqarah verse number 282, also commonly known as Ayatul Kursi.
• Surah Yaseen is called the heart of The Holy Quran.
• The Holy Quran has been translated in more than 100 languages in the world.
• The best month among all months is mentioned as Ramadan in The Holy Quran.
• The best night mentioned in the Quran is Laylatul Qadr and has been described as a night better than 1000 months.
• The name Muhammad is mentioned 4 times in The Holy Quran.
• Friday & Saturday are the only days of the week that are mentioned in the Quran.
• The first Chapter/Surah in Quran, Surah Al-Fatiha is known as the Mother of Quran or Ummul Quran.
• The meaning of Quran is “reading” and “reciting”.
• Each Chapter/Surah of The Holy Quran follows a theme and gives a specific message about the fundamentals of faith and practicing of belief.
• Total Chapters/Surahs in the Quran: 114.
• Total Verses/Ayahs in the Quran: 6236.

HOLY QURAN: REVELATION PERIOD
The Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammed (May Peace and Blessings be Upon Him) over the span of 23 years. The revelation of the Quran Started in the Holy Month of Ramadan. The period of revelation of The Holy Quran can be categorized into 2 main parts, that’s is the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s life in Makkah that is 13 years and after His (PBUH) migration to Madinah that is 10 years. Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) received the first revelation in Cave of Hira.

HOLY QURAN: CONTENT
The Quran is the Word of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala), and was revealed to mankind.

HOLY QURAN: HOW MAY PROPHETS ARE MENTIONED IN THE HOLY QURAN?
1. Adam,
2. Idris (Enoch),
3. Nuh (Noah),
4. Hud (Heber),
5. Saleh (Methusaleh),
6. Lut (Lot),
7. Ibrahim (Abraham),
8. Ismail (Ishmael),
9. Ishaq (Isaac),
10. Yaqub (Jacob),
11. Yusuf (Joseph),
12. Shu’aib (Jethro),
13. Ayyub (Job),
14. Dhulkifl (Ezekiel),
15. Musa (Moses),
16. Harun (Aaron),
17. Dawud (David),
18. Sulayman (Solomon),
19. Ilyas (Elias),
20. Alyasa (Elisha),
21. Yunus (Jonah),
22. Zakariya (Zachariah),
23. Yahya (John the Baptist),
24. Isa (Jesus) and
25. Muhammad (Peace be upon them all).

HOLY QURAN: PRESERVATION
To ease the recitation and memorization of The Quran, it has been divided in to 30 equal parts/portions called the “Juz” or “Siparah”. The Chapters/Surahs of The Holy Quran were arranged in the present order by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself though there was no compiled copy of Quran during Prophet’s life and Sahaba (companions of the prophets) memorized the verses of Quran by heart or scribed the verses on stones, animal skin or palm tree.

WHAT IS THE MEANING BETWEEN TRANSLATION OF THE QURAN AND THE QURAN IN ARABIC LANGUAGE?

The translations of Quran were written to explain the meaning of the Quran in Non-Arabic languages so that the reader can understand the meaning of the Quran in their respective languages.

However, translations are written by various individuals, authors, or translators. One must understand that Quran translations are written by different people and different people have different selection of words to explain the terminologies from Arabic to their respective language. Therefore, translations are a mere effort to explain the meaning of the Holy Quran. On final notes, a translation must only be read for understanding purposes as the true word of Allah is The Holy Quran in Arabic Language Only.

WHAT IS A TAFSEER OF THE HOLY QURAN?

The word ‘tafsir’ stems from the root word ‘fassara’, which means to explain. Therefore, Tafsir of Quran means the explanation or interpretations of the verses of Quran. The Tafsir of Quran is done by people after obtaining in-depth extensive knowledge about Islam and reading the history of Islam in detail. The objective of a Tafsir is to find out the true meanings of the verses of Quran, so that the reader can benefit from it and know the right and true message of The Holy Quran.

WHY TAFSIR:

It tries to explain Quran so that the understanding of the reader about Quran and its message increases. Where the Translation only provides a word to word meaning of the Holy Quran, TAFSIR on the other end explains a more detailed meaning of the verses and words in the Quran with context and references, it also explains of the revelation period thereby increasing the understanding of the Quran in a greater detail.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRANSLATION VS TAFSIR

TRANSLATION: is a word-to-word explanation of the Quran from Arabic Language (i.e., the original languages it was revealed) to other non-Arabic languages to simplify the understanding of the Holy Quran for the reader.

TAFSIR: is a detailed explanation of the verses of the Quran with context, explanation, reference to get a deeper understanding of the Holy Quran.

On a final note, the beginner should start reading the translation first and then if there is a particular chapter/surah or verse/ayah or word that you do not understand in the translation, then you must refer to the TAFSIR for further explanation. For easing this process, we have a TAFSIR tab labeled as “Detail TAFSIRs” and there are 3 TAFSIRs provided from 3 different authors, you may consult each TAFSIR to understand the meaning in depth.