Thafseer Lafzi 3 — Sūrat al-Balad (90) — āyāt 1–16, word by word سُورَة الْبَلَد

1 · The sūrah at a glance

Why it is called al-Balad: the word occurs in the very first āyah — لَآ أُقْسِمُ بِهَٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ. The balad sworn by is Makkah al-Mukarramah, the city the Prophet ﷺ lived in and, in Islam, the most sacred city.

Central idea and the four sections

The central idea: human life is constituted of trials, and Allah has shown man two paths — good and evil; real success is for the one who has īmān and does righteous deeds.

1. The oath by Makkah and the hardship of human life.
2. Allah's favours (niʿmah) recalled — roughly āyāt 5 to 10.
3. The steep path (al-ʿaqabah) — the hard road crossed by way of good deeds.
4. The closing āyāt, contrasting the people of Paradise with the people of the Fire (not reached in this class).

2 · Āyah 1 — the oath by the city

لَآ أُقْسِمُ بِهَٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ

Lā uqsimu bi-hādhā-l-balad — "I swear by this city."

The two together, lā uqsimu, carry the meaning "I swear."

Ṣarf of أَقْسَمَ

• The persons: aqsama = "he swears"; تُقْسِمُ tuqsimu (mukhāṭab) = "you swear"; أُقْسِمُ uqsimu (mutakallim) = "I swear" — and that mutakallim mufrad form is the one in the āyah.
• The exam point: ism fāʿil vs ism mafʿūl in these derived forms differ by one vowel only — kasrah for the doer, fatḥah for the one done to.

3 · Āyah 2 — "and you are in this city"

وَأَنتَ حِلٌّۢ بِهَٰذَا ٱلْبَلَدِ

Wa anta ḥillun bi-hādhā-l-balad — "…while you are in a lawful state / dwelling in this city."

Why "made lawful" is the point

• Makkah is a sacred city, and inside it lies the Ḥaram precinct: things allowed outside it are not allowed inside it.
• That is why one enters iḥrām for Ḥajj — such a person is a muḥrim, and a number of things become ḥarām for him.
• Forbidden in the Ḥaram: fighting / making war, killing game (hunting), and cutting the plants and trees.
• Yet for the Prophet ﷺ, for one specified period, those very things — fighting and the shedding of blood — were made lawful (the Conquest of Makkah). So the sense is: I swear by this city, and you are in it, and it has been made lawful to you.
• Either way, the city the Prophet ﷺ lived in is a sacred city — and that sanctity is what the oath magnifies.

4 · Āyah 3 — by the father and what he begot

وَوَالِدٍ وَمَا وَلَدَ

Wa wālidin wa mā walad — "And by the father, and by what he begot."

The tafsīr given: this points to Ādam ʿalayhi-s-salām and all the human beings born from him — his descendants.

Ṣarf of وَلَدَ — the disappearing wāw

5 · Āyah 4 — man created in hardship

لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ فِى كَبَدٍ

Laqad khalaqnā-l-insāna fī kabad — "We have certainly created man in hardship."

• The rule: when قَدْ comes before a māḍī verb it means "certainly, definitely."
• Kabad: hardship, toil. In the very matter of our creation there is difficulty — we have to live in the midst of hardship; that is what fī kabad conveys.

Ṣarf of خَلَقَ

6 · Āyah 5 — "does he think no one has power over him?"

أَيَحْسَبُ أَن لَّن يَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ أَحَدٌ

A-yaḥsabu an lan yaqdira ʿalayhi aḥad — "Does he think that no one will ever have power over him?"

The sense: does he imagine that no one whatsoever is able to take hold of him and punish him?

Ṣarf of حَسِبَ and قَدَرَ

How the amr was derived: take the muḍāriʿ, drop the prefix letter; because what is left cannot begin with a sukūn, bring a hamzah at the start — yaḥsabu → ٱحْسَبْ.

7 · Āyah 6 — the boast about squandered wealth

يَقُولُ أَهْلَكْتُ مَالًا لُّبَدًا

Yaqūlu ahlaktu mālan lubadā — "He says: I have destroyed piles of wealth."

• He is boasting: "Look how much I spent!" — and it was spent for nothing, wasted. Spent for what? Spent against Rasūlullāh ﷺ.
• These are the people who spent large sums to extinguish Islam and to oppose the Prophet ﷺ, then went about telling everyone how much they had spent, so as to be admired. Such spending brings no reward, no honour before Allah.

Ṣarf of قَالَ and أَهْلَكَ

The ‑tu ending makes it first person: أَهْلَكْتُ ahlaktu, "I destroyed" — the same ending seen in naṣartu, qaʿadtu, akaltu, dhahabtu.

8 · Āyah 7 — "does he think no one saw him?"

أَيَحْسَبُ أَن لَّمْ يَرَهُۥٓ أَحَدٌ

A-yaḥsabu an lam yarahu aḥad — "Does he think that no one has seen him?"

Split it out: lam — yara — hu; so لَمْ يَرَهُ = "did not see him."

Ṣarf of رَأَىٰ

The same construction elsewhere

أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَٰبِ ٱلْفِيلِ

أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ

Remember: the hamzah is one thing and lam is another — you may read them joined (a-lam) or take them apart.

9 · Āyah 8 — "have We not made for him two eyes?"

أَلَمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُۥ عَيْنَيْنِ

A-lam najʿal lahu ʿaynayn — "Have We not made for him two eyes?"

• Although نَجْعَل is a muḍāriʿ in form, after lam it carries a past meaning — lam najʿal = "We did not make" (jaʿala = "he made"). With the hamzah in front: "Did We not make…?"

Ṣarf of جَعَلَ

10 · Āyah 9 — a tongue and two lips

وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْنِ

Wa lisānan wa shafatayn — "…and a tongue, and two lips?"

Did He not make these for him too?

11 · Āyah 10 — the two paths

وَهَدَيْنَٰهُ ٱلنَّجْدَيْنِ

Wa hadaynāhu-n-najdayn — "And We showed him the two paths."

The two paths are that of good and that of evil.

Ṣarf of هَدَىٰ

You meet the amr of this very verb in Sūrat al-Fātiḥah:

ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ

12 · Āyah 11 — but he did not attempt the steep climb

فَلَا ٱقْتَحَمَ ٱلْعَقَبَةَ

Fa-lā-qtaḥama-l-ʿaqabah — "But he has not attempted the steep ascent."

Ṣarf of ٱقْتَحَمَ

13 · Āyah 12 — "and what will make you know what the ʿaqabah is?"

وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْعَقَبَةُ

Wa mā adrāka mā-l-ʿaqabah — "And what will make you know what the steep ascent is?"

Ṣarf of أَدْرَىٰ

14 · Āyāt 13–16 — what the steep ascent actually is

Āyah 13 — freeing a slave

فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ

Fakku raqabah — "The freeing of a slave."

What is the steep ascent? It is to set a slave free.

Āyah 14 — or feeding on a day of hunger

أَوْ إِطْعَٰمٌ فِى يَوْمٍ ذِى مَسْغَبَةٍ

Aw iṭʿāmun fī yawmin dhī masghabah — "…or feeding on a day of severe hunger."

So the ʿaqabah is either freeing a slave or feeding the hungry on a day of famine.

Āyah 15 — an orphan of near kin

يَتِيمًا ذَا مَقْرَبَةٍ

Yatīman dhā maqrabah — "…an orphan of near kinship."

Whom does one feed? An orphan who is a close relation, on a day of hunger.

Āyah 16 — or a needy person

أَوْ مِسْكِينًا

Aw miskīnan — "…or a needy person…"

What this class did NOT cover

• Āyāt 17–20 of Sūrat al-Balad — the closing section contrasting the people of Paradise with the people of the Fire. Named as section 4 of the sūrah in the introduction, but never reached.
• The second half of āyah 16 — the recording stops at aw miskīnan.
• Several conjugation drills (the feminine paradigm of khalaqa, the full jussive run of jaʿala, the paradigm of hadā) were recited but garbled in the recording — only the forms stated plainly above are recorded here; nothing beyond them is asserted.