The same notes the map shows when you tap a line, written out in verse order, each with its source.
Notes on single verses
The word that usually means no, and here may not
90:1
La uqsimu bi-hadha al-balad. Yasir Qadhi’s point on the opening is that la here is not the ordinary negation every beginner learns. On this reading it is an emphatic particle — the kind that flips to the opposite sense when the context makes negation impossible — so the line is not I do not swear but I most certainly do swear. Other commentators keep it as a real negation, reading it as dismissing something the Quraysh were saying before the oath begins. The grammarians’ schools name the particle differently and the page does not pick between them.
Source: The emphatic reading is Yasir Qadhi’s in his lecture on al-Balad and is the common one among the commentators; the negating reading is also held. The page gives both.
Three meanings for one word, all of them held
90:2
Wa anta hillun bi-hadha al-balad. Yasir Qadhi gives three. One: you are a dweller in this city. Two: Mecca is haram, sacred, and its people have failed to keep that — they have made you lawful inside the sanctuary, hunting you where nothing may be hunted. Three: it foretells the conquest, when the sanctity would be lifted for him alone and briefly. His position is that the Quran intends more than one at once.
Source: The three readings are Yasir Qadhi’s in his lecture on al-Balad. The third is supported by Sahih Muslim 1353a and Jami at-Tirmidhi 1406, quoted in the next pin.
A parent and what he begot — and nobody is named
90:3
Three candidates are given. Adam and all his offspring, matched to the city being the mother of towns. Ibrahim and his progeny, which brings the Prophet ﷺ into the oath. Or the general sense — any parent and any child — which is how Ibn Jarir at-Tabari takes it, making the oath one on the continuity of creation itself: a generation arrives, takes over, and is replaced. The verse names no one, and all three are in the tradition.
Source: The three positions are set out in Yasir Qadhi’s lecture; the general reading is Ibn Jarir at-Tabari’s. 90:3 names nobody, which can be checked in the Arabic.
Kabad: in pain, or causing it
90:4
The Arabs located distress in the liver, kabid, and said they were in kabad when they hurt. So the first reading is that man is created inside hardship: this world is not the place anyone finds rest. Mujahid read it as the hardship of being made at all — a drop, then a clot, then a lump, enduring through every stage. The second reading turns it the other way: that man is the one causing the difficulty, stubborn, the only creature that resists while everything else submits. Yasir Qadhi notes the second fits what follows, since verse 5 goes straight on to arrogance.
Source: Mujahid’s reading is his own, reasoning from the hardship of gestation described at al-Ahqaf 46:15 — a different word there, kurh, not kabad. The two senses of kabad and the note on which fits verse 5 are from Yasir Qadhi’s lecture.
The same question, with one word changed
90:7
90:5: a-yahsabu an lan yaqdira alayhi ahad — read either as does he think nobody has power over him, or as does he think nobody can take what he has. 90:7: a-yahsabu an lam yarahu ahad — does he think nobody saw him. Same first word, same last word, and between them the surah swaps power for sight. In between the two sits the one thing he actually says out loud.
Source: The two verses share their first and last words, checked in the Arabic. Both readings of 90:5 are given by the commentators.
What is the steep climb? Freeing a neck
90:13
Instead of describing a mountain, the surah answers with things a person does, and the first costs a fortune for no return: fakku raqabah, freeing a neck. “Whoever frees a believing slave, Allah frees a limb of his from the Fire for each of its limbs, until He frees his private parts for his private parts.” Every item on the list takes money out of a hand, and the one that follows specifies a day when you have little to give.
Source: The hadith is Jami at-Tirmidhi 1541, narrated by Abu Hurayrah; at-Tirmidhi calls it hasan sahih gharib from this chain and Darussalam grades it sahih. It is also in al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Not just an orphan — one who is a relative
90:15
Yatiman dha maqrabah. The verse narrows it: an orphan who is near of kin. “Charity to a poor person is charity; to a relative it is two things — charity, and keeping the tie of kinship.” Then verse 16 widens it again to any poor person dha matrabah, clinging to the dust, with nothing between him and the ground.
Source: The hadith is Sunan an-Nasa’i 2582 and Sunan Ibn Majah 1844, both from Salman ibn Amir ad-Dabbi, both graded sahih by Darussalam.
And then he was one of those who believed
90:17
Thumma kana mina alladhina amanu wa tawasaw bis-sabri wa tawasaw bil-marhamah. The longest verse in the surah, arriving after the list and joined to it by thumma. Belief is named here, and filled out with two verbs that need other people. “Whoever does not show mercy to people, Allah will not show mercy to him.” Yasir Qadhi’s observation on the order is worth keeping: the early Meccan surahs put charity ahead of ritual far more often than most people expect.
Source: 90:17 is the longest verse in the surah by letter count. The hadith is Sahih Muslim 2319a and Jami at-Tirmidhi 1922, narrated by Jarir ibn Abdullah; at-Tirmidhi calls it hasan sahih. The note on the early Meccan surahs is Yasir Qadhi’s.
Connections inside the surah
The same word ends both verses
Echo · 90:1 and 90:2
Bi-hadha al-balad, twice, one verse after the other. The oath is sworn on the city and then the city is named again to say something about the person standing in it. Nothing else in the surah is repeated like this.
Source: 90:1 and 90:2 end on the identical word, checked in the Arabic.
A city, the person standing in it, and a parent with a child
Axis · 90:1–3
By this city. And you are hill in this city. And by a parent and what he begot. Three oaths, and when Allah swears by something the commentators take it as marking that thing out as no ordinary creation — so the city is being exalted by the swearing itself. The second and third both carry more than one reading, set out in their own popups, and the verse names nobody.
Source: 90:1 to 90:3 state the oaths. The principle that the object of a divine oath is thereby exalted is standard among the commentators and is how Yasir Qadhi reads it here.
Sworn by a birth, and then what a life is
Thread · 90:3 and 90:4
And by a parent and what he begot — We have certainly created man in hardship. The oath lands on the beginning of a life and the statement it supports is about the whole length of it.
Source: 90:3 and 90:4 state their own half. Reading the oath as fitted to the statement is an observation.
Power, and then sight
Mirror · 90:5 and 90:7
A-yahsabu an lan yaqdira alayhi ahad and a-yahsabu an lam yarahu ahad. Identical first word, identical last word, and the swap in the middle takes it from who can stop him to who can see him. The second is the harder of the two to answer for.
Source: The two verses share their first and last words, checked in the Arabic.
And here is what he says out loud
Thread · 90:5 and 90:6
Does he think nobody has power over him? He says: ahlaktu malan lubada — I have destroyed piles of wealth. The boast is not about how much he has; it is about how much he got through. Some tafsirs attach it to a particular man in Mecca who said he had spent a fortune opposing the Prophet ﷺ. Yasir Qadhi’s caution on reports like that is the right one: the occasion helps you see the verse, but the verse was never revealed only about one man.
Source: 90:5 and 90:6 state this. The report about a specific man is in some tafsirs; the caution about treating an occasion as the limit of a verse is Yasir Qadhi’s.
What he did with money, and what the climb does with it
Contrast · 90:6 and 90:13
Verse 6: I have destroyed piles of wealth. Verses 13 to 16: freeing a neck, feeding an orphan, feeding a poor person. Both halves of the surah are about money leaving a person’s hands. One of them is boasted about by the amount, and the other is measured by who it reached.
Source: 90:6 and 90:13 to 90:16 state their own half. Reading them against each other is a structural observation.
He thinks nobody saw him — and he was given eyes
Contrast · 90:7 and 90:8
Verse 7 asks whether he thinks nobody saw him. Verse 8 answers by asking whether We did not give him two eyes. The reply to a question about being seen is a reminder about being able to see, and the surah does not spell out the connection.
Source: 90:7 and 90:8 state their own half. Reading 8 as the answer to 7 is a structural observation.
Two eyes, a tongue, two lips, and two roads
Axis · 90:8–10
Did We not make for him two eyes, and a tongue and two lips, and guide him to the two najdayn. Three verses listing what he was issued with. A najd is high ground, the kind you take your bearings from, and the commentators read the two here as the two directions — good and evil — rather than two places. So the last item is not part of his body at all: it is the pair of ways he can take it. The reply to a man boasting about money is an inventory of things he was given for nothing.
Source: 90:8 to 90:10 state this. The reading of najdayn as the two directions is the common one among the commentators and is how Yasir Qadhi takes it.
Shown both roads, and he did not take the climb
Thread · 90:10 and 90:11
And We guided him to the two heights. But he did not attempt the steep climb. The surah does not say he took the other road. It says he did not attempt this one, which is a different charge.
Source: 90:10 and 90:11 state this. The note on what is and is not said is a reading of the wording.
He did not climb it — and what is it?
Axis · 90:11 and 90:12
Fa-la iqtahama al-aqabah. Wa ma adraka ma al-aqabah. The thing is named, the failure to do it is stated, and only then does the surah ask what it actually is. The order is the wrong way round on purpose.
Source: 90:11 and 90:12 state this. Reading the order as deliberate is an observation.
The question is not finished being answered until verse 17
Thread · 90:12 and 90:17
What is the steep climb? Four verses of actions, and then thumma: and then he was one of those who believed, and urged one another to patience, and urged one another to mercy. The list of deeds comes first and belief is joined to the end of it. It is also the longest verse in the surah, which is why that bar runs past the rest.
Source: 90:12 to 90:17 state this. 90:17 is the longest verse by letter count.
Four things, and all of them cost something
Axis · 90:13–16
Freeing a neck. Or feeding on a day of hunger — an orphan who is a relative, or a poor person clinging to the dust. Two details are easy to read past. The feeding is specified for a day when food is short for you, not out of surplus. And these verses came down to people in Mecca who were themselves poor, which is the force of it: the climb is named for people who would feel it.
Source: 90:13 to 90:16 state this outright. The note on the day of hunger being hard for the giver is in the wording; the point about the audience is Yasir Qadhi’s.
Those of the right, and those of the ill omen
Mirror · 90:18 and 90:19
Ula’ika ashabu al-maymanah and hum ashabu al-mash’amah. Two verses built to match, and the two nouns come from the roots for the right hand and the left. Notice the asymmetry: the first group gets six verses describing what they did, and the second gets one line saying they rejected the signs. The surah spends almost all of its space on how to be in the first group and almost none on the second.
Source: 90:18 and 90:19 state this outright. The observation about how much space each group is given is a structural one.
Connections to other surahs
The same oath formula, in four surahs
90:1 → al-Qiyamah 75:1
La uqsimu, with or without the connecting fa, opens al-Qiyamah 75:1 on the Day of Resurrection, at-Takwir 81:15 on the receding stars, al-Inshiqaq 84:16 on the twilight, and al-Balad 90:1 on a city. Four surahs, one construction, and the things sworn on run from a day nobody can date to a place you can walk into.
Source: All four verses use the la uqsimu construction, checked in the Arabic.
This city, sworn by in two surahs
90:1 → at-Tin 95:3
Al-Balad 90:1 and 90:2 are built on hadha al-balad, and one reading of 90:2 is that the sanctuary had stopped protecting the one person standing in it. At-Tin 95:3 swears by the same place and calls it al-amin, the secure. The same two words about the same city, used to say two different things about what was happening there.
Source: 90:1, 90:2 and 95:3 share the phrase hadha al-balad, checked in the Arabic. The reading of 90:2 is one of several and is set out on this map.
This place, pointed at in three surahs
90:1 → Quraysh 106:3
Al-Balad 90:1 and 90:2 swear by hadha al-balad, this city. At-Tin 95:3 swears by hadha al-balad al-amin. Quraysh 106:3 says the Lord of hadha al-bayt, this House. Three surahs indicating the same ground with a demonstrative and never naming it.
Source: All four verses use hadha with a place and none of them names it. Checked in the Arabic.
Two surahs defining a life as effort
90:4 → al-Inshiqaq 84:6
Al-Inshiqaq 84:6: innaka kadihun ila rabbika kadhan, you are labouring towards your Lord, labouring hard. Al-Balad 90:4: laqad khalaqna al-insana fi kabad, We created man in hardship. Different words, the same claim, and neither surah presents it as something to complain about.
Source: Both verses state their own half. Reading them as the same claim is a structural observation.
The same four words, finished two different ways
90:4 → at-Tin 95:4
Al-Balad 90:4: laqad khalaqna al-insana fi kabad — We created man in hardship. At-Tin 95:4: laqad khalaqna al-insana fi ahsani taqwim — We created man in the best proportioning. The first four words are identical. One surah is describing what the life is like and the other what the creature is like, and both are stated flatly as fact.
Source: The first four words of the two verses are identical, checked position by position in the Arabic.
Man, placed inside something, in two surahs
90:4 → al-’Asr 103:2
Al-Balad 90:4: We created man in kabad, in hardship. Al-’Asr 103:2: man is in khusr, in loss. Both verses put the human being inside a state with the preposition fi rather than describing him, and the sense of kabad is itself disputed among the commentators.
Source: Both verses use fi with the human being as subject, checked in the Arabic.
One boasts about spending it, the other about counting it
90:6 → al-Humazah 104:2
Al-Balad 90:6: he says, I have destroyed vast wealth. Al-Humazah 104:2: he gathered wealth and counted it over. The same word for wealth in both, and two opposite postures toward it — one advertising how much went out, the other keeping a tally of what came in.
Source: Both verses use the word mal, checked in the Arabic.
What he assumed, and what was actually true
90:7 → al-Inshiqaq 84:14
Al-Inshiqaq 84:14 to 84:15: he assumed he would never return — yes indeed, his Lord was always seeing him. Al-Balad 90:7 puts the same assumption as a question: does he think nobody saw him? One surah reports the belief and corrects it; the other leaves the question standing and answers it with an inventory of his own eyes.
Source: Both passages state their own half. Reading them as a pair is a structural observation.
Being seen, asked two ways
90:7 → al-’Alaq 96:14
Al-Balad 90:7: does he think nobody saw him. Al-’Alaq 96:14: does he not know that Allah sees. One asks what he assumes and the other asks what he knows, and both arrive after a passage about a man behaving as though nothing is above him.
Source: Both verses turn on being seen, checked in the Arabic. Reading them as a pair is a structural observation.
Did We not make — the earth, and your face
90:8 → an-Naba 78:6
An-Naba 78:6: alam naj’ali al-arda mihada, did We not make the earth a resting place. Al-Balad 90:8: alam naj’al lahu aynayn, did We not make for him two eyes. The same construction, once pointed at something the size of the world and once at something on a person’s own face.
Source: Both verses use the alam najal construction, checked in the Arabic.
The question that sometimes gets an answer
90:12 → at-Tariq 86:2
Wa ma adraka ma… Al-Infitar 82:17 and 82:18 ask it twice and answer neither time. At-Tariq 86:2 asks once and answers in the next two words. Al-Balad 90:12 asks it and then spends five verses answering, and the answer is a list of things to do rather than a description of anything.
Source: All three surahs use the formula; whether each answers it can be checked in the following verse.
What they said they failed to do, and what the climb is
90:14 → al-Muddaththir 74:44
Al-Muddaththir 74:42 to 74:44 has the people of the fire asked what put them there, and the second thing they name themselves is wa lam naku nut’imu al-miskin, we did not feed the poor. Al-Balad 90:14 to 90:16 puts the same act at the centre of the steep climb. One surah gets the answer from the people who did not do it.
Source: Both passages name feeding the poor. Reading them against each other is a structural observation.
The orphan, in two surahs
90:15 → ad-Duhaa 93:9
Al-Balad 90:15 puts feeding an orphan who is near of kin on the steep climb — a thing to go and do. Ad-Duhaa 93:9 puts the orphan in a prohibition instead: do not oppress him. One surah asks for an action, the other forbids a treatment — and Ad-Duhaa is the one where the person being addressed had been an orphan himself.
Source: Both verses concern the orphan. Reading the difference between a command and a prohibition is an observation.
The orphan and the needy, as the climb and as the failure
90:15 → al-Ma’un 107:2
Al-Balad 90:15 and 90:16 give the steep road as feeding, on a day of hunger, an orphan who is a relative or a needy man in the dust. Al-Ma’un 107:2 and 107:3 give the same two people as the ones a man shoves away and does not urge anyone to feed.
Source: Both pairs of verses name al-yatim and al-miskin. Checked in the Arabic.
Two named here, and a third added there
90:15 → al-Insan 76:8
Al-Balad 90:14 to 90:16 gives the steep road as feeding, on a day of hunger, an orphan who is a relative or a needy man in the dust. Al-Insan 76:8 gives the same two and adds asir, a captive — a word that occurs once in the whole Quran. The one added is the person with the least claim on them.
Source: 90:15 and 90:16 name al-yatim and al-miskin; 76:8 names miskinan, yatiman and asiran, the last occurring only there. Checked in the Arabic.
The doubled tawasaw, in two surahs
90:17 → al-’Asr 103:3
Al-Balad 90:17: then he was of those who believed, and urged one another to patience, and urged one another to compassion. Al-’Asr 103:3: and urged one another to truth, and urged one another to patience. The same verb doubled in both, both following alladhina amanu, and bis-sabr is in both lists — once as the first object and once as the second.
Source: Both verses double tawasaw after alladhina amanu, and both include bis-sabr. Checked in the Arabic.
Sorted by the right hand, in two surahs
90:18 → al-Inshiqaq 84:7
Al-Inshiqaq 84:7 and 84:10 sort people by where the record is put: in his right hand, or behind his back. Al-Balad 90:18 and 90:19 sort them by a name built on the same word: ashabu al-maymanah, those of the right. One surah describes the moment; the other gives them the title.
Source: Both passages turn on the word for the right hand, checked in the Arabic.
Ayah Unpacked – Connection Map