“On the Day when every soul will come pleading for itself, and every soul will be paid in full for what it has done, and they will not be wronged. (111) And Allah sets forth the example of a town that was secure and at ease, its provision coming to it abundantly from every place; yet it denied Allah’s blessings, so Allah made it taste the garment of hunger and fear because of what they used to do. (112)”

“On the Day when every soul will come pleading”: that is, disputing and arguing. “For itself”: concerning the good and evil it had sent ahead, each soul being preoccupied with itself and unable to attend to anyone else. “And every soul will be paid in full for what it has done, and they will not be wronged.”

It is related that Umar ibn al-Khattab said ⦗203/A⦘ to Ka‘b al-Ahbar, “Warn us.” He said, “O Commander of the Believers, by Him in whose hand is my soul, even if you were to come on the Day of Resurrection with deeds equal to those of seventy prophets, there would come upon you moments in which nothing would concern you except yourself. Indeed, Hell will emit such a terrible exhalation that no angel brought near to Allah, nor any chosen messenger-prophet, will remain except that he falls kneeling upon his knees—even Abraham, the intimate friend of the Most Merciful, who will say, ‘My Lord, I ask You for none but myself.’ The confirmation of this is what Allah revealed to you: ‘On the Day when every soul will come pleading for itself.’” (1)

Ikrimah narrated from Ibn Abbas concerning this verse: “The disputation among people will continue on the Day of Resurrection until the soul disputes with the body. The soul will say, ‘My Lord, I had no hand with which to strike, no foot with which to walk, and no eye with which to see.’ The body will say, ‘You created me like wood: I had no hand with which to strike, no foot with which to walk, and no eye with which to see. Then this spirit came like a ray of light; by it my tongue spoke, my eye saw, and my foot walked.’ Allah will then set before them the example of a blind man and a cripple who entered a garden containing fruit. The blind man could not see the fruit, while the cripple could not reach it. So the blind man carried the cripple, and they took some of the fruit; thus punishment is due upon them both.” (2)

His saying, exalted is He, “And Allah sets forth the example of a town that was secure” refers to Makkah. It was secure: its people were not attacked, nor was it raided. “And at ease”: settled with its inhabitants, who did not need to move elsewhere in search of grazing land, as the rest of the Arabs did. “Its provision coming to it abundantly from every place”: provisions were brought to it by land and sea. Its parallel is His saying: “To it are brought the fruits of every kind” (al-Qasas, 57).