“We have bound every person’s fate to his neck, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall bring forth for him a record which he will find laid open. (13) ‘Read your record. Today you yourself are sufficient as a reckoner against you.’ (14) Whoever is guided is guided only for his own benefit, and whoever goes astray does so only to his own loss. No bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden, and We never punish until We have sent a messenger. (15)”
Concerning His statement, Exalted is He, “We have bound every person’s fate to his neck”: Ibn ‘Abbas said, “It is his deeds and what has been decreed for him; they remain with him wherever he may be.”
Al-Kalbī and Muqātil said: “His good and evil are with him and do not leave him until He calls him to account for them.”
Al-Hasan said: “His good fortune and his ill fortune.”
It is reported from Mujāhid: “There is no newborn except that a sheet is placed around his neck, upon which is written: damned or blessed.”
The scholars of meaning said: By fate, He means what Allah has decreed that a person will do and the outcome to which he will come, whether happiness or misery. ⦗208/a⦘ It was called a ṭā’ir (literally, “bird,” and thus “fate”) in accordance with the Arab custom of drawing auspicious and inauspicious omens from birds passing by. Abu ‘Ubaydah and al-Qutaybī said: By fate, He means a person’s allotted share of good and evil, as in their saying, “So-and-so’s arrow has flown with such-and-such a share.” The neck was singled out from among the other limbs because it is the place for necklaces, collars, and other things that adorn or disfigure a person. Thus, Arab usage likens things inseparably attached to someone to things fastened around the neck.
“And We shall bring forth for him”: Allah, Exalted is He, says: We shall bring forth, “on the Day of Resurrection, a record.” Al-Hasan, Mujāhid, and Ya‘qūb recited it as “and there shall emerge for him,” with an a-vowel on the initial yā’ and a u-vowel on the rā’; that is, his fate shall emerge for him on the Day of Resurrection as a record. Abu Ja‘far recited it as “it shall be brought forth,” with a u-vowel on the yā’ and an a-vowel on the rā’.
“Which he will find”: Ibn ‘Āmir and Abu Ja‘far recited it as “which he will be made to receive,” with a u-vowel on the yā’, an a-vowel on the lām, and a doubled qāf; that is, the person will receive that record—it will be given to him. The remaining reciters read it in the active form, meaning that he will see it “laid open.” It is related in the reports that, when a servant’s lifespan comes to its end, Allah, Exalted is He, commands the angel to roll up the scroll, and it is not unfolded until the Day of Resurrection.
“Read your record”: that is, he will be told, “Read your record.” His statement, Exalted is He, “Today you yourself are sufficient as a reckoner against you,” means: one who calls you to account. Al-Hasan said: “How just is the One who has made you the reckoner over yourself!” Qatādah said: “On that Day, even one who was not a reader in this world will read.”
“Whoever is guided is guided only for his own benefit”: its reward belongs to him. “And whoever goes astray does so only to his own loss”: for its punishment falls upon him.
“No bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden”: that is, no one bearing a burden shall bear the burden of another’s sins; no one will be taken to account for another person’s sin. “And We never punish until We have sent a messenger”: this is to establish the proof and to eliminate all excuse. It is evidence that whatever is obligatory becomes obligatory through revealed transmission, not through reason alone.