“As for those who believe and do righteous deeds, We shall surely absolve them of their evil deeds, and We shall surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do. (7) And We have enjoined upon man kindness to his parents. But if they strive to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, then do not obey them. To Me is your return, and I shall inform you of what you used to do. (8)”
Regarding the words, “Whoever hopes for the meeting with Allah,” Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, and Muqatil said: Whoever fears the Resurrection and the Reckoning. Here, hope carries the meaning of fear. Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Whoever hopes for Allah’s reward. “Then Allah’s appointed time is surely coming,” meaning, what Allah has promised of reward and punishment. Muqatil said: It means that the Day of Resurrection will surely come to pass. The meaning of the verse is that whoever fears Allah or places his hope in Him should prepare for it and work for that Day, as He said: “So whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous deeds” (al-Kahf, 18:110). “And He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
“Whoever strives, strives only for his own benefit”: its reward belongs to him. Striving is patience in the face of hardship; it may take place in warfare, and it may also be in resisting one’s lower self. “Indeed, Allah is surely free of all need of the worlds,” that is, of their deeds and acts of worship.
“As for those who believe and do righteous deeds, We shall surely absolve them of their evil deeds”: We shall surely erase them, so that they become as though they had never been committed. Expiation is the removal of an evil deed through a good deed. “And We shall surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do,” that is, according to their finest deeds, namely acts of obedience. It was also said: We shall give them more and better than what they did, as He said: “Whoever comes with a good deed shall have ten times the like thereof” (al-An‘am, 6:160).
His saying, exalted is He, “And We have enjoined upon man kindness to his parents,” means dutifulness toward them and compassion for them. Its meaning is: We have enjoined upon man that he do what is good toward his parents. This verse, as well as the verse in Surah Luqman (verse 15) and Surah al-Ahqaf (verse 15), was revealed concerning Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas, may Allah be pleased with him. He was Sa‘d ibn Malik, Abu Ishaq al-Zuhri, and his mother was Hamnah bint Abi Sufyan ibn Umayyah ibn ‘Abd Shams. When he embraced Islam—being among the earliest forerunners—and he had been dutiful to his mother, she said to him, “What is this religion that you have introduced? By Allah, I shall neither eat nor drink until you return to what you once followed, or I die and you are reproached for it forever, and people say: ‘O killer of his mother!’” She then remained for a day and a night without eating or drinking [and did not