Allah, exalted is He, said: “They will surely bear their burdens” (al-Ankabut, 13). Indeed, he was most unjust and ignorant. It is related from al-Hasan, according to this interpretation, that he said: “Yet man undertook it” refers to the disbeliever and the hypocrite: they bore the Trust, that is, they betrayed it. The position of the early generations is as we have mentioned.

“So that Allah may punish the hypocrite men and women, and the polytheist men and women, and may accept the repentance of the believing men and believing women. And Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful” (73).

Regarding His saying, exalted is He, “So that Allah may punish the hypocrite men and women, and the polytheist men and women,” Muqatil said: He punishes them because they betrayed the Trust and broke the covenant. “And may accept the repentance of the believing men and believing women. And Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful”: He guides them and shows them mercy because they fulfilled the Trust.

Ibn Qutaybah said: That is, We offered the Trust so that the hypocrisy of the hypocrite and the polytheism of the polytheist might become manifest, whereupon Allah punishes them both; and so that the faith of the believer might become manifest, whereupon Allah turns to him in mercy—that is, He returns to him with mercy and forgiveness, should he have fallen short in some acts of obedience.