“Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden whose width is like the width of the heaven and the earth, if all were joined together, prepared for those who believe in Allah and His messengers. That is Allah’s bounty, which He grants to whom He wills. And Allah is the Possessor of tremendous bounty. (21) No calamity befalls on the earth or within yourselves except that it is inscribed in a Record before We bring it into being. Indeed, that is easy for Allah. (22) So that you may not grieve over what has passed you by, nor exult over what He has given you. And Allah does not love any self-conceited boaster—those who are miserly and enjoin people to miserliness. Whoever turns away, then indeed Allah is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy. (24)”

“Race” means: hasten. “Toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden whose width is like the width of the heaven and the earth”—if all were joined together—“prepared for those who believe in Allah and His messengers. That is Allah’s bounty, which He grants to whom He wills. And Allah is the Possessor of tremendous bounty.” Thus, He makes clear that no one enters Paradise except through Allah’s bounty.

His words, Exalted is He: “No calamity befalls on the earth”—meaning drought, scant vegetation, and a shortage of fruits—“or within yourselves”—meaning illnesses and the loss of children—“except that it is inscribed in a Record,” meaning the Preserved Tablet, “before We bring it into being”: before We create the earth and human beings. Ibn Abbas said: Before We create the calamity. Abu al-Aliyah said: It means the human being. “Indeed, that is easy for Allah”: that is, recording all of this despite its great number is easy for Allah, Exalted is He.

“So that you may not grieve” means: become sorrowful “over what has passed you by” of this world, “nor exult over what He has given you.” Abu Amr recited it with a shortened alif, in correspondence with “what has passed you by,” making the verb refer to it. The others recited, “what He has given you,” with a lengthened alif, meaning: what He has bestowed upon you. Ikrimah said: “There is no one who does not rejoice and grieve; rather, make your joy gratitude and your sorrow patience.” (1)

“And Allah does not love any self-conceited boaster”: one who is arrogant because of what he has been given of this world; a “boaster” is one who boasts of it before people.

Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq said: “O son of Adam, why do you grieve over something lost which what has passed cannot restore to you? And why do you rejoice over something you possess which death will not leave in your hand?” (2)

“Those who are miserly”: it has been said that this is in the genitive case, qualifying “every self-conceited boaster.” It has also been said that it is in the nominative case, functioning as an independent subject