“He knows best who is mindful of Him.” [For mindfulness of Allah resides in the heart, and Allah alone knows it fully and recompenses the righteousness and mindfulness it contains. As for people, they cannot avail you at all against Allah.]
⦗822⦘
(33–62) “Have you seen the one who turned away, gave a little, and then withheld? Does he possess knowledge of the unseen, so that he sees? Or has he not been informed of what is in the scriptures of Moses and of Abraham, who fulfilled his obligations: that no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden; that a person will have only what he strives for; that his striving will be seen; then he will be recompensed in full; that the final end is with your Lord; that it is He who causes laughter and weeping; and that it is He who gives death and life?”
And so on to the end of the surah. Allah, Exalted is He, says, “Have you seen…?”—showing how reprehensible is the state of one who was commanded to worship his Lord and affirm His oneness, yet turned away from that and rejected it.
If his soul consents to giving anything, it is only a little, and he does not persist in it. Rather, he grows miserly, stops, and withholds.
Doing good is neither ingrained in him nor part of his nature (1). Rather, it is his nature to turn away from obedience and not remain steadfast in doing good. Despite this, he claims purity for himself and accords himself a status other than that which Allah has assigned him.
“Does he possess knowledge of the unseen, so that he sees?” Does he see the unseen and report it, or is he merely fabricating claims against Allah and audaciously combining wrongdoing with self-praise (2), as is in fact the case? It is known that he possesses no knowledge of the unseen. Even were he to claim it, the definitive reports concerning unseen matters conveyed by the infallible Prophet contradict his claim, thereby proving it false.
“Or has he not been informed”—this claimant—“of what is in the scriptures of Moses and of Abraham, who fulfilled his obligations”? That is, Abraham fulfilled everything with which Allah tested him and everything He commanded him concerning the revealed laws and both the fundamentals and subsidiary matters of religion. Those scriptures contain many rulings, among the most important of which is what Allah mentions in His words: “That no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden, and that a person will have only what he strives for.” That is, every person has his own good and evil deeds. He has no share in the deeds and efforts of others, nor will anyone bear another person’s sin.
“And that his striving will be seen” in the Hereafter, where its good will be distinguished from its evil. “Then he will be recompensed in full”; that is, with a recompense that fully accounts for every deed: pure good will receive the finest reward, pure evil an evil requital, and mixed deeds recompense according to their nature. This recompense will be so just and gracious that all creation will acknowledge it and praise Allah for it. Even the people of the Fire will enter the Fire with their hearts filled with praise for their Lord, acknowledging His perfect wisdom, loathing themselves, and recognizing that they themselves brought their souls to the worst destination.
Those who hold that acts of devotion do not benefit (3) either the living or the dead when dedicated to them have cited the words of Allah, Exalted is He: “And that a person will have only what he strives for.” They say that if another person’s striving were to reach him, it would contradict this. This inference, however, is open to question. The verse indicates only that a person has nothing except what he has striven for himself, and this is indisputably true. It does not indicate that he cannot benefit from another person’s striving when that person dedicates it to him. Similarly, a person has no wealth except what he owns and has under his control, yet it does not follow that he cannot come to own wealth that another person gives him from his own property.
His words, “And that the final end is with your Lord,” mean that all matters culminate with Him, and all things and creatures return to Him through resurrection. The final end is with Allah in every respect: all knowledge, judgment, mercy, and every other perfection culminate in Him.
“And that it is He who causes laughter and weeping”; that is, He brings about the causes of laughter and weeping—good and evil, joy and delight, worry [and sorrow]. He, Glorified is He, possesses consummate wisdom in all of this.
“And that it is He who gives death and life”; that is, He alone brings into existence and causes to cease. The One who brought creation into being and commanded and forbade them will raise them again after their death and recompense them for the deeds they performed in this worldly abode.