(9–10) “If We give the human being a taste of mercy from Us and then take it away from him, he becomes utterly despairing and ungrateful. * But if We give him a taste of prosperity after hardship has touched him, he will surely say, ‘My troubles are gone from me.’ He is indeed exultant and boastful. * Except those who are patient and do righteous deeds; for them is forgiveness and a great reward.”

Allah Most High informs us of the nature of the human being: he is ignorant and unjust. When Allah gives him a taste of mercy from Him—such as health, provision, children, and the like—and then takes it away from him, he surrenders to despair and gives way to hopelessness. He neither hopes for Allah’s reward nor does it occur to him that Allah may restore it to him, grant him something similar, or give him something better.

If Allah gives him a taste of mercy after hardship has touched him, he rejoices and becomes insolent, imagining that this good will last forever. He says: “My troubles are gone from me. He is indeed exultant and boastful.” That is, he exults (1) in what he has been given because it accords with his own desires, and he boasts of Allah’s blessings before Allah’s servants. This leads him to wanton exultation, insolent pride, self-admiration, arrogance toward others, and contempt and disdain for them. What defect could be worse than this?!

This is human nature as such, except for those whom Allah enables and brings out of this blameworthy disposition into its opposite. They restrain themselves patiently in hardship and do not despair, and in prosperity they do not become insolent. They also perform righteous deeds, both obligatory and recommended.

“For them is forgiveness” for their sins, by which everything feared is removed from them, “and a great reward”: triumph through attaining the Gardens of Bliss, wherein is all that souls desire and eyes delight in.