to his Lord.” Allah Most High says:

“Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the righteous,”

through to His words:

“How excellent is the reward of those who work!”

He did not say that they never do wrong or commit sins. Rather, He said:

“When they commit an indecency or wrong themselves”—

that is, through another sin besides indecency. He thus joins the general to the specific. Similarly, Moses said:

“My Lord, I have wronged myself.”

And Bilqīs said:

“My Lord, I have wronged myself.”

Allah Most High also says generally of the inhabitants of the towns that were destroyed:

“We did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves.”

They wronged themselves by committing what they had been forbidden, disobeying their prophets, and failing to repent to their Lord. And Allah Most High says:

“They remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins.”

Hence He says:

“Allah wishes to accept your repentance.”

Then He says:

“Allah wishes to lighten your burden, for man was created weak.”

Mujāhid and others said that “following desires” refers to fornication. Ibn Zayd said: “They are the followers of falsehood.” Al-Suddī said: “They are the Jews and Christians.” All these interpretations are correct, for following desires may be accompanied by disbelief, or by acknowledgment that it is a sin.

He then mentions that “man was created weak.” The context indicates that man is weak when it comes to abstaining from desires. He therefore needs a lawful outlet for desire that enables him to dispense with what is forbidden. Hence Tāwūs and Muqātil said: “His weakness lies in his limited patience in abstaining from women.” Al-Zajjāj and Ibn Kaysān said: “His resolve is too weak to overcome desire.”

It has also been said: “He is weak in his original constitution, because he was created from a lowly fluid.” This is reported