Tafsir of Al-Ahzab 33:72

"Indeed, We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it."

Since the Glorious and Exalted One had made clear the great importance of obedience to Allah the Exalted and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) by explaining the outcome of those who depart from it—the painful punishment—and the attainment of those who observe it—the great success—He followed this by emphasizing the significance of the religious obligations that necessitate this, and the difficulty of their nature, by way of representation (tamthil). This is to signal that the obedience or abandonment that issued from them did so after acceptance and commitment, without any compulsion or absolute decree therein.

It is expressed as "the Trust" (al-amanah), which is originally an infinitive noun, like amn (security) and aman (safety), to alert that these are guarded rights that Allah the Exalted entrusted to the accountable ones, placed them in their charge, made it obligatory upon them to receive them with good obedience and submission, and commanded them to observe, preserve, and fulfill them without neglecting any of their requirements.

He expressed the consideration of this regarding the readiness of the aforementioned heavens and others, in terms of their particularities, as an "offering" ('ard) to them, to manifest the increased concern for its affair and the desire for their acceptance of it. He expressed their lack of readiness to accept it—and its incompatibility with what they are upon—as "declining" (iba') and "fearing" (ishfaq) it, to magnify its gravity and cultivate its majesty. He expressed its acceptance as "bearing" (haml) to realize the meaning of the difficulty inherent in it, by placing it in the category of heavy physical bodies.

The meaning is that this Trust is so great in status that if those massive celestial bodies—which are a parable for strength and intensity—were tasked with observing it, and were possessed of consciousness and perception, they would have refused to accept it and would have feared it. However, the discourse was diverted from its customary path by depicting the hypothetical in the image of the factual, to further realize and clarify the intended meaning.

"And man bore it." That is, this species, as in: "Indeed, man is to his Lord ungrateful," and "Indeed, man transgresses." His bearing of it is either with consideration of its suitability to his readiness, or by his being tasked with it on the Day of the Covenant—meaning he took the burden upon himself and committed to it, despite his weakness of constitution and softness of strength. This "bearing" is either an expression of his acceptance according to the necessity of his innate readiness, or of the verbal acceptance on the Day of the Covenant.

The specification of "man" here—even though the Jinn are also accountable, as are the angels (peace be upon them), though there is no hardship in it for them because it does not oppose their nature—is because the address is directed to him.

His saying, "Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant," is an intercalated objection between the bearing and its objective, to signal from the very beginning his lack of fulfillment of what he bore, and to emphasize it for the sake of potential hesitation. That is, he was excessive in injustice and exaggerated in ignorance—meaning according to his predominant individuals who did not act according to their sound innate nature or their prior acceptance, unlike those others who did not alter the nature of Allah. It suffices for the truth of a judgment upon a species to exist in some of its individuals, let alone its existence in the majority of them. It is to the first group that He points with His saying: