Tafsir of Al-Ahzab 33:70

{A sound word} (Qawlan Sadidan): Aiming for the truth and correctness. Correctness is the intent toward the truth, and the word is justice. It is said: "He aimed the arrow toward the target" (Saddada al-sahm) when he does not deviate from its path, as they say: "A direct arrow" (Sahm qasid). The intent is to forbid them from the idle talk they engaged in regarding Zaynab without intent or justice in speech, and to urge them to make their speech sound in every matter; for guarding the tongue and the soundness of speech is the head of all goodness.

The meaning is: Fear God in guarding your tongues and making your speech sound. If you do that, God will grant you the ultimate goal: the acceptance of your good deeds and reward for them, and the forgiveness and expiation of your sins. It is also said: It means the rectification of deeds and success in performing them in a righteous and pleasing manner.

This verse confirms the one before it. The previous one was built upon the prohibition of what harms the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), and this one is built upon the command to fear God in guarding the tongue. Thus, the prohibition and the command follow one another, with the prohibition followed by what contains a warning (the story of Moses, peace be upon him), and the command followed by a profound promise, thereby strengthening the deterrent against harm and the incentive to abandon it.

When He said: {And whoever obeys God and His Messenger} and attached the great success to obedience, He followed it with His saying: {Indeed, We offered the Trust}. By "the Trust," He means obedience, magnifying its matter and elevating its status. There are two interpretations:

First: These massive bodies—the heavens, the earth, and the mountains—have submitted to the command of God (Exalted and Majestic is He) with the submission appropriate for inanimate objects. They obeyed Him with the obedience that is valid for them and befitting them, as they did not refrain from His will and desire in their creation, formation, and leveling into various forms and shapes, as He said: "They said, 'We have come willingly'" (Fussilat: 11). As for man, his state regarding the obedience and submission to God's commands and prohibitions—despite being a rational animal capable of obligation—was not like the state of those inanimate objects in their valid and befitting submission. The "Trust" means obedience, because it is necessary to exist, just as a trust is necessary to be fulfilled. Offering it to inanimate objects and their refusal and fear is a metaphor.

As for "bearing the Trust," it is like saying: "So-and-so is a bearer of a trust," meaning he does not deliver it to its owner until it is removed from his liability. It is as if the trust is riding the one entrusted with it, and he is its bearer. Do you not see them say: "Debts have ridden him," and "I have a right against him"? When he pays it, it no longer rides him, nor is he its bearer. Similar is their saying: "A master does not possess victory for his client," meaning he does not withhold support from him as a deserter would.

Second: The obligation placed upon man reached such a degree of greatness and heavy burden that it was offered to the greatest, strongest, and most powerful of what God created—that they might bear it and sustain it—but they refused to bear it and feared it. Yet man bore it, despite his weakness and frailty: {Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant}—unjust for bearing the Trust and then failing to fulfill it, and ignorant for missing what would bring him happiness while he was capable of it.

If you ask: "The method of representation in the saying 'You advance one foot and delay the other' is known, as it represents the state of one who is hesitant. But how can a representation be built upon an impossibility, such as offering a trust to inanimate objects?" I say: The object of representation in the verse and in their sayings (like the personification of fat) is hypothetical. Hypotheticals are imagined in the mind just as realities are. The state of the obligation in its difficulty and heavy burden was represented by the hypothetical state that, if offered to the heavens, earth, and mountains, they would have refused and feared it.

The "lam" in {that He may punish} is a causal "lam" by way of metaphor, because punishment is the result of bearing the Trust. The meaning of the general reading is: God punishes the bearer of the Trust and forgives others who did not bear it, for when the one who fulfills it is forgiven, that is a form of punishment for the betrayer. And God knows best.

The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever reads Surah al-Ahzab and teaches it to his family and those his right hand possesses, he will be granted safety from the punishment of the grave."