Tafsir of Al-Balad 90:8

{Have We not made for him two eyes} with which he sees visible things, {and a tongue} with which he translates his inner thoughts, {and two lips} which he presses against his mouth, using them to assist in speech, eating, drinking, blowing, and other functions? {And We guided him to the two paths}—that is, the paths of good and evil. It is also said: the two breasts.

This means: he did not show gratitude for those favors and blessings through righteous deeds—such as freeing slaves and feeding orphans and the needy—nor through faith, which is the root of all obedience and the foundation of all good. Instead, he belittled the blessings and disbelieved in the Bestower.

The meaning is that spending in this manner is the spending that is pleasing and beneficial to God, not the squandering of vast wealth for the sake of showing off and boasting, which makes one like {a wind containing a scorching frost that strikes the harvest of a people} (Al-Imran: 117).

If you ask: "It is rare for 'illa' (but/except) to enter upon a past-tense verb without being repeated, as in the saying: 'So what evil matter did he not do?' It rarely occurs; why then was it not repeated in the most eloquent speech?"

I say: It is repeated in meaning, because the meaning of {But he has not attempted the steep path} is: "He did not free a slave, nor did he feed a needy person." Do you not see that he explained "attempting the steep path" with those very things? Al-Zajjaj said: His saying {Then he is among those who believed} indicates the meaning: "He did not attempt the steep path, and he did not believe."

Iqtiham (attempting/storming) is entering or crossing something with intensity and difficulty. Qahma is intensity. He made righteous deeds a "steep path" and the performance of them an "attempting" of it, because of the struggle and self-discipline involved. Al-Hasan said: "It is a difficult path, by God: the human struggling against his own self, his desires, and his enemy, the Devil."

This is to liberate them from bondage or otherwise. In the Hadith: A man said to the Messenger of God (ﷺ), "Guide me to a deed that will enter me into Paradise." He said: "Free a soul and release a slave." The man asked, "Are they not the same?" He replied: "No. Freeing a soul is to do it alone. Releasing a slave is to assist in liberating them from a blood-money debt or a fine."

Freeing slaves and charity are among the most virtuous deeds. Abu Hanifa (may God be pleased with him) held that freeing a slave is better than charity. Al-Sha'bi was asked about a man who has surplus wealth: should he give it to a relative or free a slave? He said: "The slave is better, because the Prophet (ﷺ) said: 'Whoever releases a slave, God will release a limb of his own from the Fire for every limb of the slave.'"

It has been recited as fakk raqaba (releasing a slave) or it'am (feeding) as a predicate: "It is the releasing of a slave or feeding." It has also been recited as fakk raqaba or at'ama (he fed), as a substitution for "attempted the steep path."

This is an interruption (parenthetical), meaning: You do not know the difficulty of it for the soul, nor the essence of its reward with God.

Masghaba (hunger), Maqrabah (kinship), and Matraba (poverty) are nouns of place/time derived from:

• Saghaba: when one is hungry.
• Qaraba: in lineage; one says "so-and-so is of my qarabati (kinship) or maqrabati."
• Tariba: when one becomes poor; its meaning is "clinging to the dust." As for atrab, it means to become wealthy—that is, to possess wealth as abundant as dust, just as one says athra (he became wealthy).

The Prophet (ﷺ) said regarding {a person of matraba (dust)}: "The one whose shelter is the trash heaps." He described the day as dhi masghaba (a day of hunger) in the same way grammarians speak of hum nasib (they are nasib—meaning dhu nasb, possessors of hardship). Al-Hasan recited it as dha masghaba (accusative), governed by it'am (feeding). Its meaning is: "Or feeding on a day of days that is a day of hunger."