And when it is the nature of the clay from which humans are created, and what arises from it, that it cannot be purified of impurities except after severe hardship, do you not see that gold is refined, and it is not free from alloy nor is it stripped of what has mixed with it from dirt except by testing with intense fire! Allah, the Most High, said, teaching them through upbringing that purification is achieved through the confrontation with the disbelievers and the struggle against the people of the abode of destruction: ﴿And We will surely test you﴾, in conjunction with what the decree has guided towards, similar to His saying: Let us command you to confront everyone we commanded you before with their flattery, and let the people of the earth gather against you. And We will surely test you, meaning: He will afflict you with things that resemble the actions of the tester towards your conditions, so that the patient may be distinguished from the anxious. Al-Harali said: The first patience is in ﴿Indeed, Allah is with the patient﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 153] against laziness and in action, and the second patience is in ﴿And give good tidings to the patient﴾ regarding the calamities of this world. Therefore, this verse ﴿And We will surely test you﴾ is connected and transcends matters that are taken from those who do not strive in the path of Allah, being weak in their patience against the aversion to fighting ﴿Fighting has been prescribed for you while it is hateful to you﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 216]. So whoever does not carry the first patience towards jihad has taken upon himself matters that are calamities within himself, which the address has transcended, thus it turned towards ﴿And We will surely test you with something of fear﴾, which is the caution of the soul from apparent matters that harm it, ﴿and hunger﴾, which is the overwhelming need for food upon the soul until it resorts to what it does not contemplate the consequences of. So if it is not due to overwhelming need, it is hunger. Therefore, in hunger there is a calamity, while hunger is a common occurrence. He also said: Hunger is the emptiness of the body from that which sustains it, like the emptiness of the soul from the security that it has a sustenance. Thus, it lost both sustenances within itself due to fear and in its body due to hunger when it did not remain patient against the aversion to jihad. And this was easier for the people of patience against fear and hunger. Whichever of them is the first to receive this trial of fear, where they feared the enemies upon themselves, and they came to their lands, whoever did not go to his physician to find relief, the physician came to his destruction. And there is a great difference between the fear of the warrior against the enemy in his territory and the fear of the besieged among his people. Likewise, there is a great difference between the provisions of the mujahid and his sustenance, and the best provision is piety in his path for his jihad, compared to the hunger of the one who has fallen behind in his family. It has ended. And the thing was made indefinite, and what follows it is an encouragement to gratitude by indicating that everything that has befallen from it is in the power of Allah, what is greater than it, so the absence of affliction by it is a blessing.

And when hunger may be due to exercise, it is clarified that it is due to need by His saying: ﴿and deficiency﴾, which is the shortcoming from sufficiency ﴿of wealth﴾, meaning: the blessings which were among them their food. Al-Harali said: Because this is the common usage among them in the term of wealth. He also said: [and wealth] is what is for the possessor in the status of being a part of it with respect to his wealth for that reason. So, the Most High multiplied the example of affliction in their own selves and bodies to cut off from them the comfort of seeking sufficiency from wealth in exchange for what the fighter gains from abundance and provision. The fighter is secure in his army, prepared in his journey, and gaining from his enemy, while the one who lags behind is fearful among his family, hungry in his dependents, and deficient in wealth from what is in his own hand. This has ended.

And when that may be due to excess in abundance, He said: ﴿and souls﴾. Al-Harali said: It implies that whoever strives, his number increases and his offspring grow, and that whoever is lazy, his number decreases and his descendants diminish. And it implies the attainment of the lazy one [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: hawasid] from the scourges of the appointed times of plague and epidemic and others. This has ended. And He said: ﴿and fruits﴾, which are the very essence of the trees by which the sustenance of the bodies is maintained, specifying it by mention, because it is the greatest wealth of the Ansar, who are among the most deserving of this mention, especially at the time of the revelation of these verses, which is the early period of the Hijrah.

And when the context indicates that the meaning is: So warn whoever does not remain patient, but it has been implied to honor those who believed that there should not be among them anyone who does not remain patient, directing towards it and urging patience. Then He mentioned those who are deserving of victory by His saying: ﴿And give good tidings to the patient﴾. Al-Harali said: And when this affliction is due to laziness from the first patience, as the Most High said: ﴿Indeed, Allah does not change what is with a people until they change what is within themselves﴾ [Ar-Ra'd: 11], and it is something that can be remedied by patience upon it. The Most High has remedied this rank with the good tidings of the patient from the destruction of what befalls the one who does not remain patient upon this calamity and becomes annoyed with it and complains about it. So, for the first patient, there is companionship by His saying: ﴿Indeed, Allah is with the patient﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 153].