And when this world is a barrier against turning to the Hereafter with its pleasures and bounties, and as it is a place of ease, it is also a house of [trials]. And He, glorified is He, has limited the previous verse to the first part because the context is about spending and encouraging high morals, and making the competition for happiness a result of detachment from it. The soul is stirred to ask about what hinders from good due to the lashes of trials. So He said, comforting about it, because souls are most affected by hardships and are quicker to react to calamities, and affirming and enticing by informing that there is no good or evil in it except by a decree that was determined in eternity and a fate that was firmly established, and it was necessary when nothing else existed, glorified and exalted is He. He mentioned the action of the feminine form that is permissible to be masculine due to the non-realistic nature of the femininity, indicating the magnitude of the impact of evil: ﴿What has befallen﴾. And He confirmed the negation by saying: ﴿of calamity﴾, which originally applies to everything that comes from good or evil, except that custom has specified it to evil. And He encompassed the resident and the moving by His saying: ﴿in the earth﴾, meaning from its plants, waters, and so forth. ﴿Nor in yourselves﴾ [meaning] by death, illness, envy, and afflictions. ﴿Except﴾ it is something that exists ﴿in a book﴾, meaning written, because it is predetermined and resolved from eternity. And He clarified that the writing occurred after He, glorified is He, was and nothing was with Him, by including the preposition, saying: ﴿before We create it﴾, meaning We create, bring into existence, and determine the calamity, the earth, and the souls. This is evidence that the earning of the servants is made by Him, glorified is He, and His decree.

And when that is impossible for the created, it is the most disliked thing for him and a standing with illusion. He said, affirming: ﴿Indeed, that﴾, meaning the great matter, which is His knowledge of the thing and His writing of it in detail before its existence. Then He drives the souls and the causes to bring it forth after the creation according to the measure of what His knowledge of it and His writing for it preceded. ﴿Upon Allah﴾, meaning upon what He has of encompassing perfection, ﴿is easy﴾ because His knowledge encompasses everything and His power is comprehensive; nothing can hinder it.