'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted is He: "So when man is touched by harm, he calls upon Us. Then when We bestow upon him a favor from Us, he says, 'I have been given it only because of knowledge.' Rather, it is a trial, but most of them do not know." "Those before them had already said it, so what they earned did not avail them." "So they were struck by the evil of what they earned, and those who have wronged among these will be struck by the evil of what they earned, and they will not cause failure to [Us]." "Do they not know that Allah extends provision for whom He wills and restricts [it]? Indeed, in that are signs for a people who believe." This is a proof that obliges the idol worshippers to contradict themselves in their actions. This is because they worship idols and believe in their greatness. When a calamity approaches or they face hardship, they abandon them and forget them, and they call upon the Creator, the Inventor, the Lord of the heavens and the earth. And 'man' in this verse refers to the generality. And 'We bestowed upon him' means: We granted him. Al-Zajjaj and others said: 'Takhweel' means: giving without recompense. And 'the favor' here is general for all that Allah bestows upon the servant. Among that is the removal of the mentioned harm, and among that is health, security, and wealth. The reference to it in the verse is in His saying: "I have been given it only because of knowledge," and in His saying, exalted is He, at the end: "He extends provision for whom He wills and restricts [it]," and by mentioning earning. And He reminded, exalted is He, of the pronoun in His saying: "I have been given it," and that has several interpretations. Among them is that he means by the favor wealth, as we have mentioned. Among them is that he returns the pronoun to the mentioned, as the name of the favor encompasses what is masculine and what is feminine. Among them is that 'what' in His saying: "Indeed, it is only" means 'that which.' And in the first two interpretations, 'what' is sufficient. And His saying: "because of knowledge" is in the accusative case as an adverbial phrase, even if 'what' is sufficient. And if it is meant as 'that which,' then 'because of knowledge' is in the position of a predicate of [Indeed]. And it indicates the omitted news, as if he said: it is because of knowledge. And His saying: "because of knowledge" may be intended to mean 'because of knowledge from me regarding the means of earning and trade and other than that,' as Qatadah said. In this interpretation, there is self-admiration and excessive reliance on oneself, and something like that. And it may be intended to mean 'because of knowledge from Allah regarding me, and something that has preceded for me, and a right that I have earned with Allah, exalted is He, which does not harm me with it anything.' And in this interpretation, there is reliance on Allah, blessed and exalted is He, and weakness and wishful thinking regarding Allah, exalted is He. Then He said, exalted is He: "Rather, it is a trial," meaning: the matter is not as he said, but this negligence is a trial for him and a test. Then He informed, exalted is He, about those who preceded among the disbelievers that they had said similar words, like Qarun and others, and that their earning and their hoarding of wealth did not avail them. So likewise, it will not avail these. Then He mentioned, exalted is He, in the context of threatening these in the same example, that those were struck by the evil of what they earned, and that those who have wronged by disbelief among these contemporaries will be struck by what struck the predecessors. And this is a news from Allah, exalted is He, that He manifested in existence on the Day of Badr and others. And 'causing failure' means: escaping and saving themselves.

Then the Exalted One affirmed the truth regarding the matter of earning and the abundance of blessings. He said: 'Do they not know that Allah is the One who extends provision for a people and restricts it for another by His will and prior knowledge? And this is not due to anyone's cleverness or incapacity. 'And He restricts' means: He makes it narrow, as the Exalted One said: 'So He restricted his provision.' [Al-Fajr: 16].