If you say: How is the saying "Indeed, with hardship comes ease" related to what preceded it? I say: The polytheists used to mock the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and the believers for their poverty and hardship, until it occurred to them that they had turned away from Islam due to the poverty of its people and their contempt. So Allah reminded him of the great blessings He had bestowed upon him and then said: "Indeed, with hardship comes ease," as if He said: We have granted you what We have granted you, so do not despair of the bounty of Allah. For indeed, with the hardship you are in, there is ease. If you say: "Indeed, with" indicates companionship, what is the meaning of the companionship of ease and hardship? I say: He intended that Allah would bring them ease after the hardship they were in, in a short time. He brought the anticipated ease close until it was as if it were accompanying the hardship, as an increase in consolation and strengthening of hearts. If you say: What is the meaning of the words of Ibn Abbas and Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with them: "No hardship will overcome two eases"? I say: This is based on the apparent meaning, and it is built on strong hope, and that the promise of Allah is only to be understood in what the wording can bear and convey. And it is possible that the second sentence is a repetition of the first, just as He repeated the saying "Woe on that Day to the deniers" to establish its meaning in the souls and to strengthen it in the hearts. And just as one may repeat a noun in the saying: "Zaid came to me, Zaid." And the first may be a promise that hardship is surely followed by ease, and the second may be a promise that hardship is followed by ease, so there are two eases in the case of the promise. And hardship is one because it does not escape, either it is defined by the covenant, which is the hardship they were in, it is the same, because its ruling is the same as Zaid in the saying: "Indeed, with Zaid is wealth." Or it is for the type that everyone knows, it is the same as well. As for ease, it is indefinite and encompasses part of the type. So if the second speech is a promise and not a repetition, it has encompassed something different from the first without any doubt. If you say: What is meant by the two eases? I say: It may refer to what became easy for them of conquests in the days of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and what became easy for them in the days of the caliphs. And it may refer to the ease of this world and the ease of the Hereafter, as His saying: "Say: Are you waiting for us except for one of the two best things?" And they are the best of victory and the best of reward. If you say: What is the meaning of this indefiniteness? I say: It is for magnification, as if it were said: Indeed, with hardship there is a great ease, and what an ease it is, and it is mentioned in the Mus'haf of Ibn Mas'ud only once. If you say: If it is established in its recitation as non-repetitive, why did he say: "By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if hardship were in a lizard's hole, ease would follow it until it enters upon it, indeed, no hardship will overcome two eases"? I say: It is as if he intended by the two eases: what is in the saying "ease" from the meaning of magnification, interpreting it as the ease of the two abodes, and that is indeed two eases in reality.