And where your ancestors have multiplied. (A Sanctuary for peace for everyone).
لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ ( 4 )
Verily, We have created the human being for hard work. (This is the Town where Abraham and Ishmael labored, and where you began your toil to raise the Name of your Lord (2:125-127)).
He keeps boasting, "I have wasted so much wealth!"
أَيَحْسَبُ أَن لَّمْ يَرَهُ أَحَدٌ ( 7 )
What! Does he think that no one sees him? (How much and where he spent it).
أَلَمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُ عَيْنَيْنِ ( 8 )
Did We not give him two eyes? ('Ainain' = Two physical eyes = Physical vision and vision of the heart = Sight and insight).
وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْنِ ( 9 )
And a tongue and a pair of lips?
وَهَدَيْنَاهُ النَّجْدَيْنِ ( 10 )
And shown him the two highways? (Of virtue and vice).
فَلَا اقْتَحَمَ الْعَقَبَةَ ( 11 )
But he hardly tries the uphill road, the Ascent.
وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةُ ( 12 )
Ah, what will convey unto you what that Ascent is!
فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ ( 13 )
- Freeing others from bondage, physical or mental, and from any social, economic or political oppression. (Freeing the neck includes all the above meanings plus striving to establish the Divine System wherein the only Master is Allah's Law).
أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ فِي يَوْمٍ ذِي مَسْغَبَةٍ ( 14 )
- And to feed in times of hunger, famine, wars and natural disasters.
يَتِيمًا ذَا مَقْرَبَةٍ ( 15 )
- And to take special care of those who despite being a part of the community feel left out. ('Za maqrabah' = Near one = Relative = Part of the community).
أَوْ مِسْكِينًا ذَا مَتْرَبَةٍ ( 16 )
- And helping him who remains needy though he toils in dust.
