The sentence...

The sentence, "And guard yourselves against the fire, which has been prepared for the unbelievers", indicates that the interest-taker is unbeliever, as has been explained under the verses of interest in the chapter of The Cow: And Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner (2:276). QUR'AN: And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord, and a Garden .... "al-Musara 'ah" (to rush, to make haste); it is commendable in good deeds and reprehensible in bad ones.

The Qur'an, in most of the places, joins forgiveness with the Garden. It is because the Garden is a place of purity and cleanliness; the impurities of sins and filth of vices cannot enter it, nor can a person tarnished by them except after forgiveness and removal of that filth. The forgiveness and the Garden described in this verse run parallel to what is mentioned in the following two verses.

The forgiveness corresponds with the verse, "And those who when they commit an indecency or do injustice to their souls . . . "; and the Garden stands face to face with the verse, "Those who spend (benevolently) in ease as well as in straitness..." The clause, "and a Garden, the extensiveness of which is (as) the heavens and the earth ".

"al-Ard " (lit: width) denotes here spaciousness, extensiveness; it is a common usage; the expression metaphorically implies that it is spacious to the utmost, or to an extent that human imagination cannot reach it. Also, it has another meaning, which we shall explain under the "Traditions ". The clause, "it is prepared for the pious ones", paves the way for description of the characteristics of the pious ones which is given in the coming verses.

The main idea is to describe those characteristics of the believers which are relevant to the present situation, i.e., after the battle of Uhud (when they had displayed, and suffered from, weakness and disobedience), because they were expected to participate in other similar battles and undergo similar situations, where they would be in great need of unity, harmony and solidarity.

QUR'AN: Those who spend (benevolently) in ease as well as in straitness, and those who restrain (their) anger, and forgive men; and Allah loves the doers of good (to others): as-Sarra' and addarra (that which pleases man or displeases him) i.e., ease and difficulty. al-Kazm literally means to tie the mouth of water-skin after filling it; then it was metaphorically extended to a man filled with anger or sorrow who restrains or suppresses his emotions.