Ironically...

Ironically, in showing this kind of respect they did not observe these customs and traditions regarding the Prophet (S) Why did the pagans hurt him and his companions with every kind of torment that they could, so that they even counted the slaying of them lawful? This commentary is also narrated in a tradition from Imam Sadiq (as).[^3] "And by the begetter and whom he begot".

To answer the question of who is the parent and who is the child, different commentaries have been cited: The father is Abraham and the child is Ismail. Referring to the oath in the previous verse made to the city of Mecca, and we do know that Abraham and his son were the founders of Kaaba and Mecca, this commentary seems very appropriate; in particular, that the pagan Arabs maintained an extraordinary importance for Abraham and his son and they were very proud of them.

Many of them have claimed that they have descended from Abraham. The begetter is Adam and whom he begot is his children. The meaning is Adam and all of the Prophets who came from his descendents. It is an oath to any father and child because the process of human reproduction and its survival throughout history is one of the most wonderful things in the creation to which Allah has sworn. To gather, these four commentaries, together, is not impossible, but the first one seems the most fitting.

Then, the attention is paid to a thing which is the final purpose of these oaths: "Certainly We have created man to be in distress.” The term /kabad/, as Tabarsi cites in Majma'-al-Bayan, originally means 'intensity’. But, as Raqib cites in Mufradat, the word /kabad/ means 'a disease in the liver of a person’. and so, it is used for any trouble and misery. Whatever the root of this word might be, its present use means trouble and misery.

Yes, from the early moments of life, even as a foetus in the womb, Man passes through different, difficult stages with pain and toil until the time he is born, and even from then on; during his childhood, the period of his adolescense, and the most difficult times, his mature years, he is always faced with many kinds of trouble and misery. This is the nature of the present world. Those who have other expectations, about this world, other than that there is pain and toil, here are wrong.

The lives of the prophets and saints of Allah, who have been the best of all creatures, have been full of diverse difficulties and painful situations.