Hardships in Life - A fork in the road.....

[Contrarian]

Re: Hardships in Life - A fork in the road…

@BigdaNawab

This is a very deep philosophical question. It entails, in my understanding, the discussion of personality, freedom of choice, freedom to act, the human ego, etc.

But for a mere translation here are a few:

Muhsin Khan
Truly, We did offer AlAmanah (the trust or moral responsibility or honesty and all the duties which Allah has ordained) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they declined to bear it and were afraid of it (i.e. afraid of Allah’s Torment). But man bore it. Verily, he was unjust (to himself) and ignorant (of its results).
Yusuf Ali
We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it;- He was indeed unjust and foolish;-
Shakir
Surely We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to be unfaithful to it and feared from it, and man has turned unfaithful to it; surely he is unjust, ignorant;

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Note, there is apparently an element of choice even with mountains and celestial bodies, but what human beings have is a different type beyond the primitive state granted after acceptance .

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Allah knows best. Nawab knows not

Thanks for the translations. So I tried reading up on this a bit and the exegesis on one of the sites I stumbled on is that this trust was offered to Adam (so the covenant isn’t offered on an individual basis). The last part of the ayah reads like an admonishment for taking up the offer but apparently it’s merely a comment on our short-sightedness. Absent this commentary, doesn’t this whole ayah make one feel like we are set up to fail?

Anyway, that’s how I understood it.