Tafseer of The City · Al-Balad · 90:4
We have certainly created man into hardship.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
And His word: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ ("indeed, We have created man in toil") — and this is the answer to the oath.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: here falls the answer to the oath: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ .
The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed over its interpretation. Some of them said: its meaning is: indeed, We have created the son of Adam in heaviness, hardship, and exertion.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he says: in exertion.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr ibn Zādhān, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, that he said concerning this verse: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he says: in heaviness.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — when he was created in hardship; the son of Adam is found only struggling with the affair of this world and the hereafter.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: he struggles with the affair of this world and the hereafter.
And some of them said: he was created in a manner of creation in which We have created nothing else.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Rifāʿa, who said: I heard al-Ḥasan say: Allah has created no creature that struggles as the son of Adam struggles.
He said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Rifāʿa, who said: I heard Saʿīd ibn Abī al-Ḥasan say: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: he struggles with the calamities of this world and the heaviness of the hereafter.
He said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of al-Naḍr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: in heaviness.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: in heaviness.
He said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: in the heaviness of his sustenance, his gestation, and his life, and the emergence of his teeth.
He said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, who said: Mujāhid said: الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: the heaviness of his teeth coming through.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: heaviness.
And others said: its meaning is that he was created upright, with balanced stature.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: in an upright posture; and it is also said: in heaviness.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Ḥaramī ibn ʿUmāra related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: ʿUmāra informed me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: in an upright posture, that is to say: of stature.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: upright.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us; and Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, both on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, the like of it.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaddād, concerning His word: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: balanced of stature. Abū Ṣāliḥ said: balanced in stature.
Yaḥyā ibn Dāwūd al-Wāsiṭī related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ: خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: upright.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say, concerning His word: فِي كَبَدٍ — he was created upright on two legs; no other creature was created in his form.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Mujāhid: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: in climbing a steep slope (ṣaʿad).
And others said: no, its meaning is: that he was created in heaven.
* Mention of who said that:
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ — he said: in heaven, which is called al-kabad.
And the correct of the statements concerning this is the statement of the one who said: its meaning is that he was created to struggle with affairs and to contend with them; so His word فِي كَبَدٍ means: in heaviness.
And we have only said that this is the most correct, because that is the well-known meaning in the language of the Arabs among the meanings of al-kabad. To that belongs the saying of Labīd ibn Rabīʿa:
O eye, why have you not wept for Arbad, when we arose and the adversaries arose in toil (kabad).
