The reason for describing humans as unjust and ignorant when they accepted the trust
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Question:
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, why is man described in the verse as “unjust and ignorant” when he accepted the trust? What is meant by “every man”? The meaning is the human species that carried it, meaning the human race.
Answer:
The blame is for the species, not for the individuals. Among the individuals, there are righteous people, there are prophets, there are messengers, and there are believers. The blame is for the species only. Among them are disbelievers, and among them are hypocrites. For this reason, He said immediately after that:[Al-Ahzab 33:72] In Surat al-Imran: [Al-Ahzab 33:72] openly, that [Al-Ahzab 33:73], and He makes permissible [Al-Ahzab 33:73]. So those who preserved the trust are one-third of humanity: the believing men and the believing women. The two-thirds are either disbelievers or hypocrites; they betrayed the trust and thus deserved the punishment. So the lesson is for the human species, not for its individuals.
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, why is man described in the verse as “unjust and ignorant” when he accepted the trust? What is meant by “every man”? The meaning is the human species that carried it, meaning the human race.
Answer:
The blame is for the species, not for the individuals. Among the individuals, there are righteous people, there are prophets, there are messengers, and there are believers. The blame is for the species only. Among them are disbelievers, and among them are hypocrites. For this reason, He said immediately after that:
Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it
إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانُIndeed, he was unjust
إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًاso that Allah may punish the hypocrite men and hypocrite women and the men and women who associate others with Him
لِّيُعَذِّبَ اللَّهُ الْمُنَافِقِينَ وَالْمُنَافِقَاتِ وَالْمُشْرِكِينَ وَالْمُشْرِكَاتِAllah may accept repentance from the believing men and believing women
اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/96 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (28:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.