94:1. Have We not filled your heart for you with reassurance and comfort,

94:2. and relieved you of your burden

94:3. that weighed down your back,

94:4. and exalted for you your renown?

94:5. So truly with hardship comes ease,

94:6. truly with hardship comes ease.

94:7. So whenever you are free, strive in worship and supplication,

94:8. and to your Lord alone turn in hope.

Here Allah says, reminding His Messenger (ﷺ) of His blessings:﴾Have We not filled your heart for you with reassurance and comfort﴿ that is, have We not made you feel at ease with the teachings of religion and when calling people to Allah, granted you the noblest characteristics, caused you to focus on the hereafter, and made it easy for you to attain goodness?

So his heart was not constrained and uneasy, hardly able to accept goodness or be at ease.

sfand relieved you of your burden)﴿ of sin ﴾that weighed down your back﴿. This is like the verse in which Allah ﴾So that Allah may forgive you your past and future sins...﴿(al-Fath 48: 2)

﴾and exalted for you your renown﴿ that is. We have raised you in status, and caused you to be spoken highly of in a manner such as no one among humankind has ever attained.

So Allah is not mentioned except that His Messenger (ﷺ) is mentioned alongside him, as when a person enters Islam, and in the adhan and iqamah, in khutbahs and in other matters in which Allah has caused the renown of His Messenger Muhammad (ﷺ) to be exalted. And in the hearts of his Ummah there is love, veneration and respect that is not directed towards anyone else after Allah (سبحانه وتعالى). May Allah reward him on behalf of his Ummah with the best reward that is granted to any Prophet on behalf of his nation.

﴾So truly with hardship comes ease, truly with hardship comes ease﴿. This is great glad tidings, for every time there is hardship and difficulty, it is accompanied by ease, to the extent that even if hardship were to enter a lizard hole, ease would enter upon it and expel it, as Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) says elsewhere:

﴾.. .Allah will bring about, after hardship, ease.﴿ (at-Talaq 65: 7)

And the Prophet (ﷺ) said:«Verily there is relief with distress, and verily there is with hardship ease.» (Recorded and authenticated by at-Tirmidhi)

The fact that the word translated here as ﴾hardship)i appears in the definite form indicates that it refers to one hardship, whereas the fact that the word translated here as ﴾ease﴿ appears in the indefinite form indicates that it is more than one, and one hardship can never overwhelm plural or repeated ease.

The definite form conveys a generic meaning and refers to any kind of hardship, indicating that any hardship - no matter what degree of difficulty it reaches - will ultimately and inevitably be relieved.

Then Allah instructs His Messenger (ﷺ) first and foremost, and the believers after him, to give thanks to Him and to do what is required in response to His blessings, as He says:

﴾jSo whenever you are free, strive in worship and supplication﴿ that is, when you are free from your errands and business, and there is nothing left in your heart to distract it, then strive hard in worship and supplication.

﴾and to your Lord alone turn in hope﴿ that is, have great hope that your Lord will respond to your supplication and accept your acts of worship.

Do not be among those who, when they are free and have finished with their business, indulge in amusement and turn away from their Lord and remembrance of Him, for then you would be among the losers.

It was also suggested that what is meant is: when you have finished your prayer and completed it, then strive hard in supplication, and turn to your Lord alone to ask for all that you need. Those who suggested this opinion quoted as evidence the fact that it is prescribed to offer supplication and remember Allah following the prescribed prayers. And Allah knows best about that.

This is the end ol the commentary on Sooral al-lnshirah

All praise and thanks are for Allah, and may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (ijyte). his family, and his Companions abundantly until the Day of Judgement.