His words, Exalted is He:

And heeds its Lord as it should.^{1It being the heaven which is mentioned in verse 1 as being rent asunder.}

That is, it hearkens to its Lord and responds by performing His command, as it is obliged to do.

O man! Verily you are toiling laboriously toward your Lord…

That is, you are striving towards your Lord through your works with great effort, …and will encounter Him, by your effort; so look upon your effort: does it merit Paradise and proximity with Him, or Hellfire and alienation from Him?

Once ʿUmāra b. Zādhān^{1The editor of the Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya edition notes that this is ʿUmāra b. Zādhān al-Ṣaydalānī, Abū Salma al-Baṣrī, who is mentioned in Mundhirī, Targhīb as having narrated traditions from Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.} said, ‘[Abū ʿAbd Allāh] Kahmas said to me in a whisper, “O Abū Salma, I committed a sin which I have been crying over for forty years now.” I asked him, “What is that, O Abū ʿAbd Allāh?” He replied, “Once a brother of mine visited me and I bought him a grilled fish for a small coin. After he had finished eating, I got up [and went] over to the wall of my neighbour and took a piece of earth from it with which he proceeded to clean his hands. Consequently, I have been crying over that for forty years.”’^{2The anecdote is related in Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, vol. 6, p. 211.}

His words, Exalted is He:

Then as for him who is given his book in his right hand, he will receive an easy reckoning,

That is, He forgives his sins and does not take him to account for them.^{1Translating yaghfiru and lā yuḥāsibu as in all the MSS (Z515, f. 131a, F638, f. 64a and F3488, f. 313a), as opposed to naghfiru and nuḥāsibu in the published edition.} Similarly it is related in a tradition that God, Exalted is He, if He wishes to conceal [the sins] of a servant on the Day of Resurrection, will show him only those sins which are known to Him and His servant, and then forgive him for them.

and will return to his family, joyful.

[That is] in Paradise, with the fulfilment of the promised encounter (liqāʾ) and with the divine good pleasure (riḍā) that he has gained. Know for certain that God has servants who are not halted at the stopping places^{1Translating mawāqif according to F638, f. 64a, instead of muwāqafa. F638 also has the addition of the words wa-lā yuḥsharūna.} [for questioning] and do not experience any of the horrors (ahwāl) of the Day of Resurrection, neither the reckoning (ḥisāb), nor the questioning (suʾāl), nor the Traverse (ṣirāṭ). This is because they are for Him and they [live] by Him, they have no cognition of anything other than Him, and they choose none other than Him.^{2Compare the tradition cited earlier regarding the friends of God in the commentary on 15:92 above.}

His words, Exalted is He:

you will surely journey from stage to stage (ṭabqan ʿan ṭabqin).

He said:

Its inner meaning is that you will surely be raised rank upon rank (daraja fawqa daraja) in Paradise, and will be changed from one state to another state (ḥāl ilā ḥāl), more eminent and satisfying than the previous one, as you were in the world, rising from rank to rank, higher and higher, through earnest desire (ṭamaʿ), fear (khawf), longing (shawq) and love (maḥabba).