God charges no soul save to its capacity that is what it is capable of bearing; for it is what it has merited of good and its reward and against it is what it has earned of evil and its burden no person shall be requited for another’s sin or for what he has not earned even if he was tempted to do it. Say Our Lord take us not to task by way of chastisement if we forget or err by straying from the right path unknowingly — as You used to take to task those before us God has lifted this burden from this community as reported in hadīth. The petition here then is a way of acknowledging God’s favour; our Lord burden us not with a load an affair which we cannot bear such as You did lay upon those before us namely upon the Children of Israel as for example the killing of oneself in repentance the paying of a quarter of one’s property for alms and the severing of the impure part. Our Lord do not burden us beyond what we have the power the strength to bear of obligations and trials; and pardon us effacing our sins and forgive us and have mercy on us with mercy added to Your forgiveness; You are our Patron our Master and the Guardian of our affairs; so grant us assistance against the disbelieving folk by establishing definitive proof for us and victory over them in battle for it is expected of a patron that he assist his clients against their enemies. In a hadīth it is stated that when this verse was revealed and the Prophet s was reciting it after each word it was said to him “Granted”.
