God charges no soul save to its capacity; Because of the perfection of His mercy to [human beings] He takes them to the limit of their capacity and indeed far less than that. All of that is compassion and favor from Him. for it is what it is has merited in good deeds and against it is what it has earned. [That is] what it acquires in repentance saves the one who acquires it. Our Lord take us not to task if we forget or err; our Lord burden us not with a load such as You did lay upon those before us. Our Lord do not burden us beyond what we have the power to bear; When a need arose [the community of Moses] spoke through an inter- mediary saying “O Moses... pray to your lord for us” [2:61]. But [God] said to the community [of Muḥammad] “Call on Me and I will respond to you” [40:60]. When earlier communities sinned time passed before their repentance was accepted while the Prophet ﷺ said about this community [of Muslims] “Remorse is repentance.”Among the earlier communities there were those who said “make for us a god just as they have gods” [7:138] while this community was selected through the illumination of the lights of their declaration of oneness. Their qualities are beyond explanation. and pardon us in the present fī l-ḥāl. and forgive us in the end fī l-maÌāl and have mercy on us; You are our Patron; so grant us assistance against the disbelieving folk. [That is] “in all circumstances for we have no one other than You. You are our Patron so give us assistance against anything that distracts us from You.” When they said “burden us not with a load such as You did lay upon those before us”: God caused their sins to disappear in contrast to those who came before whose disappearance He caused. He transformed their sins into good deeds in contrast to the metamorphosis maskh [of an earlier community] and He rained mercy down on them in contrast to the stones He rained down on those who came before. Praise be to God Lord of the worlds.
