“O Muḥammad! Give the faithful good news and tell them that they should be happy in the bounty and mercy of God: ‘I have honored you with faith, the Qur’an, submission, and Muḥammad, so be delighted! Become close to remembering Me. Accept My covenant in your spirit. Delight in My love. A happy servant is he who is happy with Me. There is no happiness but happiness with Me. May he who is not happy with Me never be happy! The servant has two states of happiness in Me: today he is happy with Me, and tomorrow he will be happy along with Me.’”
10:58 Say: “In the bounty of God and His mercy—in that let them rejoice, for it is better than what they gather.”
It has been said that the bounty of God and His mercy that you have with Him in the precedent apportioning is better than the varieties of obedience and the kinds of service that are your own self-exertion.
In terms of allusion, He is saying, “My servant, have confidence in My bounty and mercy, not in your own worship and service, for there is no confidence in anything other than My bounty and no ease in other than My mercy. Everyone has a resource, and the resource of the faithful is My bounty; everyone has a storehouse, and the storehouse of the poor is My mercy; everyone has a leaning place, and the leaning place of the recognizers is My precedence; everyone has a treasure, and the treasure of those who trust is My assurance; everyone has a delight, and the delight of the rememberers is remembering Me; everyone has hope, and the hope of the friends is seeing Me.”
There was a renunciant among the Children of Israel who sat for seventy years in a monastery worshiping God. After seventy years revelation came to the prophet of the time: “Say to that renunciant, ‘You have completed beautiful days and passed a life in worshiping Me. I promise you that I will forgive you by My bounty and mercy.’”
The renunciant said, “He will take me to paradise by His bounty? Where then will that seventy years of worship be seen? What about that?”
In that very hour, the Exalted Lord placed a tremendous pain in one of his teeth. He began to lament and went before the prophet. He wept and asked for healing. The revelation came to the prophet, “Tell the renunciant that I want the seventy years of worship to heal him.”
The renunciant said, “I approve. I want the healing in hard cash. You know about tomorrow—if You want, send me to hell if You want, paradise.”
The command came from the Compeller of all engendered beings: “All of your worship fell before that one toothache. What remains now but My bounty and mercy?” So in that let them rejoice, for it is better than what they gather and hope for as the reward for their activities.
