And We Guided Him to the Two Paths — The Human Between Two Roads
tadabbur
Level: basic
akhlaq
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وَهَدَيۡنَٰهُ ٱلنَّجۡدَيۡنِ
— البلد 10
Verse: "And We guided him to the two paths." (90:10) — followed by explaining the steep and the easy.
"Two elevated paths": Good and evil — Allah guided the human to both, meaning showed him both paths and gave him the ability to take either.
"He has not attempted the steep path": "La" (not) negates — the human chose not to attempt the difficult path! The steep path: "freeing a slave or feeding in a time of famine."
Lesson: Allah gave you both paths and clarified the good — yet the human preferred the worldly easy path over the virtuous difficult one.
Source: Ibn Kathir (8/397); Al-Sadi; Al-Qurtubi (20/64)
Question: What is the "steep path" (aqaba) that the human did not attempt in Surah Al-Balad?
Answer: Freeing a slave or feeding in a day of famine — deeds difficult for the soul but representing the pinnacle of human generosity.