Overall meaning : We offered the trust—commands, prohibitions and acts of obedience—to the heavens, the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, fearing that they would not be able to fulfil its requirements and thus suffer the consequences of their failure to do so. Yet man undertook to bear it. He is always prone to doing great wrong to himself by not being able to fulfil the requirements of the trust, and is ever ignorant of his Lord and of the consequences of failing to live up to the trust he has accepted. Man took the trust on—by Allah’s decree—so that Allah may punish the hypocrites who feign faith and conceal unbelief as well as those who ascribe partners to Him and worship them besides Him, both men and women; and so that He may pardon the believing men and believing women who repent and turn to Him. Allah is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful.