Muḥammad

إِنْ يَسْألْكُمُوهَا فَيُحْفِكُمْ تَبْخَلُوا وَيُخْرِجْ أضْغَانَكُمْ

37. If He were to ask you of it and press you, you would covetously withhold and He will bring out all your ill-wills.

The attachment of some men to worldly possessions is to the extent that even if God asks them for anything, they will entertain ill-wills against Him. Human character is exposed through his encounter with command and forbidding. To demonstrate the extent to which most men are attached to worldly property and substance, the blessed Verse says:

“If He were to ask you of it and press you, you would covetously withhold and He will bring out all your ill-wills.”

The word yuhfikum is from ihfa’ (“press or insist in claiming and asking”) is originally taken from hafiya (“go barefoot”). The expression is metaphorically used for the matters which are pursued by man to the end, an instance of which is ihfa’ sharib denoting trimming moustaches as short as possible. Idhghan is the plural form of dhighn which is, as mentioned above, used in the sense of severe hatred. In short, the Verse indicates the severe attachment of many a people to material possessions and in fact serves as a reproach to those entangled with such attachments but in the meanwhile is a source of encouragement for severing such mundane ties which may grow to the extent that even if God asks them for anything, they will develop anger and hatred against Him!

Thus He awakens the dormant soul of man with such reproach so that he may liberate himself from the shackles of mundane possessions and sacrifice everything for his Friend and in return ask Him to bestow faith, piety, and satisfaction upon him.