سورة البلد

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Muslim said: I said to Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "May I be your ransom! You asked him about a matter which I would like to know." He said: "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Allah, Blessed and Exalted, says in His Book: لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسانَ فِی کَبَدٍ [Certainly We have created man to be in distress] — meaning that in his mother's womb he stands upright, his front is against his mother's front and his back is against the lower part of his mother's trunk; his food is from what his mother eats and he drinks from what his mother drinks, and his mother breathes into him in a particular way, and the covenant which Allah took from him is between his two eyes. When his birth draws near, an angel called al-Zajir (the driver) comes to him and drives him on, and he turns over, so that his upper part comes toward the lower part of his mother and his lower part comes toward the upper part of his mother, so that Allah may make the matter easy for the woman and for the one being born. And this happens to all people, except a newborn who is blind, rebellious and disobedient — when the angel rebukes him, he turns over and falls to the ground all at once, crying from the rebuke of the angel al-Zajir, and he forgets the covenant. And indeed Allah created all beasts in the bellies of their mothers inverted: their upper part is toward the lower part of the mother and their lower part is toward the upper part of the mother, and they remain in the wombs inverted, their heads between their two forelegs and hind legs, and they take their food from the mother. When their birth draws near, they are drawn out all at once and burst out from the bellies of their mothers. And these two marks that are between their forelegs — that is the place of their two eyes while in the bellies of their mothers, and what is on their heels is the place of their nostrils, on which no hair grows. This is the case in all animals except the camel, whose neck is long and whose head is drawn out from between its forelegs and hind legs in its mother's belly."

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسانَ فِی کَبَدٍ [Certainly We have created man to be in distress] — We created man well-balanced, and truly We did not create anything like him.

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): He is qa'im (standing/subsistent) — but not in the sense of standing upright on legs with hardship, difficulty and fatigue, the way other things stand. Rather, when it is said that Allah is qa'im, the meaning is that He is the Preserver and Sustainer of things, just as it is said: "So-and-so is qa'im over the affair of so-and-so," meaning that his affairs are in the hands of that person.