Verb KANE in 33:72 and its importance
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With the name of Allah, Er-Rahman, Er-Rahim. I seek a refuge with Allah from Shaytan, Expelled.
I'll offer Saheeh International translation just as a wrong understanding, but if you check all of English translations (or I believe any other) you'll see what and why they translated very bad
Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant."
Translation until the word "insan" (hu-man) is more-less correct, but what comes after is changing the whole ayat and is giving us wrong picture about what Allah swt told us. Reading tafsirs is even worse then reading translation of this ayat. Here's what we can read in Tafsir al-Jalaleyn, for example
Indeed We offered the Trust ? the obligation to prayer and other matters which when performed result in reward and when neglected result in punishment ? to the heavens and the earth and the mountains and created in them the power of comprehension and speech at the time of that offer but they refused to bear it and were apprehensive of it; but man Adam undertook it when it was offered to him. Truly he is a wrongdoer to his own soul because of what he undertook ignorant of the responsibility that comes with it ?"
There're many things we can think about and, with Allah's Help and 'izn, get (near to) the knowledge. But, no matter if we read translation or tafsirs we can conclude that Allah swt done something bad and unjust to "el-insan". I'll try to explain my understanding of this from the quoted ayat, so I'll focus on its end and will try to connect it with the next ayat, with His Help.
We can understand that something which is called "El-'Emanet" was offered to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains. They rejected to bear it and feared it.
For now we should understand that it's something "heavy" to bear and it's something of which the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains feared. Now, we'll see what happened with "insan".
"Insan" bear it (obviously without fear). Was it Adem a.s. as Mahalli and Suyuti said in their Tafsir El-Jalaleyn? Or it was the humanity, which is called "El-Insan" here? Or it was one man, but not Adem a.s.? But, let's continue with reading...
After this are the horrible words if we don't think, it was said he (el-insan) KANE dhaloom and jehool. If we accept dhaloom and jehool as adjectives, we'll get closer to the knowledge of this part of the ayat. The only problem is the verb KANE. If we wrongly understand it as the verb "to be" (or "was" in this case) we'll understand that the man (el-insan) was unjust and ignorant and that's why he bear what the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains didn't. If this was the case and we know that Allah swt Knows all, we could say/think that Allah swt was unjust to el-insan and gave him to bear what he couldn't, but since he was unjust and ignorant he accepted it.
But, we should know that Allah swt Loves us, at least ones who're asking for forgiveness from Him. Then, what happened here?
If we read about Adem a.s. (for example 231) we will see that Allah swt gave the knowledge to him about all things. Was Adem a.s. jahil? No, not at all. We know that he and his wife said that they done dhulm to themselves when they ate from the tree, even it is very hard to us to understand what they done is dhulm, but they done dhulm. Besides that, it's not known that Adem a.s. done any dhulm. So, was he dhalim? No, because Allah swt forgave him that (as said in 237, "tabe". We can conclude that Adem a.s. is not "el-insan" from this ayat, as authors of El-Jalaleyn and many others said.
Let's see if this is for the whole humanity... It can't be, because, for example, there're some of progeny of Ibrahim a.s. who are not dhalimoon and there're/were many people who're/were not dhalimoon and they're/were not jahiloon. So, this can't be for the humanity.
Was it any other individual? Somebody who was jahil and dhalim same time? But, wait. Allah swt offered this El-'Emanet to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains... why would He choose some worst or very bad induvidual of all humans to trick him? No, it's not possible at all, but something's wrong.
What is wrong is our understanding of the verb KANE. It doesn't and it can't mean "to be" (was). What KANE means is "to posses possibility do to something". So, El-Insan is whole humanity and we have possibility to be dhalimoon and jahiloon, but this makes us above the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains. These "negative" (?) possible qualities are better then all qualities of the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains. Ones without these qualities couldn't accept El-'Emanet. The Heavens, the Earth and the Mountains cannot make mistakes, cannot do sin, we can, all of us. Shi'as are wrong, there's no ma'soom amongs humans, we all can make wrong deed.
If we read next ayat we can know more about us - there are males and females, how beautiful; and there're 3 groups of us, of both males and females munafiqoon, mushrikoon and mu'minoon.
We can also read KANE in the last ayat of this surah. Does it mean "to be" (was)? No, Allah swt has possibility for these qualities, but He won't be ghafur-ur-rahim, except for believers (male and female).
I hope this will help with His 'izn to others to think about one of the most frequent verbs used in the Qur'an. Understand it as "to be" can lead to very bad conclusions, may Allah swt protects us of falsehood and dhulumat.
I won't comment on the meaning of El-'Emanet here, nor other words as "dhulm", but you can enjoy and relax in thinking about them and all other words Allah swt chosen for us to know. There's nothing bad in doing sins, as long as we get the knowledge about them, ask for forgiveness and change ourselves with His Help.
Allah swt Loves Mutahheroon. I pray to him to makes us of them.
Allah's bless and selam.