Surah Fussilat Tafseer

وَإِذَا أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَى الاْإِنسَانِ أَعْرَضَ وَنَأى بِجَانِبِهِ

And when We show favor to man, he turns away and becomes arrogant;

means, he turns away from doing acts of obedience and is too proud to obey the commands of Allah.

This is like the Ayah:

فَتَوَلَّى بِرُكْنِهِ

But (Fir`awn) turned away along with his hosts, (51:39)

وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ

but when evil touches him, (means, difficulties),

فَذُو دُعَاء عَرِيضٍ

then he has recourse to long supplications.

means, he asks at length for one thing. Long supplications are those which are long on words and short on meaning. The opposite is concise speech which is brief but full of meaning.

And Allah says:

وَإِذَا مَسَّ الاِنسَـنَ الضُّرُّ دَعَانَا لِجَنبِهِ أَوْ قَاعِدًا أَوْ قَأيِمًا فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُ ضُرَّهُ مَرَّ كَأَن لَّمْ يَدْعُنَأ إِلَى ضُرٍّ مَّسَّهُ

And when harm touches man, he invokes Us, lying on his side, or sitting or standing. But when We have removed his harm from him, he passes on as if he had never invoked Us for a harm that touched him! (10:12