2/83 — A covenant in seven items
"We took this covenant: serve God alone; be good to parents, to kin, to orphans and to the poor; speak good words to people; keep up the prayer, and give the alms."
This verse is the summary of the covenant given to the earlier prophets, and what is striking is its order:
1. Service to God alone 2. Goodness to parents 3. To kin 4. To orphans 5. To the poor 6. A good word to people 7. Prayer and alms
After tawḥīd comes directly the parents — not worship. Then the circles widen: kin, orphan, poor, and finally all people. The acts of worship come last of all.
This order is a pattern repeated elsewhere in the Qurʾān as well (al-Isrāʾ 17/23 and what follows it is the closest to it). What it says is plain: the first concrete return of service to God is not ritual but how one treats the nearest to hand.
وَقُولُوا۟ لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا — "speak good words to people". The word here is not "to the believers" but "al-nās" — all people. There is no narrowing clause in the verse. This stands in the same line as verse 62 at the head of the section: the measure does not change according to who the other person is.