«وَمَنْ حَكَمَ بِأَنْ أَبْذُلَ وَأَخْزُنَ، وَأَلِينَ وَأَخْشَنَ»
Who has ruled that I must both give and hoard, both soften and grow harsh, in the same matter?
The paired verbs “give/withhold” and “be gentle/be harsh” make the dispute intelligible as a conflict of expectations. What could have remained a vague quarrel is expressed through sharply opposed actions.
Antithesis is doing argumentative work. Each pair compresses a potential history of unequal treatment into a memorable opposition. A close reader sees both a rhetorical pattern and a question of evidence: which conduct was expected, and which conduct was actually reported?