Transliteration:( Huwal lazee khalaqakum min turaabin summa min nutfatin summa min 'alaqatin summa yukhrijukum tiflan summa litablughooo ashuddakum summa litakoonoo shuyookhaa; wa minkum mai yutawaffaa min qablu wa litablughooo ajalam musam manw-wa la'allakum ta'qiloon )
172. In that He created Hazrat Adam (On whom be peace) from sand, then his progeny from sperm. Or, that He created nourishment from sand, the sperm from the nourishment and man from the sperm. In short, there is no inconsistency in the verse. It should be remembered that although there is water in the nature of man, there is fire as well. But, these are subservient to sand just as water is required to prepare the dough for the baking of bread.
173. The sperm, after forty days, changes to aclot of blood in the womb of the mother. Forty days thereafter, it becomes a piece of flesh and then a foetus.
174. Unintelligent and weak. The author of Tafseer Roohul Bayaan states that up to the age of six; a human being is called an infant, then a boy or a girl. The ages of man and their names have already been discussed in detail in an carlier discussion.
175. Adolescence is the name given to man between sixteen and thirty years. Some have written that this is the youthful age of man, while after twenty-one the age is one of strength (Tafseer Roohul Mu'ani).
176. From fifty years until death, the age is called old age. Some have said that until eighty it is called old age, thereafter it is called HARM, i.e. when a person's thinking snaps off. This is known in different ways in Urdu, Punjabi, etc. Allah and His Messenger know best
177. Death can take place before old age, or before one reaches the prime of one's life. This, too, is the power of Allah Almighty that some strong people die earlier and some weak people live much longer than them.
178. By 'appointed promise' is meant death. In that case, it is the discussion of the previous topic. Or, it denotes the Day of Judgement, in which case it would mean that just as you had been staying in the world until a stipulated age. likewise you would be staying in Burzukh (the world of graves for a stipulated period. There is no permanence in Barzakh as well.
179. The true Creator is He Who is giving of them momentum and through Whose power the world is experiencing continuous changes
The tafsir of Surah Muminun verse 67 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Muminun ayat 66 which provides the complete commentary from verse 66 through 68.
(40:67) He it is Who created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clot; then He brings you out as an infant, then causes you to grow into full maturity, and then causes you to grow further so that you may reach old age, while some of you He recalls earlier.[96] All this is in order that you may reach an appointed term[97] and that you may understand (the Truth).[98]
96. That is, someone dies before birth, and someone before attaining youth, and someone before reaching old age.
97. “An appointed term” may either imply the time of death, or the time when all human beings will be resurrected and presented before their Lord. In the first case, the meaning would be: Allah passes every man through different stages of life and takes him to the specific time which He has appointed for everyone’s return. Before that time even if the whole world joins to kill him, it cannot kill him; and when that time has arrived, none can keep him alive even if all the powers of the world join together to do so. In the second case, it would mean: This gamut of life has not been brought about so that man may end up in the dust and be completely annihilated, but Allah passes him through different stages of life so that all human beings may present themselves before Him at the time which He has appointed for the purpose.
98. That is, you are not being passed through these different stages of lift so that you may live as the animals live and die as they die, but for the purpose that you may use your common sense which Allah has granted you and then understand the system in which you are living. The creation of a wonderful thing like life from the lifeless substances of the earth, then the coming into being of a marvelous creation like man from the microscopic germ of the sperm, then its developing inside the mother’s womb, from the time of conception till delivery, in such a manner that its sex, its form and appearance, its bodily structure, its mental qualifications and characteristics, and its faculties and capabilities should be determined therein, uninfluenced by any external factor or agency. Then the one who is to be eliminated by abortion does fall a prey to abortion. The one who is to die in infancy, does die in infancy, whether he be the child of a king. And the one who is to reach maturity or old age, does reach that age, even through highly dangerous conditions, in which death should be certain. And the one who is to die in a particular stage of life, does die in that stage even if he is given the best medical attention and treatment in the best hospitals by the best doctors. Are not all these things pointing to the truth that the ultimate control of life and death is in the hand of an all-Mighty Sovereign? And when the reality is this that an All-Powerful Being is controlling the life and death, then how did a prophet or a saint or an angel or a star or planet become worthy of worship and service? When did a creature attain the rank that we should pray to it, and accept it as the maker and un-maker of our destiny? And how did a human power have the status that we should obey its commands and prohibitions and its self-made law about the lawful and the unlawful, without question? For further explanation, see (Surah Al-Hajj, Ayats 5-7) and the E.Ns on it.
[1378]- The time decreed for your death.
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