يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِن كُنتُمْ فِى رَيْبٍ مِّنَ ٱلْبَعْثِ فَإِنَّا خَلَقْنَٰكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ مِن مُّضْغَةٍ مُّخَلَّقَةٍ وَغَيْرِ مُخَلَّقَةٍ … وَتَرَى ٱلْأَرْضَ هَامِدَةً فَإِذَآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا ٱلْمَآءَ ٱهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ وَأَنۢبَتَتْ مِن كُلِّ زَوْجٍۭ بَهِيجٍ
Yā ayyuha'n-nāsu in kuntum fī raybin mina'l-baʿthi fa-innā khalaqnākum min turābin thumma min nuṭfatin thumma min ʿalaqatin thumma min muḍghatin mukhallaqatin wa ghayri mukhallaqatin li-nubayyina lakum · Wa nuqirru fi'l-arḥāmi mā nashāʾu ilā ajalin musamman thumma nukhrijukum ṭiflan thumma li-tablughū ashuddakum · Wa minkum man yutawaffā wa minkum man yuraddu ilā ardhali'l-ʿumuri li-kaylā yaʿlama min baʿdi ʿilmin shayʾā · Wa tara'l-arḍa hāmidatan fa-idhā anzalnā ʿalayha'l-māʾa'htazzat wa rabat wa anbatat min kulli zawjin bahīj
"O people! If you are in doubt about the raising of the dead — We created you from dust, then from a drop, then from an ʿalaqa, then from a muḍgha whose form is determined and undetermined; that We might make it plain to you. We keep in the wombs what We will for an appointed term, then We bring you forth as an infant; then you reach your full strength. Some of you are taken in death, and some of you are turned back to the most abject age of life — so that after having known he should know nothing. You see the earth burnt out; and when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells and brings forth every delightful kind."
The verse opens with a conditional sentence: in kuntum fī raybin mina'l-baʿth — "if you are in doubt about the raising of the dead".
| Proof | Where | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| The first | Man's own formation | Coming to be not out of nothing, but by passing through stages |
| The second | Parched ground | The reviving of what appears to have died |
What the two have in common must be recorded, and I give it as my own reading: both proofs are things the addressee sees. The verse does not begin by giving news of the unseen; it begins by pointing to what is visible. The question asked was "how can something that has not happened happen?"; the answer takes the form "look at what has already happened."
The verse names four items: turāb, nuṭfa, ʿalaqa, muḍgha. Then three steps of life: ṭifl, ashudd, and two ends — death, or ardhalu'l-ʿumur.
At Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/67 the same staged forming was treated in six steps, and a limit set by the method was drawn there. At al-Zumar 39/6 (khalqan min baʿdi khalqin fī ẓulumātin thalāth) the same limit was repeated. I keep the same limit here, and repeat it with its ground:
| Word | Root | The sense the lexicographers give |
|---|---|---|
| نُطْفَة | ن-ط-ف | A drop — a small quantity of water, a seeping fluid |
| عَلَقَة | ع-ل-ق | A thing that hangs and clings; the root carries "to hang, to attach". ʿAlaq — a leech; taʿlīq — hanging up |
| مُضْغَة | م-ض-غ | A chewed morsel; a piece of flesh the size of a mouthful chewed in the mouth |
These are the meanings the lexicographers record, and that is as much as I transmit. I do not enter into equating them one-to-one with the terms of modern embryology. The ground: such an equation would load onto the verse a claim the verse does not make; and it would leave the verse to be defended alongside scientific descriptions whenever those change. The proof the verse builds is not a claim of terminological accuracy.
How the proof works is plain in the verse's own sentence: li-nubayyina lakum — "that We might make it plain to you". What is made plain is the graded character of a process. The passage from one stage to the next is not in human hands, and man has witnessed none of its stages. The same line as that treated at al-Wāqiʿa 56/58-59: the separation of man's share from the outcome.
There is disagreement over this construct in the classical commentaries. I transmit the views; I do not impose a preference:
| View | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | Formed / unformed — whether the forming is completed or not |
| 2 | Complete / incomplete — that which reaches the end of the process and that which does not |
| 3 | Faultless / faulty — a difference in the creating |
The common point is this, and it comes out of the verse itself: not every process that begins ends in the same place. The verse builds a regular series, then adds the exception to that series itself — just as in the note wa minkum man yutawaffā min qabl at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/67. And here the same note comes twice: in the womb (mukhallaqatin wa ghayri mukhallaqa), and after birth (wa minkum man yutawaffā).
The root ر-ذ-ل: the lowest part of a thing, the part that is picked out and thrown away. Ardhal — the most worthless, what is cast aside.
And the rest of the sentence must be recorded: li-kaylā yaʿlama min baʿdi ʿilmin shayʾā — "so that after having known he should know nothing."
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is where the sentence stands in the verse: the verse builds an ascending series — a drop, an infant, the age of strength — and places a descent at the end of the series. Knowledge is acquired, then taken back.
And this serves the verse's real proof: man has no mastery over his own body either at the beginning or at the end. The age of strength in the middle is an exception. The one who objects to the raising of the dead is the party who has no say at either end of his own life.
The root occurs here for the first time in the index. The sense the lexicographers give: the going out of a fire, the cooling of ashes; the ending of motion and of sound. Hamadati'n-nār — the fire went out. Hāmid — lifeless, motionless.
The choice of word builds a picture: dry earth is called not "dead" (mayyita) but "burnt out". That is, the present state of something that once burned.
Comparing this word with khāshiʿa at Fuṣṣilat 41/39 shows how two sūras give the same proof in two separate pictures:
| Place | Word | Root | The picture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuṣṣilat 41/39 | خَاشِعَة | خ-ش-ع | Head bowed — lowered, its voice cut off. In the Qurʾān the word is generally used of man |
| al-Ḥajj 22/5 | هَامِدَة | ه-م-د | Burnt out — its fire gone, no stirring left in it |
| al-Zumar 39/21 | حُطَام | ح-ط-م | Broken stubble — snapped and crumbled |
- Fuṣṣilat gives the ground a posture: bowed.
- al-Ḥajj gives the ground a past: burnt out, that is, it was burning before.
- al-Zumar gives the ground an end: crumbled.
And all three are tied to the same conclusion. In Fuṣṣilat, inna'lladhī aḥyāhā la-muḥyi'l-mawtā; here, at 22/6, wa annahu yuḥyi'l-mawtā; in al-Zumar, dhikrā li-uli'l-albāb.
| Fuṣṣilat 41/39 | al-Ḥajj 22/5 | |
|---|---|---|
| The state of the ground | Khāshiʿa | Hāmida |
| The first movement | Ihtazzat — it stirred | Ihtazzat |
| The second movement | Wa rabat — it swelled | Wa rabat |
| The third | — | Wa anbatat min kulli zawjin bahīj |
اِهْتَزَّ — root ه-ز-ز: to shake, to jolt. The root ر-ب-و was treated at al-Baqara 2/275 in the discussion of ribā: to increase, to swell, to rise. I do not repeat it here.
And the whole construct is worth recording: the first verse of the sūra opened with zalzala — a shaking. In the fifth verse the ground is shaken again (ihtazzat) — but this time the outcome of the shaking is vegetation.
I give this as my own reading, and its ground is the presence of the two words in the same sūra four verses apart: the same family of verbs, one for ruin and one for revival. Being shaken is not in itself an end; it depends on what is shaken.
The root ب-ه-ج: beauty, a brightness pleasing to the eye, the giving of joy. Bahja — beauty, gladness.
The choice of word must be recorded as an observation: the verse speaks not of the plant's usefulness (nāfiʿ) but of its appearance. The proof is built on pleasing the eye before filling the stomach.