وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦٓ أَنْ خَلَقَكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ إِذَآ أَنتُم بَشَرٌ تَنتَشِرُونَ
"And of His signs is that: He created you from dust; then there you are, human beings spreading abroad."
This formula occurs seven times in the sūra. Six of them come one after another (20-25), one in the forty-sixth verse. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text, and it is the clearest structural marker of the sūra:
| # | Verse | The sign | The closing — to whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | Creation from dust, and spreading abroad | (no closing — the series begins) |
| 2 | 21 | Spouses, rest, mawadda and mercy | Li-qawmin yatafakkarūn — who think |
| 3 | 22 | The heavens, the earth, the difference of tongues and colours | Li'l-ʿālimīn — those who know |
| 4 | 23 | Sleep by night, earning by day | Li-qawmin yasmaʿūn — who hear |
| 5 | 24 | Lightning: fear and hope; and water | Li-qawmin yaʿqilūn — who reason |
| 6 | 25 | The standing of heaven and earth by His command | (no closing — the series ends) |
| 7 | 46 | The sending of the winds as bearers of good news | Wa laʿallakum tashkurūn — who give thanks |
One — the framing of the series. The first link (20) and the last (25) have no li-qawmin… closing. The four in the middle (21-24) have one. That is, the series stands enclosed between two links without a closing.
Two — the changing of the closings. The four closings use four different verbs: to think, to know, to hear, to reason. The same formula addresses a different capacity each time.
Three — the range. The series begins with the person himself (20-21), opens out to the universe and to peoples (22), returns to daily life (23), rises to the sky (24), and ends with the standing of the order (25). Inward → outward → inward → outward. The alternation of āfāq / anfus tabulated at Fuṣṣilat 41/53 works here in the same way; I rely on that treatment.
The same beginning (min turāb) was treated at Fāṭir 35/11 and at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/67. I do not repeat it here.
The lexicographers call this use of idhā in Arabic idhā fujāʾiyya (the idhā that conveys suddenness): "and there you are". That is, the sentence skips the process in between and shows the result directly.
I record this as an observation about the word order: all the stages between the beginning (dust) and the result (a humankind spread abroad) are packed into a single particle. The sentence itself skips the distance in order to convey the distance.
تَنتَشِرُونَ — root ن-ش-ر: to spread, to open out, to lay out. Nashara'th-thawba — he opened out the cloth. And from the same root comes nushūr (the resurrection — the spreading abroad of the dead); the word had occurred at Fāṭir 35/9 (kadhālika'n-nushūr).
That the two uses of the root come together in this sūra is worth recording, and I give this as an observation about the language: tantashirūn here conveys a spreading abroad by birth, nushūr in the other place a spreading abroad by resurrection. The same picture, for two different beginnings. And the preceding verse (19) had already established this link by saying tukhrajūn.