Tafsir of Al-Furqan 25:54

"And it is He who created from water a human being..."

It is the water that was mixed into the clay of Adam, peace be upon him, and made part of the substance of humanity so that it might coalesce, become pliable, and be prepared to receive forms and structures. The intended meaning of "water" is the well-known water, with the definite article denoting the genus. "Human being" refers to Adam, peace be upon him, and its nunation denotes magnification; or it refers to the human genus, which applies to him and his progeny. The "min" (from) indicates origination. It is also permissible that "water" refers to the sperm-drop, in which case "human being" must necessarily be understood as the children of Adam, peace be upon him.

"...and made him into [relatives by] lineage and marriage..."

That is, He divided him into two categories: those of lineage—meaning males to whom one traces descent—and those of marriage—meaning females through whom one establishes matrimonial ties. It is similar to His saying, "And made from it the two mates, the male and the female." The "wa" (and) is for division, and the speech implies an omitted construct, deleted to signify exaggeration in appearance. He turned away from explicitly saying "male and female" to indicate branching off by way of text. This making and dividing is something that contains no obscurity provided that "human being" refers to the genus. As for the assumption that it refers to Adam, peace be upon him, it has been said: It is with regard to the genus, and the speech contains what falls under the category of istikhdam (employment of a word in two different senses), similar to your saying, "I have a dirham and its half." It is also said that there is no need to assume that, and the speech is of the type of omission and connection; that is, "He made from him," which has been brought according to the principle in the parallel of this verse, as you heard just now. Others said: The meaning of making Adam lineage and marriage is the creation of Eve from him, while keeping him as he was in his masculinity. The sequence of making the genus into two categories after the creation of Adam—or the genus in terms of its creation, or the creation of two categories from Adam—as the fa (then/so) implies, is manifest. It might be imagined that the accusative pronoun in "made him" refers back to "water," and the fa is like the fa in His saying: "And Noah called to his Lord and said..." or His saying: "And how many a city have We destroyed, so Our punishment came to it by night...", but this is nothing of substance.

From Ali—may Allah, the Exalted, ennoble his face—it is reported that lineage is that which marriage is unlawful with, and marriage is that which marriage is lawful with. In another narration from him—may Allah be pleased with him—lineage is that which marriage is unlawful with, and marriage is kinship through breastfeeding. Interpreting marriage as such is also narrated from al-Dahhak.

"...and your Lord is ever All-Powerful."

[He is] hyperbolic in power, in that He was able to create from one substance a human being with disparate limbs and distant temperaments, and made him into two opposing categories. "Was" (kana) in such a position denotes continuity. If we say that the nominal sentence itself also conveys this, the speech conveys continuity upon continuity. This may imply that supreme power is a necessity of His Essence, Glorified and Exalted is He. It is a wonder what was claimed by some who claim uniqueness in verification—from among the scholars of the age whom I accompanied—that "was" (kana) in such a place denotes continuity in eternity past, and the nominal sentence denotes continuity in eternity future; thus, their combination conveys the continuous establishment of the predicate for the subject, eternally and everlasting. From this, one knows the extent of the man's knowledge.