And Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop; then He made you mates. And no female conceives nor does she give birth except with His knowledge. And no aged person is granted [additional] life nor is his lifespan lessened but that it is in a register. Indeed, that for Allah is easy.
"And Allah created you from dust" (Fatir: 11): This is another proof for the validity of resurrection and the afterlife. It means He created you initially, within the creation of Adam (peace be upon him), as a summary creation.
"Then from a sperm-drop": That is, then He created you from it (the sperm) in a detailed manner.
"Then He made you pairs": That is, kinds, male and female, just as He, the Exalted, said: "Or He joins them [as] males and females" (Ash-Shura: 50). Ibn Abi Hatim narrated this from as-Suddi. He and others also narrated from Qatadah that he said: "He ordained the pairing among you, and joined some of you with others."
"And no female conceives nor does she give birth except with His knowledge": This is a state (hal) of the agent, and the particle min is redundant (extra). It means: no female conceives or gives birth without being encompassed by the knowledge of Allah, the Exalted. The knowability of the agent returns to the knowability of his circumstances in detail, among which is the state of what the female conceives and gives birth to. He made the attribution to this [His knowledge] more eloquent in meaning and more beautiful in phrasing than making it attributed to the object (the carried and the birthed), for the object is deleted and omitted, as az-Zamakhshari clarified in Ha-Mim as-Sajdah. Making it a state of the conception and birth itself is contrary to the apparent meaning.
"And no long-lived person is granted long life": That is, no one. And he is called "long-lived" (mu'ammar) based on the future, similar to: "Indeed, I see myself pressing wine" (Yusuf: 36). It is similar to saying "someone killed a slain person" according to what more than one has mentioned, in order to avoid the absurdity of achieving the achieved (tahsil al-hasil). It may be said that yu'ammar (is granted long life) is an imperfect verb (present/future), so it implies he is not yet "long-lived," and there is no necessity to interpret it as the past tense.
"Nor is his life diminished": The pronoun returns to a "different long-lived person," similar to what Ibn Malik said regarding "I have a dirham and its half," meaning the half of another dirham. It does not harm that it could mean "like its half," for that is an example of istikhdam (a rhetorical device) or something similar. Al-Farra and some grammarians leaned toward this, and perhaps it is the most apparent. They interpreted the "long-lived person" as one whose life is increased, based on the contrast in His saying: "nor is... diminished," etc. This is what drove them to return the pronoun to a peer of the mentioned, rather than the same one, because it is impossible for the one whose life is increased to have his life diminished from his own life.
Others said: Admit that the referent of the pronoun is another long-lived person; has not the diminution of life been attributed to a long-lived person, and you have said that he is the one whose life is increased? The response is that the origin is "no one is granted long life," and he is named "long-lived" based on what he will become, and the pronoun returns based on the original state from which it was transformed. The outcome is "no one's life is diminished," meaning it is not made deficient from the beginning of the matter. This is similar to their saying: "The mouth of the well is narrow."
Others said: The pronoun returns to the first long-lived person himself, and the long-lived person is the one to whom Allah, the Exalted, has ordained a life, whether long or short. There is no obstacle to the long-lived person and the one whose life is diminished being the same individual. The meaning of diminishing his life is what passes from it and elapses; for example, his life is written as a hundred years, then below it is written "a day has passed," "two days have passed," and so on, until it reaches [the end]. This is narrated from Ibn Abbas, Abu Malik, Hassan bin Atiyyah, and as-Suddi. It is also said that it means: your life is counted breaths; whenever a breath passes, a part of it is diminished.
It is also said: The increase and decrease in the life of one person is based on different causes recorded on the Preserved Tablet, as stated in the hadith: "Charity increases life." Thus, it is possible for someone to be "granted long life"—that is, increased in life—if he performs an action, and diminished in life if he does not. This does not necessitate a change in the divine decree, for in the eternal knowledge of Allah and His irrevocable decree, it is also conditional, even if what is in His eternal knowledge and irrevocable decree does not undergo erasure, as is known from the predecessors. This is why it is permissible to pray for long life.
Ka'b said: "If Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) had supplicated to Allah, He would have postponed his term." From this, it is understood that the statement of Ibn Atiyyah—that this is a weak and rejected view requiring the belief in "two terms" as the Mu'tazilah hold—is nothing. It is strange that Ibn Kamal said: "Precise investigation dictates the validity that the long-lived person—meaning the one for whom a long life was decreed—may reach that life or may not reach it, so his life is increased relative to the first and diminished relative to the second, yet this does not necessitate a change in the decree, because what is decreed for every person is the counted breaths, not the limited days and extended years." Then he said: "Understand this amazing secret." And he wrote in the margin: "until the secret of the choice of holding the breath is revealed to you, and the correctness of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) becomes clear: 'Charity and maintaining ties populate lands and increase lifespans.'" Al-Shihab al-Khafaji refuted this, stating that it is something no sane person would rely upon, and no one said it except some ignorant people of the Indians, despite it being contrary to what is stated in the authentic hadith narrated by Muslim, an-Nasa'i, Ibn Abi Shaybah, and Abu ash-Shaykh from Abdullah bin Mas'ud, from the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to Umm Habibah, when she said: "O Allah, let me enjoy my husband, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and my father, Abu Sufyan, and my brother, Mu'awiyah,"—she asked Allah for fixed terms and counted days, etc. Al-Jalabi extended his rebuttal, though it is unnecessary.
Some said: It is permissible that one for whom a long life was decreed does not reach what was decreed for him, in that what was first decreed is changed by another decree, and there is no restriction upon Allah, the Exalted. His saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the Tarawih hadith, "I feared it would be made obligatory upon you," and his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the Qunut prayer, "Save me from the evil of what You have decreed," point to this. His fear of Allah (thousands upon thousands of prayers and peace upon him) when the wind intensified, despite his foreknowledge that the emergence of the Mahdi, the Dajjal, the Beast, and the rising of the sun from its west would occur before the Hour, to other things that have not happened yet, confirms this. The ultimate implication of this is a change in the known (the object), not a change in the knowledge (the attribute), as has been explained in its proper place. According to this, there is no problem with the report "Charity increases life," and the benefit of supplication becomes clear. What is narrated from some regarding the denial of the "irrevocable decree" returns to this. I have seen a pamphlet by some learned scholars who elaborated upon it to reinforce this view and establish its foundations. The truth, in my view, is that what is in the eternal knowledge, which relates to things as they are in reality, does not change, and must occur as it was known; otherwise, a reversal of knowledge would follow. Whatever appears contrary to this, if sound, is interpreted metaphorically. The report "Charity increases life" is said to be an isolated report (ahad), so it does not contradict the certain (qat'iyat). It is also said that it means charity, and other acts of obedience, increase what is the most important purpose of life: the acquisition of goodness, perfection, and blessing, by which human souls are completed and thus attain eternal happiness. Supplication has the same ruling as other causes, such as eating, drinking, and protecting oneself from extreme heat or cold; its benefit is like theirs. It is also said that it is merely for demonstrating need and servitude. Let this be pondered.
It is said: The pronoun returns to the "long-lived person," and the diminution is for someone else; that is, the life of a long-lived person is not diminished for the sake of another by giving them a diminished life from his life. It is also said: The pronoun refers to the "diminished one of his life," and although not explicitly mentioned, it is in the same ruling as the mentioned, as the saying goes: "By their opposites, things are distinguished." Thus, it returns to what is understood from the context, meaning: "And no life of one whose life is diminished is decreased by making it deficient."
Al-Hasan, Ibn Sirin, and Isa recited "wa la yanqusu" (in the active voice), and its agent is the pronoun of the "long-lived person" or "his life," and min is redundant in the agent, and even if it were transitive, it could be the pronoun for Allah, the Exalted. Al-A'raj recited "min 'umrihi" with the mim being quiescent.
"Except in a Book": From Ibn Abbas, it is the Preserved Tablet. It is also permissible that it refers to the human's scroll (register), for Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abi Hatim narrated from Hudhayfah bin Asid al-Ghifari that he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The angel enters upon the sperm-drop after it settles in the womb by forty or forty-five nights and says: 'O Lord, wretched or happy? Male or female?' And Allah, the Exalted, speaks, and he writes. Then he writes his deeds, his provision, his term, his trace (footprints/legacy), and his affliction. Then the scroll is folded, and it is not increased nor diminished." It is also permissible that it refers to the knowledge of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.
It is mentioned in the connection of the verses that His saying "And Allah created you from dust," etc., is a discourse to indicate complete power; His saying "And no female conceives," etc., for all-encompassing knowledge; and His saying "And no long-lived person is granted long life," etc., for establishing the divine decree and predestination. The meaning is "no one among you is granted long life"—addressing individuals of the human species—and this supports the first of the interpretations of "no one is granted long life," etc.
"Indeed, that": That is, what has been mentioned of creation and what follows it, despite it being a cause of bewilderment for intellects and understandings, "is easy for Allah" (Fatir: 11), for He, the Exalted, has no need for causes; just as is the resurrection and the afterlife.
