Tafsir of An-Nahl 16:48

"Have they not considered..."

It is recited as aw lam yaraw (have they not seen) and yatafayya'u (they incline) with both the yā' and the tā'.

• {mā}: Is a relative pronoun (meaning "that which").
• {bi-khalqillāh}: It is indefinite, and its clarification is: {min shay'in yatafayya'u ẓilāluhu} (of anything whose shadows incline).
• {al-yamīn}: Meaning the right sides.
• {sujjadan}: A state (ḥāl) of the shadows.
• {wa-hum dākhirūn}: A state (ḥāl) of the pronoun in ẓilāluhu (its shadows), because it carries the meaning of a plural. It refers to everything God created that possesses a shadow. It is pluralized with the wāw and nūn (for rational beings) either because dukhūr (submissiveness) is a trait of rational beings, or because among that group are those who possess intellect, so the masculine plural form was used to encompass them all.

The meaning: Have they not looked at what God has created of physical bodies that have shadows inclining from their right and left sides? That is, from both sides of each one of them. The terms "right" and "left" are metaphors derived from a human's right and left sides to describe the two sides of an object.

It means: The shadows return from one side to the other, submissive to God, not resisting Him in what He has subjected them to regarding this inclination. The physical bodies themselves are also dākhirūn (submissive/humble), yielding and obedient to God’s actions upon them, never resisting.

{And to God prostrates whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth of creatures, and the angels, and they are not arrogant. They fear their Lord above them, and they do what they are commanded.}