Al-Hajj: (5) O Mankind...
Al-Hasan read al-ba‘th (the Resurrection) with a vowel (on the ‘ayn), similar to al-jalab and al-tard. It is as if it were said: "If you are in doubt about the Resurrection, the remover of your doubt is to look at the beginning of your creation."
- Al-‘alaqah: A congealed piece of blood.
- Al-mudghah: A small piece of flesh, the size of what one chews.
- Al-mukhallaqah: That which is smoothed and polished, free from deficiency and defect. It is said: "He polished (khalaqa) the toothpick or the wood," meaning he smoothed it. From this comes the expression "a smooth (khalaqa) rock." It is as if Allah, the Exalted, creates the mudghah in varying states: some are complete in creation and free of defects, while others are the opposite. This variation leads to the differences among people in their creation, appearance, height, shortness, perfection, and deficiency.
We have moved you from state to state and from creation to creation "that We may make clear to you"—by this gradual process—Our power and wisdom. He who was able to create human beings from dust first, then from a drop of fluid second—despite there being no resemblance between water and dust—and was able to make the drop a clot (though there is a manifest difference between them), then make the clot a lump of flesh, and the lump of flesh bones: He is surely able to restore what He originated. Indeed, this is more indicative of power than the former, and easier in logical estimation. The omission of the object of the verb "make clear" is an announcement that through these actions, His power and knowledge are made manifest in a way that speech cannot encompass nor description surround.
Ibn Abi ‘Ablah read li-yubayyina lakum (that He may make clear to you). Regarding wa-yuqirru (and He settles): it is read with a ya’, and also read as wa-nuqirru (and We settle). Wa-nukhrijukum (and We bring you forth) is read with a nun and the accusative case. Yuqirru and yukhrijukum are read in both the accusative and nominative cases. From Ya‘qub: yuqirru with a nun and a damma on the qaf, from the phrase "he poured (qarra) the water," meaning he poured it out.
The reading in the nominative is an informative statement that He settles "in the wombs what He wills" to settle, "until a specified term," which is the time of delivery—whether six months, nine, two years, four, or as He wills and decrees. What He does not will to settle, the wombs cast out or miscarry.
The reading in the accusative is a causal clause conjoined to a previous causal clause. Its meaning is: We created you in these stages for two purposes: first, that We may make clear Our power; and second, that We may settle in the wombs whom We settle, until they are born, grow up, and reach the age of accountability, at which point I hold them accountable. This reading is supported by His saying: "Then that you may reach your maturity." The singular is used because the purpose is to indicate the genus. It is also possible that it means: "We bring each one of you forth as a child."
- Al-ashudd: The perfection of strength, intellect, and discernment. It is among the plural nouns that have no singular form, like al-asadah (lions) and al-abateel (falsehoods). It is as if it refers to strength in more than one thing, and thus it was constructed on the form of a plural.
It is read: "And among you is he who is taken in death"—meaning Allah takes him—"to the most abject of life" (al-ar-dhal al-‘umur): senility and dotage, until he returns to his first state in childhood: weak in structure, feeble in mind, and lacking in understanding. He explains that just as He was able to elevate him through the degrees of increase until he reached the limit of perfection, He is able to lower him until he ends up in the lowest state, "so that he does not know, after having had knowledge, a thing." That is, he becomes like a woman, such that if he gains knowledge of a thing, he does not delay in forgetting it; his knowledge slips away until he asks about it the very moment it happens. He says to you: "Who is this?" You say: "So-and-so," and he does not wait a moment before asking you about him again. Abu ‘Amr read al-‘umr with a quiescent mim.
- Al-hamidah: The dead, dried-up earth. This is a second proof for the Resurrection. Because of its clarity and the fact that it is witnessed and observed, Allah repeated it in His Book.
- "It stirred and swelled" (ihtazzat wa-rabat): It moved with vegetation and expanded. It is also read raba’at, meaning it rose.
- Al-bahij: The beautiful, pleasing to the one who looks at it.
"That is because Allah is the Truth, and that He gives life to the dead, and that He is over all things competent. And that the Hour is coming—no doubt about it—and that Allah will resurrect those in the graves."
