Tafsir of Az-Zumar 39:42

{Allah takes the souls...}

{The souls}: The whole [human] being, as they are.

{And taking them}: Causing them to die. This is the stripping away of that by which they are alive, sensitive, and perceptive—namely, the health and integrity of their parts. For when health is stripped away, it is as if their very essence has been stripped away.

{And those that have not died in their sleep}: He means: He takes the souls that have not died in their sleep—that is, He takes them when they sleep, likening the sleepers to the dead. From this is His saying, Exalted is He: {And it is He who takes you by night} (Al-An'am: 6), for they neither distinguish nor act, just as the dead do not.

{Then He retains}: The souls {for which He has decreed death}—the true death—meaning He does not return them to life at that time.

{And sends back the others}: The sleepers, until a specified term, until the time He has set for their death.

An alternative interpretation: It is said: "He takes the souls" means He collects them and fulfills them; these are the souls that possess life and movement. "And He takes the souls that have not died in their sleep" refers to the soul of discernment. They say: What is taken in sleep is the soul of discernment, not the soul of life, because if the soul of life were to depart, breathing would cease, yet the sleeper continues to breathe.

They narrated from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) regarding the son of Adam: "There is a soul (nafs) and a spirit (ruh), between them is like the ray of the sun. The nafs is that by which there is intellect and discernment, and the ruh is that by which there is breath and movement. When the servant sleeps, Allah seizes his nafs but does not seize his ruh."

The correct view: The correct view is what I mentioned first, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, has attributed taking, death, and sleep all to the nafs (the soul/self). They did not mean by "soul of life and movement" and "soul of intellect and discernment" something other than the whole being, for the soul is not described as dying or sleeping; rather, it is the whole being that dies and the whole being that sleeps.

{Indeed in that}: Indeed, in the taking of souls—both the dead and the sleeping—and in His retaining them and sending them back until a term, there are signs of Allah’s power and knowledge for a people who turn their thoughts toward it and take heed.

It was recited: (qudiya ‘alayha al-mawt) in the passive voice.

{Or have they taken others instead of Allah as intercessors? Say, "Even though they possess nothing and do not reason?" * Say, "To Allah belongs all intercession. To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. Then to Him you will be returned."}