56. Surah Al-Waqiah

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

نَحْنُ خَلَقْنَاكُمْ فَلَوْلَا تُصَدِّقُونَ ﴿٥٧﴾

56: 57.  It is We Who have created you:

why will ye not witness the Truth?

C5249. Man is apt to forget his Creator, and even the fact that he, man, is a created being. The seed of his body, out of which his physical life starts, is not created by man, but by Allah in the process of the unfoldment of the world. Why will not man recognise and bear witness of this fact by a life of obedience to Allah's Law?

أَفَرَأَيْتُم مَّا تُمْنُونَ ﴿٥٨﴾

56: 58.  Do ye then see? -- the (human seed) -- that ye throw out, --

أَأَنتُمْ تَخْلُقُونَهُ أَمْ نَحْنُ الْخَالِقُونَ ﴿٥٩﴾

56: 59.  Is it ye who create it, or are We the Creators?

نَحْنُ قَدَّرْنَا بَيْنَكُمُ الْمَوْتَ ...

56: 60.  We have decreed Death to be your common lot,

C5250. Just as Allah has created this life that we see, so He has decreed that Death should be the common lot of all of us. Surely, if He can thus give life and death, as we see it, why should we refuse to believe that He can give us other forms when this life is over?

The Future Life, though indicated by what we know now, is to be on a wholly different plane. (R).

... وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَسْبُوقِينَ ﴿٦٠﴾

and We are not to be frustrated

عَلَى أَن نُّبَدِّلَ أَمْثَالَكُمْ وَنُنشِئَكُمْ فِي مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٦١﴾

56: 61.  From changing your Forms and creating you (again) in (Forms) that ye know not.

Asad’s Version:

56:57 IT IS WE who have created you, [O men:] why, then, do you not accept the truth?

(56:58) Have you ever considered that [seed] which you emit? 21

(56:59) Is it you who create it or are We the source of its creation?

56:60) We have [indeed] decreed that death shall be [ever- present] among you: but there is nothing to prevent Us

(56:61) from changing the nature of your existence 22 and bringing you into being [anew] in a manner [as yet] unknown to you.

[[Asad’s notes - 22 Lit., "changing your likenesses (amthal)". However, the term mathal signifies also, tropically, the state, condition and the qualities (sifat) of a thing or person - in brief, "the nature of his [or its] existence". ]]