6: 95 [al-Anam, Cattle, Mecca 55]

Asad Verily, God is the One who cleaves the grain and the fruit-kernel asunder, bringing forth the living out of that which is dead, and He is the One who brings forth the dead out of that which is alive. This, then, is God: and yet, how perverted are your minds [note 80]!

Yusuf Ali It is Allah Who causeth the seed-grain and the date-stone to split and sprout. He causeth the living to issue from the dead and He is the one to cause the dead to issue from the living. That is Allah; then how are ye deluded away from the truth?

Pickthall Lo! Allah (it is) who splitteth the grain of corn and the datestone (for sprouting) . He bringeth forth the living from the dead, and is the bringer forth of the dead from the living. Such is Allah. How then are ye perverted?

Transliteration Innalla_ha fa_liqul habbi wan nawa_, yukhrijul hayya minal mayyiti wa mukhrijul mayyiti minal hayy(i), za_likumulla_hu fa anna_ tu'faku_n(a).

6: 96 [al-Anam, Cattle, Mecca 55]

Asad [He is] the One who causes the dawn to break; and He has made the night to be [a source of] stillness, and the sun and the moon to run their appointed courses [note 81]: [all] this is laid down by the will of the Almighty, the All-knowing.

Yusuf Ali He it is that cleaveth the daybreak (from the dark): He makes the night for rest and tranquillity and the sun and moon for the reckoning (of time): such is the judgment and ordering of (Him) the Exalted in Power the Omniscient.

Pickthall He is the Cleaver of the Daybreak, and He hath appointed the night for stillness, and the sun and the moon for reckoning. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Wise.

Transliteration Fa_liqul isba_h(i), wa ja'alal laila sakanaw wasy syamsa wal qamara husba_na_(n), za_lika taqdirul 'azizil'alim(i).

[[Ruby’s note – Here a universal process is described and the mystery of life and death is hinted. Living things are composed of dead materials such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen etc. Even though these elements that are dead material integrate to sustain a living entity and when the living entity dies these disintegrates into dead components. This is the mystery of life which science fails to define and pinpoint. A life is not a mere summation of its physical components and the disintegrated material at death is not life but where life harbored. This stupendous on-going phenomenon is succinctly mentioned here for people to ponder.

Failing to note such a phenomenal process of reality as the sign of God is indeed a failure and only perversion of mind, due to arrogance and rejection, blocks such understanding. Any wise person would note such a grand phenomenon at any level of knowledge and see the miracle of God taking place all around us on a continuous basis. Something that is happening all the time does not mean that it is devoid of the miracle nature in it. It is the mind which is arrogant and negligent is capable of such ignorance. ]]

[[ Ali’s notes - 919 The seed-grain and the date-stone are selected as types in the vegetable kingdom, showing how our physical life depends on it. The fruits mentioned later (in vi 99) start another allegory which we shall notice later. Botanists will notice that the seed-grain includes the cereals (such as wheat, barley, rice, millet, etc.) which are monocotyledons, as well as the pulses (such as beans, peas, gram, etc.) and other seeds which are dicotyledons. These two represent the most important classes of food-grains, ………."Split and sprout": both ideas are included in the root “falaqa”, and a third is expressed by the word "cleave" in the next verse, for the action of evolving day-break from the dark. I might almost have used the word "churn," familiar to students of Hindu lore in the Hindu allegory of the "churning of the ocean." For vegetables, "split and sprout" represents a double process: (1) the seed divides, and (2) one part shoots up, seeking the light, and forming leaves and the visible parts of the future tree, and the other part digs down into the dark, forming the roots and seeking just that sustenance from the soil, which is adapted for the particular plant……... (6.95)

920 This does not mean that in physical nature there are no limits between life and non-life, between the organic and the non-organic. In fact physicists are baffled at the barrier between them and frankly confess that they cannot solve the mystery of Life. …….(1) We have just been speaking of the botanical world. Take it as a whole, and see the contrast between the winter of death, the spring of revivification, the summer of growth, and the autumn of decay, leading back to the death of winter. Here is a cycle of living from dead, and dead from living…….. (6.95)

921. The night, the day, the sun, the moon, -the great astronomical universe of God. How far, and yet how near to us! God's universe is boundless, and we can barely comprehend even its relations to us. But this last we must try to do if we want to be numbered with "the people who know". Taqdir: Cf. vi. 91 and n. 909, and iv. 149 and n. 655. (6.96)

(22:66) [Asad] [al-hajj, Medina 103]

seeing that it is

He who gave you life, and then will cause you to die, and then will bring you back to life:

[but,] verily, bereft of all gratitude is man!

...وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَحْيَاكُمْ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ...

22: 66. It is He Who gave you life, will cause you to die, and will again give you life:

...إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَكَفُورٌ ﴿٦٦﴾

truly man is a most ungrateful creature!