6: 98 [al-Anam, Cattle, Mecca 55]

Asad And He it is who has brought you [all] into being out of one living entity [note 82], and [has appointed for each of you] a time-limit [on earth] and a resting place [after death] [note 83]: clearly, indeed, have We spelled out these messages unto people who can grasp the truth!

Yusuf Ali It is He who hath produced you from a single person: here is a place of sojourn and a place of departure: We detail Our signs for people who understand.

Pickthall And He it is Who hath produced you from a single being, and (hath given you) a habitation and a repository. We have detailed Our revelations for a people who have understanding.

Transliteration Wa huwal lazi ansya'akum min nafsiw wa_hidatin fa mustaqarruw wa mustauda', qad fassalnal a_ya_ti liqaumiy yafqahu_n(a).


[[ Ali’s notes - 923 Produced: ansha-a= made you grow, increase, develop, reach maturity: another of the processes of creation. This supplements n. 120 to ii. 916 and n. 916 to vi. 94. It is one of the wonders of God's Creation, that from one person we have grown to be so many, and each individual has so many faculties and capacities, and yet we are all one. In the next verse we have the allegory of grapes and other fruits: all grapes may be similar to look at, yet each variety has a distinctive flavour and other distinctive qualities, and each individual grape may have its own special qualities. So for man. (6.98)

  1. In the sojourn of this life we must respond to God's hand in fashioning us, by making full use of all our faculties, and we must get ready for our departure into the Life that will be eternal. (6.98)]]


[[ Asad’s note 82 – see surah 4, note 1.

note 83 – The commentators differ widely as to the meaning of the terms “mustaqarr” and “mustawda” in this context. However, taking into account the primary meaning of mustaqarr as “the limit of a course” – i.e., the point at which a thing reaches its fulfillment or end – and of “mustawda” as “a place of consignment” or “repository”, we arrive at the rendering adopted by me above. This rendering finds, moreover, strong support in 11:6, where God is spoken of as providing sustenance for every living being and knowing “its time-limit [on earth] and its resting –place [after death]” (mustaqarraha wa-mustawda aha), as in verse 67 of the present surah, where mustaqarr is used in the sense of “a term set for the fulfillment [of God’s tiding]”. ]]