6: 60 And he it is who causes you to be [like] dead at night, and knows what you work in daytime; and He brings you back to life each day in order that a term set [by Him] be fulfilled. In the end, unto Him you must return: and then He will make you understand all that you were doing [in life].
Ali’s version
وَهُوَ
الَّذِي
يَتَوَفَّاكُم
بِاللَّيْلِ
وَيَعْلَمُ
مَا
جَرَحْتُم
بِالنَّهَارِ...
6:60. It is He Who doth take your souls by night, and hath knowledge of all that ye have done by day.
...ثُمَّ يَبْعَثُكُمْ فِيهِ لِيُقْضَى أَجَلٌ مُّسَمًّى...
By day doth He raise you up again; that a term appointed be fulfilled;
...ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٦٠﴾
in the end unto Him will be your return, then will He show you the truth of all that ye did.
C881. As the rest of His Creation is subject to His Law and Plan, so is man's life in every particular and at every moment, awake or asleep.
The mystery of Sleep -"the twin brother of death"- is called the taking of our soul by Him, with the record of all we have done in our waking moments, and this record sometimes appears to us in confused glimpses in dreams. By day we awaken again to our activities, and so it goes on until we fulfil the term of our life appointed for this earth.
Then comes the other Sleep (death), with the longer record of our Day (Life); and then, in the end comes the Resurrection and Judgment, at which we see everything clearly and not as in dreams, for that is the final Reality.
6:60 He is the One who takes you at night, and He knows what you have done during the day, then He sends you back to it until a fixed span; then to Him is your return and He will inform you of what you used to do.*
[[006:060 See 39:42.]]
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6: 67
Asad Every tiding [from God] has a term set for its fulfillment: and in time you will come to know [the truth].”
Yusuf Ali "For every Message is a limit of time and soon shall ye know it."
Pickthall For every announcement there is a term, and ye will come to know.
Transliteration Likulli naba'im mustaqarruw wa saufa ta'lamu_n(a).
7: 34 [AL-Araf, Mecca 39]
Asad And for all people a term has been set [note 25]: and when [the end of] their term approaches, they can neither delay it by a single moment, nor can they hasten it.
Yusuf Ali To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached not an hour can they cause delay nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation).
Pickthall And every nation hath its term, and when its term cometh, they cannot put it off an hour nor yet advance (it).
Transliteration Wa likulli ummatin ajal(un), fa iza_ ja_'a ajaluhum la_ yasta'khiru_na sa_'ataw wa la_ yastaqdimu_n(a).
[[ Asad’s note 25 – Lit., “for every community (ummah) there is a term”: i.e., all people have a life-term decreed by God, during which they are all liberty to accept or to reject the guidance offered them through revelation. The word “umma” often denotes “living beings” – in this context, “people”.]]
[[ Ali’s note - 1017 People: ummat. I do not know whether "generation" would not be more appropriate here……... Anyway, the lesson is what is suggested in the following verses. There is only a limited time for an individual or for a group of people. If they do not make good during that time of probation, the chance is lost, and it cannot come again. We cannot retard or advance the march of time by a single hour or minute. ("Hour" in the text expresses an indefinite but short period of time). (7.34) ]]
16: 61 [an-Nahl, Mecca 70]
Yusuf Ali It Allah were to punish men for their wrongdoing He would not leave on the (earth) a single living creature: but He gives them respite for a stated term: when their term expires they would not be able to delay (the punishment) for a single hour just as they would not be able to anticipate it (for a single hour).
Pickthall If Allah were to take mankind to task for their wrong doing, he would not leave hereon a living creature, but He reprieveth them to an appointed term, and when their term cometh they cannot put (it) off an hour nor (yet) advance (it).
Yuksel If God were to immediately call the people to account for their transgression, then He would not leave a single creature standing. But He delays them to a determined time; so when that time comes to any of them, they cannot delay it by one moment or advance it.
Transliteration Wa lau yu'a_khizulla_hun na_sa bi zulmihim ma_ taraka 'alaiha_ min da_bbatiw wa la_kiy yu'akhkhiruhum ila_ ajalim musamma_(n), fa iza_ ja_'a ajaluhum la_ yasta'khiru_na sa_'ataw wa la_ yastaqdimu_n(a).
23:43 [al-Muminun, Mecca 74]
Ma tasbiqu min ommatin ajalaha wama yasta/khiroona |
مَا
تَسْبِقُ مِنْ
أُمَّةٍ أَجَلَهَا
وَمَا يَسْتَأْخِرُونَ
﴿٤٣﴾
No people can hasten their term, nor can they delay (it).
Generally Accepted Translations of the Meaning |
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[for,] no community can ever forestall [the end of] its term - and neither can they delay [its coming]. |
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No nation can outstrip its term, nor yet postpone it. |
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No people can hasten on their doom nor can they postpone (it). |
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No people can hasten their term, nor can they delay (it). |
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No community precedes its term, nor delays it. |
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no community can advance or postpone its appointed time |
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No nation may anticipate its deadline nor will they ever postpone it. |
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No people or nation can predate their set period of time nor can they postdate it either -includes: span of prosperity, of misery, of other conditions as well as that of life - |
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No nation can hasten its appointed time, nor can it delay. |
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[[Asad’s note to 23:43-22 See note 5 on the identical phrase in 15:5. ]]
39 Az-Zumar (The Throngs)
Mecca Period 59 [75 verses]
Asad’s version
39:42 [Asad] It is God [alone that has this power - He] who causes all human beings to die at the time of their [bodily] death, and [causes to be as dead], during their sleep, those that have not yet died: 44 thus, He withholds [from life] those upon whom He has decreed death, and lets the others go free for a term set [by Him).
In [all] this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who think!
Yuksel’s version
Person (nafs) = Consciousness
39:42 God takes the person when it dies, and during their sleep. He then keeps those that have been overtaken by death, and He sends the others back until a predetermined time. In that are signs for a people who will think.
Ali’s version
اللَّهُ
يَتَوَفَّى
الْأَنفُسَ
حِينَ
مَوْتِهَا
...
39:42. [Ali] It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death:
C4306. The mystery of life and death, sleep and dreams, is a fascinating enigma, of which the solution is perhaps beyond the ken of man. A vast mass of superstition as well as imaginative and psychological literature has grown up about it. But the simplest and truest religious doctrine is laid down here in a few words.
In death we surrender our physical life, but our soul does not die; it goes back to a plane of existence in which it is more conscious of the realities of the spiritual world: "Allah takes the soul".
... وَالَّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ فِي مَنَامِهَا...
and those that die not (He takes) during their sleep:
C4307. Cf. 6:60.
What is sleep?
As far as animal life is concerned, it is the cessation of the working of the nervous system, though other animal functions, such as digestion, growth, and the circulation of the blood, continue, possibly at a different pace.
It is the repose of the nervous system, and in this respect it is common to man and animals, and perhaps even to plants, if, as is probable, plants have a nervous system. The mental processes (and certainly volition) are also suspended in sleep, except that in ordinary dreams there is a medley of recollections, which often present vividly to our consciousness things that do not or cannot happen in nature as we know it in our coordinated minds.
But there is another kind of dream which is rarer-one in which the dreamer sees things as they actually happen, backwards or forwards in time, or in which gifted individuals see spiritual truths otherwise imperceptible to them. How can we explain this?
It is suggested that our soul or personality,-that something which is above our animal life-is then in a plane of spiritual existence akin to physical death (see last note), when we are nearer to Allah.
In poetic imagery, Sleep is "twin-brother to Death".
... فَيُمْسِكُ الَّتِي قَضَى عَلَيْهَا الْمَوْتَ وَيُرْسِلُ الْأُخْرَى إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى...
those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back (from returning to life), but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed.
C4308. Sleep being twin-brother to Death, our souls are for the time being released from the bondage of the flesh. Allah takes them for the time being.
If, as some do, we are to die peacefully in sleep, our soul does not come back to the physical body, and the latter decays and die.
If we have still some period of life to fulfil according to Allah's decree, our soul comes back to the body, and we resume our functions in this life.
... إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ﴿٤٢﴾
Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect.
C4309. If we contemplate these things, we can see more clearly many spiritual truths: e.g.
1. that our bodily life and death are not the whole story of our existence;
2. that in our bodily life we may be dead to the spiritual world, and in our bodily death, may be our awakening to the spiritual world;
3. that our nightly Sleep, besides performing the function of rest to our physical life, gives us a foretaste of what we call death, which does not end our personality; and
4. that the Resurrection is not more wonderful than our daily rising from Sleep, "twin-brother to Death".
[[Asad’s note - 44 According to Razi, this passage connects allegorically with the preceding - the light of guidance being likened to life, and man's going astray, to death or, if it is not permanent, to death-like sleep followed by awakening. Beyond this, however, we have here a reminder - in tune with the subsequent passages - of God's almightiness, and especially of His exclusive power to create and to withdraw life. As to the operative verb yatawaffa; it primarily denotes "He takes [something] away in full"; and
because death is characterized by a disappearance of all vital impulses (the "soul") from the once- living body - their being "taken away in full", as it were - this form of the verb has been used tropically, since time immemorial, in the sense of "causing to die", and (in its intransitive form) "dying" or (as a noun) "death" : a usage invariably adhered to in the Qur'an. The traditional likening of sleep to death is
due to the fact that in both cases the body appears to be devoid of consciousness, partially and temporarily in the former case, and completely and permanently in the latter. (The popular translation of anfus - pi . of nafs - as "souls" is certainly inappropriate in the above context, since, according to the fundamental teaching of the Qur'an, man's soul does not "die" at the time of his bodily death but, on the contrary, lives on indefinitely. Hence, the term anfus must be rendered here as "human beings".) ]]
40 Ghafir (Forgiving)/al mumin
Mecca 60 [85 verses]
Asad’s version
40:67 It is He who creates you out of dust, 48 and then out of a drop of sperm, and then out of a germ- cell; and then He brings you forth as children; and then [He ordains] that you reach maturity, and then, that you grow old - though some of you [He causes to] die earlier -: and [all this He ordains] so that you might reach a term set [by Him), 49 and that you might [learn to] use your reason.
40:68 It is He who grants life and deals death; and when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, "Be" - and it is.
هُوَ
الَّذِي
خَلَقَكُم
مِّن
تُرَابٍ...
67. It is He Who has created you from dust,
C4444. Cf. this passage with 22:5 and notes 2773 and 2774.
The various stages of man's physical life are:
- first, simple matter (dust);
- the sperm-drop in the father;
- the fertilised ovum in the mother's womb;
- out into the light, as a human child;
- youth and full maturity;
- decay; and
- death.
In some cases the later stages are curtailed or cut off; but in any case, a Term appointed is reached, so that the higher purpose of Allah's Will and Plan may be fulfilled in each given case, that man "may learn wisdom".
... ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ...
then from a sperm-drop,
... ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ...
then from a leech-like clot;
... ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًا...
then does He get you out (into the light) as a child:
... ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوا أَشُدَّكُمْ...
then lets you (grow and) reach your age of full strength;
... ثُمَّ لِتَكُونُوا شُيُوخًا...
then lets you become old,
... وَمِنكُم مَّن يُتَوَفَّى مِن قَبْلُ...
though of you there are some who die before;
... وَلِتَبْلُغُوا أَجَلًا مُّسَمًّى...
and lets you reach a Term appointed:
... وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٦٧﴾
in order that ye may learn wisdom.
هُوَ
الَّذِي
يُحْيِي
وَيُمِيتُ...
68. It is He Who gives Life and Death;
C4445. The keys of life and death are in Allah's hands. But He is not dependent on time or place or instruments or materials. All that He has to do is to say "Be", and it comes into existence.
Cf. 16:40, and n. 2066; 36:82, and n. 4029.
Conversely, His Will or Command is sufficient to annihilate Existence into Non-Existence (Life into Death) or determine the limits or conditions of Existence or Non-Existence.
... فَإِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ...
and when He decides upon an affair, He says to it,
... كُن...
"Be,"
... فَيَكُونُ ﴿٦٨﴾
and it is.
