O MANKIND! Be conscious of your Sustainer, who has created you out of one living entity, and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude of men and women.
1 And remain conscious of God, in whose name you demand [your rights] from one another, and of these ties of kinship. Verily, God is ever watchful over you!
Asad Translation Note Number :
Out of the many meanings attributable to the term nafs -
soul, spirit, mind, animate being, living entity, human
being, person, self (in the sense of a personal
identity), humankind, life-essence, vital principle, and
so forth - most of the classical commentators choose
"human being", and assume that it refers here to Adam.
Muhammad 'Abduh, however, rejects this interpretation
(Manar IV, 323 ff.) and gives, instead, his preference to
"humankind" inasmuch as this term stresses the common
origin and brotherhood of the human race (which,
undoubtedly, is the purport of the above verse), without,
at the same time, unwarrantably tying it to the Biblical
account of the creation of Adam and Eve. My rendering of
nafs, in this context, as "living entity" follows the
same reasoning. - As regards the expression zawjaha ("its
mate"), it is to be noted that, with reference to animate
beings, the term zawj ("a pair", "one of a pair" or "a
mate") applies to the male as well as to the female
component of a pair or couple; hence, with reference to
human beings, it signifies a woman's mate (husband) as
well as a man's mate (wife). Abu Muslim - as quoted by
Razi - interprets the phrase "He created out of it
(minha) its mate" as meaning "He created its mate [i.e.,
its sexual counterpart] out of its own kind (min
jinsiha)", thus supporting the view of Muhammad 'Abduh
referred to above. The literal translation of minha as
"out of it" clearly alludes, in conformity with the text,
to the biological fact that both sexes have originated
from "one living entity".
