Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 60

For a full explanation of the verb tawaffa - lit., "he took [something] in full" - see note [44] on 39:42 , which is the earliest instance of its use in the Qur'an.

Lit., "therein" - referring to the daytime. The polarity of sleep and wakefulness contains an allusion to life and death cf. {78:9-11}.

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 fufil 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.