Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 98

See surah {4}, note [1].

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 fulfilment 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 well as in verse {67} of the present surah, where mustaqarr is used in the sense of "a term set for the fulfilment [of God's tiding]".

 i.e., Adam (ﷺ).

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.

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.