Tafsir for verse: 30:40
ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِي خَلَقَكُمۡ ثُمَّ رَزَقَكُمۡ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمۡ ثُمَّ يُحۡيِيكُمۡۖ هَلۡ مِن شُرَكَآئِكُم مَّن يَفۡعَلُ مِن ذَٰلِكُم مِّن شَيۡءٖۚ سُبۡحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ عَمَّا يُشۡرِكُونَ ٤٠ ﴿40
40Allah is the One who created you, then gave sustenance to you, then He will make you dead, then He will make you alive. Is there any one from your (so-called) ‘partners of God’ who can do anything of that (kind)? Pure is He, and far higher than what they associate (with Him).
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Commentary

And when it became clear by this that there is no increase except in what Allah increases, and there is no good except in what Allah chooses, this served to dissuade from an excessive concern for seeking the worldly life. He clarified this in a way that is clearer than any other by saying: ﴿Allah﴾ meaning by His immense majesty, not anyone else ﴿Who created you﴾ meaning He brought you into existence as you are in terms of your predestination; you do not own anything.

And when the provision is distributed among the people, rather it is narrow despite its abundance for many of them, the provision of one who is newly born - especially if he is the son of a poor person - is considered unlikely. He indicated this with a tool of distance by saying: ﴿Then He provides for you﴾. And when the death of one who is firmly established in his body, mind, strength, and causes of nobility is astonishing, He alerted to it by saying: ﴿Then He causes you to die﴾. And when all of that is truly easy for Him, and the revival after death, if it is not easier than the first revival, is like it even if they consider it unlikely, He said: ﴿Then He brings you to life﴾.

And when He encompassed with what He mentioned all of their beings and conditions, and it is known that the partner (p-103) is one who has done something from the action or the act in which he is involved, and it is known that he has no share in any of that type of creation, He said in denial of them: ﴿Is there any﴾. And when their associating partners with what they associated did not yield any fruit for him except that they made for themselves a share of their wealth, He expressed this by saying: ﴿Your partners﴾ meaning those whom you claim to be partners ﴿Who does any of that﴾ indicating His high rank with a tool of distance and addressing everyone. And when the interrogative denial is in the meaning of negation, He affirmed it for him, encompassing all that could come from it, even if it is very little: ﴿Of anything﴾ meaning that which deserves this description that you attribute to Him.

And when it was necessary for them to say: 'No, by Your might!' they had no power nor did anyone among them have any power in any of that. He indicated the greatness of what they had committed by what this evidence produced. He said, turning away from them, to increase the glorification and greatness, purifying His noble self from it, by distancing His exalted rank from their state: 'Glorified is He,' meaning He is exalted in a way that description cannot encompass [that He would need a partner, for that is a great deficiency. And when the one who informs that he has done something or will do it, such as causing death or giving life by resurrection and others, does not have a partner or anything like that standing between him and it, He said]: 'And exalted,' meaning an exaltation that minds cannot reach, as indicated by the form of mutual action. The reading of Hamzah and al-Kisai is in the past tense, while the reading of the others permits the expression of anger in His saying, expressing in the present tense, indicating that it is characteristic of the rational being that he does not commit shirk at all, so how about if it is in the manner of renewal and continuity: 'From what they associate' in that they do anything of that or can they, in any kind of power, prevent Him from anything He wants, to deserve thereby to be glorified in a kind of glorification. So they purified Him and exalted Him by being free from every object of worship besides Him.

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