Tafsir for verse: 40:57
لَخَلۡقُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ أَكۡبَرُ مِنۡ خَلۡقِ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكۡثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَ ٥٧ ﴿57
57Certainly, the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of human beings, but most human beings do not know.
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Commentary

And when the greatest consideration in the verse of the argument, repeated from the beginning of the surah to here, is about resurrection and the return of the servants to Allah with the gathering, so that the decisive judgment may occur in it, and the support of the prophets and their followers may be realized on the Day when the witnesses stand, it indicates His power over it as if it is a justification for what was denied in the verse of the argument regarding their reaching what they intended of arrogance. So he said, confirming the revelation of the acknowledged scholar the status of the ignorant opposing the action of his belief: "Indeed, the creation of the heavens," meaning: Allah's creation of it in its greatness, height, abundance of benefits, and vastness, "and the earth" regarding what you see of its wonders and the abundance of its provisions, "is greater" in the sight of everyone who understands among the creation than the creation of mankind. Meaning: Allah's creation of them, for they are a small branch of His creation. It is thus known with certainty that the One who is capable of initiating it in its greatness is capable of resurrecting mankind in their insignificance. "But most of the people," and they are those who deny resurrection and other matters that might relate to the power, and it is confirmed by hearing, "do not know," meaning: they have no knowledge at all, rather they are like animals due to the dominance of heedlessness over them and their following of their desires. They do not use that as an indication of the power over resurrection, just as animals see the apparent but do not perceive the hidden by it. Rather, they are of a lower rank than animals, because this kind of knowledge is in the utmost clarity, so it is like the tangible. Whoever hesitates in it is like a lifeless object.

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