Commentary
﴿That We may change﴾ a great change ﴿your likes﴾ meaning your forms and your persons, as has been mentioned previously in Ash-Shura that the like in essence is the thing itself. ﴿And We will create you﴾ meaning a new creation after changing your very selves ﴿in what you do not know﴾ (p-222). For indeed, some of them are eaten by beasts or fish or birds, and their bodies are created from it. Some of them become dust, and perhaps from it a plant grows, which is eaten by animals, and from it their bodies are created. And perhaps his dust comes from the minerals of the earth, such as gold, silver, iron, stone, and the like. And He has alluded to this in His saying, ﴿Say, 'Be stones or iron'﴾ [Al-Isra: 50] ﴿or a creation﴾ [Al-Isra: 51] to the end of it. Or the meaning could be as Al-Baghawi said: We bring forth a creation like you in place of you, and We create you in what you do not know of forms. That is, by changing your attributes and forms into other forms by transformation. And whoever is able to do that is able to bring about resurrection.
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