His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿Allah knows what every female carries and what the wombs decrease and what they increase. And everything is with Him in due measure.﴾ ﴿The Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Most Great, the Most High.﴾ ﴿It is the same among you whether one of you conceals his speech or declares it, or whether one of you is hidden by night and goes about freely by day.﴾

When the disbelief of the disbelievers and their astonishment at the resurrection from the graves was mentioned, Allah made clear in these verses the examples that alert to the greatness of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, regarding the permissibility of resurrection. Among these is this one of the five that are among the keys of the unseen. It is that Allah, blessed and exalted is He, alone knows what every female carries of embryos of every kind of animal. This beginning indicates that it is not difficult for the One who is capable of it to bring about resurrection.

And "what" in His saying, exalted is He: ﴿what every female carries﴾ can mean what is the object of "knows," and it can also mean a source, being an object as well of "knows." It can also be understood as a question in a position of raising by beginning, and the news is "carries," and in this way, there is weakness. In the Mushaf of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, it is: "what every female carries and what she gives birth to."

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿and what the wombs decrease﴾ means: what decreases, and that is from the meaning of ﴿and the water decreased﴾ [Hud: 44], and it is from the meaning of depletion. So here it means the removal of something from the womb and its departure. When it is met with His saying: ﴿and what they increase﴾, it was interpreted as meaning decrease. Then the interpreters differed regarding the nature of increase and decrease. Mujahid said: The decrease of the womb is when blood is shed upon the pregnancy. If that happens, the child weakens in the womb and becomes pale. If the pregnant woman completes nine months and does not give birth, and the child remains in her womb as an increase of time, he completes in it from his body and health what was lost due to the shedding of blood. This is the meaning of His saying: ﴿and what the wombs decrease and what they increase﴾. The majority of the interpreters hold that the decrease of the womb is the shedding of blood upon the pregnancy. Some people went to say that its decrease is the depletion of blood in it and its retention after the usual shedding during menstruation. So His saying: ﴿and what they increase﴾ after that is in the same manner as "decrease" without opposition, rather the decrease of the womb is in the meaning of increase in it. Al-Dahhak said: The decrease of the womb is when a woman miscarries, and the increase is when she gives birth for a complete duration fully formed. Qatadah said: The decrease is the miscarriage, and the increase is the remaining beyond nine months.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿and everything﴾ is a general term for everything that is subject to estimation.

And "the unseen": is what is absent from perceptions, and "the witnessed": is what is observed of matters. He placed the sources in the place of the things, each of which must be characterized by one of the two states.

And His saying: "The Great" is a description of glorification in general. And "The Exalted" is from elevation. The readers have differed regarding the stopping at "The Exalted". Ibn Kathir and Abu Amr - in some of what has been narrated from him - affirmed the 'ya' in both connection and stopping, while the others did not affirm it in connection or stopping. Affirming it is the correct view and the proper way. Sibawayh found it easy to omit it in the pauses like this verse, by analogy to the rhymes in poetry. However, it is inappropriate to omit it in other than a pause or poetry. But his reasoning is that since the tanween punishes the alif and lam always, and this 'ya' is omitted with the tanween, it is appropriate that it be omitted with its punisher.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And there is a jurisprudence connected to this verse that is good to mention.

From that is the difference among the jurists regarding the blood that the pregnant woman sees. Malik and his companions, as well as Al-Shafi'i and his companions, and a group have gone to the view that it is menstruation. A great group said: It is not menstruation, and if it were menstruation, the validity of the waiting period of the female slave with menstruation would not be established, and this is consensus. It has been narrated from Malik in the book of Muhammad what implies that it is not menstruation. Among that is that the ummah is in consensus that the shortest duration of pregnancy is six months. This is derived from His saying: "And his carrying and weaning is thirty months" [Al-Ahqaf: 15], along with His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "And the nursing mothers may breastfeed their children for two complete years" [Al-Baqarah: 233]. And these six months are by the lunar months like the other months of the Shari'ah. Therefore, it has been narrated in the madhhab from some of Malik's companions - and I think it is in the book of Ibn Harith - that if three days are subtracted from the six months, the child is attributed due to the deficiency of the months and their addition.

And there has been a difference regarding the majority of pregnancies. It has been said: Nine months, and this is weak. Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, and a group of scholars said: Its majority is two years. And a group said: Three years. And in the Mudawwana: Four years and five years. Ibn Shihab and others said: Seven years. It has been narrated that Ibn Ajlan's wife gave birth after seven years. It has been narrated that Al-Dahhak ibn Muzahim remained for two years, and he said: I was born and my incisors had grown. It has been narrated that Abdul Malik ibn Marwan was born after six months.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "Equal among you". Equal is a source, and it seeks after it two things that are similar. And its raising is on the news of the beginning which is "who", and the source cannot be a news except by implying as Al-Khansaa said:

.....................

For it is but a coming and going.

That is: one who has coming and going. A group said: Here the meaning is: "One who is equal." Al-Zajjaj said: The use of (equal) has become frequent in the speech of the Arabs until it has become like the name of the doer and does not need to imply.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And it is to me like justice, falsehood, and a guest.

(p-183) And a group said: The meaning is: "Equal among you," so there is no need for implication. Sibawayh weakened this by saying that it is a beginning with an indefinite noun. And the meaning of this verse is: Equal among you in the encompassing of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and His knowledge of who conceals his saying and whispers it to himself and who declares it aloud, nothing is hidden from Allah, glorified and exalted is He.

And His saying, ﴿And who is concealed by night﴾ means: Who is in the utmost concealment by night and who is acting by day, going about his affairs, both are the same in the knowledge of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, and His encompassing of both. Ibn Abbas and Mujahid went to a meaning implied: That the one concealed by night and the one who is active by day is one man, who is suspicious by night and shows innocence in dealing with people by day. This is one category, making the night a day of rest, and the meaning is: This and the one whose affair is all one, innocent of suspicion, whether in Allah's knowledge of all. And this interpretation is supported by the conjunction of the active one without the repetition of "who," and it does not come to omit it except in the necessity of poetry.

And the active one in the language is the one who acts as he wishes, and from that is the saying of the poet:

I see every people who have been restrained by the bond of their male ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ and we have loosened its bond, so he is active.

Meaning: One who is departing, not driven away from a direction, and this is a man who boasts of the honor of his people, and from that is the saying of another:

How did you depart while you were not departing ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ and dreams bring near what is not near.

And the verse can imply three categories: The one who conceals is one type, and the one who declares is another type (p-184) opposed to the first, and the third is intermediate, variable, disobeying by night while concealing and showing innocence by day. The saying in the verse is consistent with its meaning in actions. And Qutrub said - as reported by Al-Zajjaj -: "Concealed" means: apparent, from their saying: "I concealed the thing" when I made it apparent. Imru' al-Qais said:

He concealed them from their openings as if ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ he concealed them with rain from a gathering evening.

He said: And "active" means: concealed in a group.

Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this saying, although its connection to the language is clear, is weak, because the conjunction of night with the concealed one and day with the active one contradicts this saying.