His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿That is the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Exalted, the Merciful﴾ ﴿He who has perfected everything He created, and He began the creation of man from clay﴾ ﴿Then He made his offspring from a lowly fluid﴾ ﴿Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His Spirit, and made for you the hearing, the sight, and the hearts; little are you grateful﴾ ﴿And they said, 'When we have become lost in the earth, will we indeed be in a new creation?' Rather, they are in denial of the meeting with their Lord﴾ ﴿Say, 'The Angel of Death who has been given charge of you will take you; then to your Lord you will be returned.'﴾

(p-69) A group said: He meant by the unseen the Hereafter, and by the witnessed the worldly life. It was said: He meant by the unseen what is hidden from the creatures, and by the witnessed what is observed of things. So it is as if He has encompassed by these words all things.

And the majority of the people read: "He created it" with a فتح (fatha) on the لام (lam), as it is a past verb. The meaning of ﴿

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "He blew" is an expression of the infusion of the spirit into the body of the son of Adam. The pronoun in "His spirit" refers to Allah, glorified and exalted is He. It is an addition of ownership to the owner, and creation to the creator. Then He manifested the enumeration of blessings upon them by specifying them in His saying: "For you" (with the pronoun) of hearing, sight, and hearts, which is for those mentioned previously as well. Just as He specified Adam with shaping and blowing the spirit, this is for all his descendants. All of this is brevity and conciseness, leaving out what is indicated by the literal meaning. It is possible that "the human" in this verse is a generic name. And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "Little" is an adjective for a deleted source, and it is in the position of a state when the described is omitted.

The pronoun in "They said" refers to the disbelievers who deny resurrection from the graves and who reject it without any evidence or proof. The position of "Is it" is accusative due to what is in His saying: "Are we in a new creation?"; because its meaning is: to be resurrected. The readers differed regarding "Is it", and the mention of it has been previously covered in another context.

The majority of the readers recited: "We have gone astray" with a vowel on the lam, while Ibn Amer, Abu Rujai, Talha, and Ibn Wathab recited: "We have gone astray" with a kasra on the lam. The meaning is: we have perished and our connections have been severed until we no longer exist, and from this is the saying of Al-Akhtal:

I was the dust in a wave that was muddy and foamy, The one who cast it was lost in error.

And from this is the saying of Al-Nabigha:

So he returned to them, misled, with a clear eye, And he was buried in the tumult, with firmness and attainment.

That is: the one who misled him was buried, and from this is the saying of Imru' al-Qais:

The paths are lost in dual and sent.

And Al-Hasan al-Basri read: "We have become connected" with the letter sad unpointed and the lam opened. Al-Farra said: It is narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, and its meaning is: we have become of the connection, which is the solid dry land. It is permissible that he means: from the change, as it is said: "The meat has become connected." This reading was narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, and Aban ibn Said ibn Al-As. Al-Hasan also read: "We have become connected" with the letter sad unpointed and the lam broken. Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, and Abu Haywah read: "We have gone astray" with the letter dad pronounced and the lam broken and stressed.

And their saying: "Are we in a new creation?" means: Are we in this state to be resurrected and our creation renewed? And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "But" is a shift from the meaning of their questioning, as if He said: They are not questioning, but rather they are disbelievers denying the meeting with Allah, glorified and exalted is He.

Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, commanded His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, to inform them of the general state without detail. He began by informing them from the time of the soul's departure from the human until the time it returns to its Lord. He gathered the two ends, the first and the last, and "He takes you" means: He takes you in full. From this is the saying of the poet:

Indeed, the sons of Ardam are not from anyone, And Quraysh did not take them in number.

And "The Angel of Death" is his name, Izra'il, and all of his actions are by the command of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and His creation and invention. It has been narrated in the hadith that "All animals have their spirits taken by Allah without an angel."

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: It is as if he lacks its life. And the same applies to the children of Adam; except that it is a type that is honored by the action of an angel and angels with him in taking their souls. Likewise, it has also intensified the punishment upon the disbelievers by this. It has been narrated from Mujahid that the world is before the Angel of Death like a basin before a person; he takes from where he has been commanded.