His saying - glorified and exalted is He -: "And We have certainly established you in the earth and made for you therein livelihoods; little do you give thanks." "And We have created you, then fashioned you, then We said to the angels, 'Prostrate to Adam,' and they prostrated except for Iblis; he was not of the prostrators."

The address is to all people; and the intended meaning is that the species as a whole is established in the earth; and "livelihoods" is the plural of "livelihood"; it is a term that encompasses the food by which one lives; and the means that lead to it. The majority read: "livelihoods" with a broken 'ya'; without a hamzah; while Al-A'raj and others read: "livelihoods" with a hamzah; like "cities" and "ships"; and it was narrated by Khārijah from Nafi'; and it was reported from Warsh: "livelihoods" with a silent 'ya'; so whoever reads: "livelihoods" with the correct 'ya' is more accurate; because it is the plural of "livelihood"; its form is "maf'ilah"; and it is possible that it could be "maf'ulah" with a dammah on the 'ain'; this was said by Sibawayh; and Al-Farra' said: "maf'alih" with a fathah on the 'ain'; so the 'ya' in "livelihood" is original; and "livelihood" was weakened due to its agreement with the verb; which is "he lives"; in the 'ya'; that is, in the moving and the still; and "livelihoods" was corrected in the plural of broken plural; due to the removal of the mentioned agreement in the wording; and because broken plural - in meaning - does not occur in the verb; rather it is specific to nouns; and whoever read "livelihoods" did so as a lightening of "livelihoods"; and whoever read "livelihoods" weakened it; that is an error; and as for its justification, it is based on likening the original to the added; because "livelihood" resembles in wording "sheet"; just as it is said: "sheets"; it was said: "livelihoods"; and the 'ya' of "sheets" and its like was hamzah; since the 'ya' in it is added; because it has no origin in the movement; and its weight is "fa'ilah"; still; so when it was necessary to move it in the plural; it was replaced with something stronger than it.

And "little" was made accusative by "you give thanks"; and it is possible that "ma" is extra; and it is possible that it is with the verb by interpreting the source; and "little" is an adjective for a deleted source; its estimation is: "thank you little for your thanks"; or "thank you little for you give thanks."

And His saying, the Exalted: "And We have created you, then fashioned you"; this verse means to draw attention to the place of reflection and amazement; from the strangeness of the creation; and the granting of the blessing; so He began with creation; which is existence after non-existence; then with the fashioning in this specific structure for humanity; otherwise, the created being has never been defined by a form.

The confusion of people regarding the arrangement of this verse is due to its apparent implication that the creation and formation of the children of Adam occurred before the command to the angels to prostrate. The Shari'ah has confirmed that the matter was not as such. A group said that what is meant by His saying, "And certainly We created you, then We fashioned you," is Adam - blessings and peace be upon him - himself, even if the address is to his children. This is because he - blessings and peace be upon him - was the cause of the existence of his children, so it is correct - with some allowance - to say, "Indeed, it was done in his children." Mujahid said: The meaning is, "And certainly We created you, then We fashioned you in the loins of Adam - blessings and peace be upon him - at the time of extracting the descendants of Adam - blessings and peace be upon him - from his back, like particles, in the form of humans."

Qadi Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: It follows from these two sayings that "then" is in its proper place in the arrangement and timing.

Ikrimah and Al-A'mash said: What is meant is, "We created you in the backs of the fathers, and We fashioned you in the wombs of the mothers." Ibn Abbas and Al-Rabi' ibn Anas said: As for "We created you," it refers to Adam - blessings and peace be upon him - and as for "We fashioned you," it refers to his descendants in the wombs of the mothers. This was also said by Qatadah and Al-Dahhak. Mu'mar ibn Rashid - from some of the scholars - said: Rather, all of that is in the wombs of the mothers, in creation and formation.

Qadi Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: This group stated that "then" is for the arrangement of the reports with these sentences, not for the arrangement of the sentences themselves. Al-Akhfash said: "Then" in this verse means "and"; and the grammarians of Basrah refuted him.

"Angels": Its form is either "Mafa'ilah" or "Ma'afilah" according to the derivation that has been mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah. There we mentioned the form of prostration and what is meant by it, and the meaning of "Iblis" and how he was before the disobedience. As for His saying - the Exalted - in this verse: "Except Iblis," Al-Zajjaj said: It is an exception that is not from the first; but Iblis was commanded to prostrate, as indicated by His saying - the Exalted - "What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?" [Al-A'raf: 12]. Others than Al-Zajjaj said: The exception is from the first, because if we made it disconnected - according to the saying of those who said that Iblis was not one of the angels - it would necessitate that Iblis was not commanded to prostrate, unless someone who holds this view says that Iblis's command was in a different manner than His saying - the Exalted - "Prostrate"; and that is a clear indication of weakness.

Abu Ja'far ibn Al-Qaqa' read: "To the angels, prostrate" with the 'ha' being pronounced with a vowel; and this reading is weak. Its reasoning is that he omitted the hamzah of "prostrate" and transferred its vowel to the 'ha'; and this is not acceptable, because it is a hamzah that has been omitted along with the vowel on the 'ha'; anything that is omitted is to be disregarded, and omission only occurs in connection.