Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 79 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:79

قُلْ يُحْيِيهَا ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنشَأَهَآ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ خَلْقٍ عَلِيمٌ

“Say, "He will give them life who produced them the first time; and He is, of all creation, Knowing."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The sceptic asked who could revive the bones; the reply fills his blank with the One who made them first and knows every part.

A reflection

The first time was the hard part

Human beings judge difficulty by their own limits. What would be hard for me must be hard for anyone. So when the sceptic held up a crumbled bone, he assumed that rebuilding it was the hardest possible task. For a human, it is.

The reply turns his measuring stick round. Say: He will give them life who produced them the first time. One commentator draws the conclusion plainly. Without doubt, giving life afterwards is easier than producing something before. Whoever could originate it is all the more able to revive it. And there is no possibility of His power weakening, because it is His by His very nature, without beginning, and does not change.

The Quran says it outright elsewhere: He is the One who begins creation, then repeats it, and that is easier for Him (30:27).

The concise commentary puts it simply. He who created them the first time is not unable to return life to them. A classical writer adds that every reasonable person knows this by instinct. If He were unable to do the second, He would have been even more unable to do the first.

That is a quiet blow to human pride. People assume that the things they cannot imagine must be impossible. They make their own capacity the measure of reality. The ayah reminds them that they did not author even their own first appearance. Nobody consulted them. Nobody needed their help. The difficulty they see in the second creation is a reflection of their limits, not His.

The majesty here is not loud. It is the calm of One for whom the beginning was not difficult, and the return will not be either.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.