وَ مَنْ And (he) whom نُّعَمِّرْهُ We grant him long life نُنَكِّسْهُ We reverse him فِی in الْخَلْقِ ؕ the creation اَفَلَا Then will not یَعْقِلُوْنَ they use intellect وَ مَا And not عَلَّمْنٰهُ We taught him الشِّعْرَ [the] poetry وَ مَا and not یَنْۢبَغِیْ it is befitting لَهٗ ؕ for him اِنْ Not هُوَ it اِلَّا (is) except ذِكْرٌ a Reminder وَّ قُرْاٰنٌ and a Quran مُّبِیْنٌۙ clear لِّیُنْذِرَ To warn مَنْ (him) who كَانَ is حَیًّا alive وَّ یَحِقَّ and may be proved true الْقَوْلُ the Word عَلَی against الْكٰفِرِیْنَ the disbelievers 36. Ya-Sin Page 445 اَوَ لَمْ Do not یَرَوْا they see اَنَّا that We خَلَقْنَا [We] created لَهُمْ for them مِّمَّا from what عَمِلَتْ have made اَیْدِیْنَاۤ Our hands اَنْعَامًا cattle فَهُمْ then they لَهَا [for them] مٰلِكُوْنَ (are the) owners وَ ذَلَّلْنٰهَا And We have tamed them لَهُمْ for them فَمِنْهَا so some of them رَكُوْبُهُمْ they ride them وَ مِنْهَا and some of them یَاْكُلُوْنَ they eat وَ لَهُمْ And for them فِیْهَا therein مَنَافِعُ (are) benefits وَ مَشَارِبُ ؕ and drinks اَفَلَا so (will) not یَشْكُرُوْنَ they give thanks وَ اتَّخَذُوْا But they have taken مِنْ besides دُوْنِ besides اللّٰهِ Allah اٰلِهَةً gods لَّعَلَّهُمْ that they may یُنْصَرُوْنَؕ be helped لَا Not یَسْتَطِیْعُوْنَ they are able نَصْرَهُمْ ۙ to help them وَ هُمْ but they لَهُمْ for them جُنْدٌ (are) host(s) مُّحْضَرُوْنَ (who will) be brought فَلَا So (let) not یَحْزُنْكَ grieve you قَوْلُهُمْ ۘ their speech اِنَّا Indeed We نَعْلَمُ [We] know مَا what یُسِرُّوْنَ they conceal وَ مَا and what یُعْلِنُوْنَ they declare اَوَ لَمْ Does not یَرَ see الْاِنْسَانُ [the] man اَنَّا that We خَلَقْنٰهُ [We] created him مِنْ from نُّطْفَةٍ a sperm-drop فَاِذَا Then behold! هُوَ He خَصِیْمٌ (is) an opponent مُّبِیْنٌ clear وَ ضَرَبَ And he sets forth لَنَا for Us مَثَلًا an example وَّ نَسِیَ and forgets خَلْقَهٗ ؕ his (own) creation قَالَ He says مَنْ Who یُّحْیِ will give life الْعِظَامَ (to) the bones وَ هِیَ while they رَمِیْمٌ (are) decomposed قُلْ Say یُحْیِیْهَا He will give them life الَّذِیْۤ Who اَنْشَاَهَاۤ produced them اَوَّلَ (the) first مَرَّةٍ ؕ time وَ هُوَ and He بِكُلِّ (is) of every خَلْقٍ creation عَلِیْمُۙ All-Knower لَّذِیْ The One Who جَعَلَ made لَكُمْ for you مِّنَ from الشَّجَرِ the tree الْاَخْضَرِ [the] green نَارًا fire فَاِذَاۤ and behold! اَنْتُمْ You مِّنْهُ from it تُوْقِدُوْنَ ignite اَوَ لَیْسَ Is it not الَّذِیْ (He) Who خَلَقَ created السَّمٰوٰتِ the heavens وَ الْاَرْضَ and the earth بِقٰدِرٍ Able عَلٰۤی to اَنْ [that] یَّخْلُقَ create مِثْلَهُمْ ؔؕ (the) like of them بَلٰی ۗ Yes indeed! وَ هُوَ and He الْخَلّٰقُ (is) the Supreme Creator الْعَلِیْمُ the All-Knower اِنَّمَاۤ Only اَمْرُهٗۤ His Command اِذَاۤ when اَرَادَ He intends شَیْـًٔا a thing اَنْ that یَّقُوْلَ He says لَهٗ to it كُنْ Be فَیَكُوْنُ and it is فَسُبْحٰنَ So glorified be الَّذِیْ (He) Who بِیَدِهٖ in Whose hand مَلَكُوْتُ is (the) dominion كُلِّ (of) all شَیْءٍ things وَّ اِلَیْهِ and to Him تُرْجَعُوْنَ۠ you will be returned
(36:68) Whomsoever We grant a long life, We reverse him in his constitution.57 Do they still not understand?
(36:69) We did not teach him (to wit, the Messenger) poetry and it does not behove him.58 This is none but an Admonition, and a Clear Book
(36:70) that he may warn him who is alive59 and establish an argument against those that deny the Truth.
(36:71) Do they not see Our handiwork:60 We created for them cattle which they own?
(36:72) We have subjected the cattle to them so that some of them they ride and eat the flesh of others.
(36:73) They derive a variety of benefits and drinks from them. Will they, then, not give thanks?61
(36:74) They set up deities apart from Allah, hoping that they will receive help from them.
(36:75) Those deities can render them no help. Yet these devotees act as though they were an army in waiting for them.62
(36:76) Let not their words grieve you. Surely We know all things about them, what they conceal and what they reveal.63
(36:77) Does64 man not see that We created him of a sperm drop, and lo! he is flagrantly contentious?65
(36:78) He strikes for Us66 a similitude and forgot his own creation.67 He says: “Who will quicken the bones when they have decayed?”
(36:79) Say: “He Who first brought them into being will quicken them; He knows well about every kind of creation;
(36:80) He Who created from a green tree a fire for you, a fire to light your stoves with.”68
(36:81) Has He Who created the heavens and the earth no power to create the likes of them? Yes, indeed, He is the Superb Creator.
(36:82) Whenever He wills a thing, He just commands it “Be” and it is.
(36:83) Holy is He Who has full control over everything, and to Him you shall all be recalled.
57. What is emphasized here is that in old age one is reverted to the state of one’s infancy. The elderly suffers from the same weaknesses, infirmities and dependencies that marked their infant lives. Others help them to rise and put them to bed and feed them. They even lose control over themselves in such ordinary matters as answering the call of nature.
Furthermore, they engage in foolish prattle causing people to burst into.
laughter. In short, in old age they revert to the same stage of weakness through which they had passed in their infancy.
58. This constitutes the Qur’anic rejoinder to the unbelievers’ dismissal of the Prophet's statements about monotheism, the Hereafter, Life-after-Death, Paradise and Hell, as sheer poetry. For them, these statements were as worthless as flights of fancy which one notes in poetry.
(For further details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, Surah al-Shu‘ara’ 26: nn. 142-145, Vol. VII, pp. 126-129.)
59. He “who is alive” refers to him who thinks and understands, unlike a piece of stone. Such people who are devoid of understanding and feeling, are truly pieces of stone. No matter how reasonably a distinction is made between truth and falsehood before them, and no matter how sincerely a person tenders sincere advice to them, they are unmoved.
For they neither hear, nor understand. Nor do they budge an inch from their position.
60. The word handiwork has been used here with regard to God in a figurative sense. This usage does not necessarily mean that God has a body and that, like human beings, He works with His hands. Recourse has been made to this word to emphasize that God Himself created all these things; that no one had any part in God’s act of creation.
61. Ingratitude consists in crediting someone other than the True ‘Benefactor as the source of the bounty that one has received, or giving thanks for it to anyone other than Him, or expecting or seeking it from anyone other than Him. In like manner, using God’s bounty in ways that do not please Him also amounts to ingratitude. Therefore, a polytheist, unbeliever, hypocrite or transgressor cannot be regarded as God’s grateful servant merely because he verbally thanks God. The Makkan unbelievers did not deny that God had created their cattle. They also did not contend that any of their idols had a role in creating them. Yet they thanked their gods for the bounties conferred upon them by God, offering them sacrifices and invoking them for the bestowal of further bounties. This, therefore, made their verbal expression of gratitude to God meaningless. They were, therefore, branded as thankless.
62. That is, those idols were dependent on their devotees for their existence, security and other needs. If not for the hordes of these devotees, they could not have survived for a day. These devotees served them as though they were an army in waiting for them who set up and decorated their shrines. They carried out propaganda campaigns to exalt them and to turn people into their zealous supporters. They went about quarrelling and fighting on their behalf. It is thanks to a combination of these factors that the Godhead of these deities flourished. Had these factors not been there none would even care to utter their names. They are altogether unlike the One True God Whose sovereign control over the universe is not contingent on people’s acknowledgement of Him as their Lord.
63. This is addressed to the Prophet (peace be on him). It has been said that “We know all things about them, what they conceal and what they reveal”. This alludes to the storm of false propaganda and the campaign of slander and calumny against the Prophet (peace be on him) mounted by the Quraysh chiefs. They admitted in their private councils that their charges against the Prophet (peace be on him) were baseless. Yet they dubbed him as a madman, a poet, a soothsayer and a magician in order to prejudice people’s minds against him. All the while, however, they knew in their heart of hearts that they had fabricated false charges in order to discredit him. God, therefore, asks the Prophet (peace be on him) not to lose heart on account of their slanderous campaign. Those who oppose the truth and cling to falsehood will be disgraced both in this life and in the Next.
64. This represents the Qur’anic response to the query posed by the unbelievers mentioned in verse 48 above. The unbelievers often asked: when will the Last Day come? Their true purpose in asking this question was not to find out the actual date of the Last Day’s arrival. — Rather, their intent was to depict the occurrence of Resurrection as not only impossible but also evidently irrational. Hence, arguments are put forward in response to the unbelievers’ query to confirm that the Hereafter is certainly possible. _ .
The traditions narrated by ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas, Qatadah and Sa‘id ibn Jubayr inform us that a Makkan chief once brought the bone of a _dead man from a graveyard. He broke that bone into pieces and then scattered them into the air before the Prophet (peace be on him) and asked: “O Muhammad, you say that the dead will be raised to life after death. Now, who will bring this disintegrated bone back to life?” The verse in question was instantly revealed in response to this query. (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, comments on verse 77).
65. A drop of semen, which simply contained the basic germ of life, was of little significance as such. It is, however, God Who made it grow and then endowed it with life. Thanks to God’s will it began to move about and derive nourishment, and was also granted myriad faculties - of consciousness and reason, of understanding and argumentation, of speech and effective articulation — faculties which had not been conferred on any other living species. All this carried man to such heights of vanity as to make him bold enough to argue even with God.
66. The unbelievers mistakenly consider God to be helpless, somewhat like the creatures which He created. As man himself cannot resurrect the dead, he suffers from the illusion that God too does not have the power to do so.
67. The unbelievers forget that God caused their birth out of a lifeless drop of semen and then let them grow into a speaking, thinking creature.
Disregarding all this, man indulges in specious argumentation before God.
68. This either means that God has granted such characteristics to green trees that man is able to use them as fuel. Or else it is an allusion to the two well-known trees called markh and ufar (trees whose wood easily ignites). Arabs used to strike the green branches of these trees against one another and this produced sparks. In olden times, Arab Bedouins employed this means to kindle fire, and maybe they continue to do so even today.