Surah Waqiah Ayat 59 (56:59 Quran) With Tafsir

Ala-Maududi

(56:59) Do you create a child out of it, or are We its creators?^[24]

24. In this brief sentence a very important question has been put before man. Apart from all other things in the world, if man only considers as to how he himself has come into being, he can then neither have any doubts left about the doctrine of Tauhid presented by the Quran nor about its doctrine of the Hereafter. The process of man’s own creation starts when the male has conveyed his sperm to the womb of the female. But the question is: Has the sperm by itself become endowed with the capability of producing a child, and necessarily a human child? Or, has it been created by man himself, or by someone other than God? And, is it in the power of the man, or of the woman, or of another agency in the world, to cause conception by this sperm? Then, who is responsible for the gradual formation and development of the fetus in the mother’s womb, its shaping and molding into a unique child, the provision in a particular proportion of different mental and physical powers and qualities in each child so that it develops into a unique person, except One God? Does someone, other than God, have any role to play in this? Is it done by the parents themselves? Or, by a doctor? Or, by the prophets or saints, who were themselves created in this very way? Or, by the sun and the moon and the stars, which are themselves subject to a law? Or, by nature, which is devoid of any knowledge, wisdom, will and authority? Then, is it also in the power of someone other than God to decide whether the child is to be a boy or a girl? Whether it is to be beautiful or ugly, strong or weak, blind and deaf and a cripple or sound bodied, intelligent or stupid? Then, is it someone other than God who decides as to people of what caliber, good or bad, are to be created in a particular nation at a particular time, who would cause its rise or fall? If a person is not obdurate and stubborn, he will realize that no rational answer can be given to these questions on the basis of polytheism and atheism. Their rational answer is only one and it is this. Man is wholly and entirely the creation of God; and when the truth is this, what right has this man, the creation of God, to claim freedom and independence as against his Creator, or serve someone else beside Him.

As it is for Tauhid, so it is with regard to the Hereafter too. Man is created from a germ which cannot be seen without a powerful microscope. This germ combines in the darkness of the mother’s body with the ovum (female germ) which is like itself an insignificant microscopic germ. Then by their combination a tiny living cell comes into being, which is the starting-point of human life. This cell also is too small to be seen without a microscope. Allah develops this insignificant cell in the mother’s womb for nine months or so into a living human, and when its development and formation becomes complete, the mother’s body itself pushes it out to be raised in the world. All human beings have been born into the world in this very way and are witnessing day and night this phenomenon of the birth of human beings like themselves. After this, only a foolish person could assert that the God Who is creating human beings in this way today would not be able to create the human beings created by Himself in some other way tomorrow.

Ibn-Kathir

The tafsir of Surah Waqiah verse 59 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Waqiah ayat 57 which provides the complete commentary from verse 57 through 62.