Article Surah 92 · Ayah 3
Explanation of Verse 3 - Surah Al Lail
Explanation of Verse 3 - Surah Al Lail
3) By His creation of male and female!
By Him who created male and female!
The word ma can be understood linguistically as either ‘ma al mawsoolah’ or ‘ma al masdariyyah’. If it is the former then it is a statement of incredulity at how incredible the One who created the male and female is. If the latter then it is incredulity and amazement at how awe inspiring the creation of the male and the female is. Allah (swt) uses the phrase ‘dhakara wal untha’ in this ayah and it refers to the male ad the female and is of greater scope than simply man and woman as it includes in it’s meaning any creation that has a male and female gender. It follows the pattern thus far of this surah whereby much is left open for consideration and reflection. These pairs that are being mentioned have a profound lesson in them. Consider the following verse, ‘We created everything in pairs so perhaps you may remember’ (Adh-Dhariyat 51:49). Everything you can think of was created in a pair and imagine how damaging it must be, for example, if we only had night with no day, or how difficult life would be with a never-ending day, “Say, ‘Have you considered: if Allah should make for you the night continuous until the Day of Resurrection, what deity other than Allah could bring you light? Then will you not hear?” (Al Qasas 28:71). So, one necessitates the other just like a male by itself is incomplete and life cannot continue.
Men are paired with women not just physically but psychologically also as both genders have weaknesses that are compensated for by the opposite pair. For example, men have corrupt tendencies like violence and rage which the women in our lives such as our mothers, wives and sisters, help calm and settle. Thus, the male and female complement each other just like night and day. In the same vein if everything is in pairs then life too must be paired and life can only be complete when it meets its other half, the hereafter, a necessary pair to this worldly life. This is why in verse thirteen Allah (swt) says, ‘And truly belongs to Us the last (life) and the first (life)’.
In the previous surah Allah (swt) mentioned different aspects of the process of creation and used words such as banaaha (made it) when referring to the sky and tahaha (spread it out) when referring to the earth. Here, however, Allah (swt) uses the more comprehensive word of khalaqa which is applicable to all the different types of creation and which sums up what the previous surah was illustrating. In the previous surah Allah (swt) spoke about the sky and its architecture and the earth and its expanse but here in contrast Allah (swt) mentions how remarkable the creation of the male and the female is. There are actually many parallels between the sky and the earth as a contrast and the male and the female as a contrast. As just like the male and the female, two contradictory entities, work together so to do the sky and the earth work together for a greater purpose. The sky works with the day to produce vegetation as the earth could not produce what it does without water coming down from the sky. Thus, the earth gets impregnated with plants just like the female gets impregnated by the male. The seed in the ground will grow until it either benefits humanity through its product and by spreading its seed for future generations or it will simply wither away.