Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:27
You cause the night to enter the day, and You cause the day to enter the night; and You bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living. And You give provision to whom You will without account."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Explanation of the words of Allah: تُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ ("You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, exalted is His praise, "You make pass" (tūliju) He means: You make enter. Concerning this one says: "So-and-so entered his dwelling (walaja)," when he entered it, "and he enters (yaliju), wuljan and wulūjan and lijatan." And "I brought something in (awlajtuhu)," when I made it go inside.
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And by His words "You make the night pass into the day" He means: You make what You have diminished of the hours of the night enter into the hours of the day, so that You add by the diminution of the one to the increase of the other. "And You make the day pass into the night," and You make what You have diminished of the hours of the day enter into the hours of the night, so that You add to the hours of the night what You have diminished of the hours of the day, as:
6795 - Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," until the night becomes fifteen hours and the day nine hours, and You make the day pass into the night until the day becomes fifteen hours and the night nine hours.
6796 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn Abān, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: What is diminished of the day, He places in the night, and what is diminished of the night, He places in the day.
6797 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words of Allah: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," he said: What is diminished of one of the two in favor of the other, they alternate one another — or: they follow one another, Abū ʿĀṣim being uncertain — that being of the hours.
6798 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," what is diminished of one of the two in favor of the other, they follow one another therein, that being of the hours.
6799 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His words: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," the diminution of the night in favor of the increase of the day, and the diminution of the day in favor of the increase of the night.
6800 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," he said: It is the diminution of the one in favor of the other.
6801 - It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," he said: The night takes from the day, and the day takes from the night. He says: the diminution of the night in favor of the increase of the day, and the diminution of the day in favor of the increase of the night.
6802 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," he means that the one takes from the other, so that the night is sometimes longer than the day and the day is sometimes longer than the night.
6803 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words: "You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night," he said: This is long and that is short; He took from this and made it pass into that, until this became long and that short.
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Explanation of the words of Allah: وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ("And You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The scholars of interpretation differed concerning its interpretation.
Some of them said: "Its interpretation is: that He brings forth the living thing from the dead sperm-drop, and brings forth the dead sperm-drop from the living thing."
Mention of who said that:
6804 - Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: It is the sperm-drop that comes out of the man while it is dead and he is living, and from her comes forth the man living while she is dead.
6805 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words of Allah, mighty and exalted: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: The living people from the sperm-drops, while the sperm-drops are dead, and He brings them forth from the living people and the livestock.
6806 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
6807 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of Salama ibn Nubayṭ, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," and he mentioned something similar.
6808 - Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," the sperm-drop is dead and comes forth from a living person, and a living person comes forth from a dead sperm-drop.
6809 - Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAṭāʾ al-Muqaddamī related to me, saying: Ashʿath al-Sijistānī related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: He brings forth the sperm-drop from the man, and the man from the sperm-drop.
6810 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: He brings forth the living from this dead sperm-drop, and He brings forth this dead sperm-drop from the living.
6811 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," the rest of the verse, he said: The living people from the sperm-drops, while the sperm-drops are dead, from the living people, and from the livestock and the crops likewise. Ibn Jurayj said: And I heard Yazīd ibn ʿUwaymir report, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: It is His bringing forth the sperm-drop from the human, and His bringing forth the human from the sperm-drop.
6812 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: The sperm-drop is dead, and from it He brings forth living beings. "And You bring forth the dead from the living," He brings forth the sperm-drop from these living beings, and the seed is dead, from it He brings forth something living. "And You bring forth the dead from the living," He brings forth from this living being a dead seed.
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Others said: Its meaning is: "that He brings forth the date-palm from the date-stone, and the date-stone from the date-palm, and the ear of grain from the grain, and the grain from the ear, and the egg from the hen, and the hen from the egg."
Mention of who said that:
6813 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Abū Tumayla related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead," he said: It is the egg that comes forth from the living while it is dead, and from it then comes forth the living.
6814 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn Abān, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: The date-palm from the date-stone and the date-stone from the date-palm, and the grain-kernel from the ear and the ear from the grain-kernel.
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Others said: "Its meaning is: that He brings forth the believer from the unbeliever, and the unbeliever (kāfir) from the believer."
Mention of who said that:
6815 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he means the believer from the unbeliever and the unbeliever from the believer, and the believer is a servant with a living heart, and the unbeliever is a servant with a dead heart.
6816 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, saying: Al-Ḥasan said concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: He brings forth the believer from the unbeliever, and He brings forth the unbeliever from the believer.
6819 - ʿImrān ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wārith related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, who recited: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: You bring forth the believer from the unbeliever, and You bring forth the unbeliever from the believer.
6820 - Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to me, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Sulaymān al-Taymī related to us, on the authority of Abū ʿUthmān, on the authority of Salmān, or on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd — and my strongest supposition is that it is on the authority of Salmān — who said: Indeed Allah, mighty and exalted, left the clay of Adam to ferment for forty nights — or he said: forty days — and then He moved His hand in it, whereupon all the good came forth in His right hand and all the evil came forth in His other hand. Then He mingled the two, and then He created from that Adam. From that moment He brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, brings forth the believer from the unbeliever, and brings forth the unbeliever from the believer.
6821 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Zuhrī: that the Prophet ﷺ entered upon one of his wives, and there was a woman of prosperous appearance. He said: Who is this? She said: One of your maternal aunts! He said: Indeed, my maternal aunts in this place are strangers! And which of my aunts is this? She said: Khālida bint al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth. He said: Glory be to Him who brings forth the living from the dead! She was a righteous woman, and her father was an unbeliever.
6822 - Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me, saying: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, saying: ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His words: "You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living," he said: Do you know that the unbeliever begets a believer and that the believer begets an unbeliever? Then he said: It is so.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of the interpretations that we have mentioned concerning this verse is the interpretation of him who said: "He brings forth the living human and the living livestock and the living animals from the dead sperm-drops — and that is the bringing forth of the living from the dead — and He brings forth the dead sperm-drop from the living human and the living livestock and the living animals — and that is the bringing forth of the dead from the living."
And that is because of every living being from which something of its body separates, that which has separated from it is dead. The sperm-drop is dead by reason of its separation from the body of him from whom it has come forth, and then Allah causes from it a living human and living animals and livestock to come into being. Likewise it holds for every living thing from which something separates, that what has separated from it is dead. That is like His words: كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَكُنْتُمْ أَمْوَاتًا فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ("How can you disbelieve in Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life, then to Him you are returned?") [Surah Al-Baqarah: 28].
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As for the interpretation of him who interpreted it in the sense of the grain-kernel from the ear and the ear from the grain-kernel, and the egg from the hen and the hen from the egg, and the believer from the unbeliever and the unbeliever from the believer — although that has an intelligible import, yet that is not the most prevalent and clear in the usage of the people in their speech. And directing the meanings of the Book of Allah, mighty and exalted, toward the clear which is in use among the people is preferable to directing them toward the hidden which is little in use.
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The reciters differed in its recitation.
A group among them recited it: ( تُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ) with doubling and intensification of the "yāʾ" in "al-mayyit," in the sense that He brings forth the living thing from the thing that has already died and from what has not yet died.
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Another group among them recited it: ( تُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ) with lightening of the "yāʾ" in "al-mayt," in the sense that He brings forth the living thing from the thing that has already died, not from the thing that has not yet died, and He brings forth the dead thing — not the thing that has not yet died — from the living thing.
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That is because "al-mayyit" with intensification of the "yāʾ" among the Arabs means: what has not yet died but will die, and what has already died. As for "al-mayt" with lightening, that is what has already died. When they intend the adjectival sense, they say: "Indeed you will die tomorrow (māʾitun), and indeed they will die (māʾitūn)." Likewise it holds for everything that has not yet come to be, that its noun comes forth on this pattern. One says: "He is the one who will give his soul (al-jāʾid bi-nafsih) and she whose soul will be content with that (al-ṭāʾiba nafsuhu bi-dhālik)." When the meaning of the noun is intended, it is said: "He is the generous with his soul (al-jawād bi-nafsih) and she whose soul is good (al-ṭayyiba nafsuhu)."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: If that is so, then the correct of the two recitations in this verse is the recitation of him who intensifies the "yāʾ" in "al-mayyit." For Allah, exalted is His praise, brings forth the living from the sperm-drop that has already left the man and so has become dead, and He will bring it forth from it after she has left him while she is still in the loins of the man. "And He brings forth the dead from the living": the sperm-drop that becomes dead by its coming forth from the living man, while she was, before her coming forth from him, living. The intensification is thus more powerful in praise and more complete in honor.
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Explanation of the words of Allah: وَتَرْزُقُ مَنْ تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ ("And You provide for whom You will without reckoning.") (3:27)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by it: that He gives to whom He wills of His creatures and so is bountiful to him, without reckoning on His part with whom He has given, because He does not fear that diminution should occur in His treasuries, nor that what is in His hand should perish, as:
6823 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words: "And You provide for whom You will without reckoning," he said: He brings forth the provision from with Himself without reckoning, He does not fear that what is with Him, blessed and exalted is He, should diminish.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The interpretation of the verse is thus: O Allah, O Possessor of the kingdom, You give the kingdom to whom You will and You take away the kingdom from whom You will, and You give honor to whom You will and You humble whom You will, in Your hand is the good, indeed You have power over all things — and not to him whom the apostates claimed to be a god and lord for them and whom they worshipped besides You, or whom they took as a partner besides You, or that he should be a child to You. And in Your hand is the power by which You perform these things and by which You have power over all things: You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night, and so You diminish from this and add to that, and diminish from this and add to that, and You bring forth from the dead something living and from the living something dead, and You provide for whom You will of Your creatures without reckoning. No one besides You has power over that, and no one other than You is able to do it, as:
6824 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to me, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: تُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ("You make the night pass into the day and You make the day pass into the night, and You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living"), that is to say: with that power — He means: with the power by which You give the kingdom to whom You will and take it away from whom You will. "And You provide for whom You will without reckoning," no one other than You has power over that, and no one other than You performs it. That is to say: if I have given ʿĪsā power over the things by which they claim that he is a god — such as bringing the dead to life, healing the sick, creating the bird from clay, and informing of the unseen — in order to make him a sign for the people and a confirmation of him in his prophethood with which I sent him to his people — then there belongs to My dominion and power that which I have not given him: the making of kings out of rulers, and the affair of prophethood and the placing of it where I will, and the making of the night pass into the day and the day into the night, and the bringing forth of the living from the dead and the dead from the living, and the providing for whom I will, pious or wicked, without reckoning. All of this I have not given ʿĪsā power over, nor have I given him possession of it. So there was for them in that no lesson and clear proof: that if he were a god, all of this would belong to him, whereas, by their own knowledge, he flees from the kings and moves about from them in the lands, from land to land!
