Tafseer of Explained in detail · Fussilat · 41:10
And He placed on the earth firmly set mountains over its surface, and He blessed it and determined therein its [creatures'] sustenance in four days without distinction - for [the information] of those who ask.
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 statement of the Exalted: وَجَعَلَ فِيهَا رَوَاسِيَ مِنْ فَوْقِهَا وَبَارَكَ فِيهَا وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا فِي أَرْبَعَةِ أَيَّامٍ سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ (And He placed therein firm mountains above its surface, and blessed it, and determined therein its means of sustenance, in four days, equally for those who ask) (41:10).
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: and He placed in the earth, which He created in two days, firm mountains — these are the steadfast mountains in the earth — above it, that is to say: above the earth upon its back.
And His word: وَبَارَكَ فِيهَا (and He blessed it) says: and He blessed the earth, so that He made it a lasting source of goodness for its inhabitants.
Concerning al-Suddī, there has been related on this matter what Mūsā related to us, who said: ʿAmr related to us, who said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَبَارَكَ فِيهَا (and He blessed it), he said: He caused its trees to sprout forth. وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا (and He determined therein its means of sustenance)
The scholars of interpretation (taʾwīl) differed concerning this. Some said: He determined therein the food of its inhabitants, in the sense of their sustenance and their means of subsistence.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, who said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: its sustenance.
Mūsā related to me, who said: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said concerning the statement of Allah: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: He determined therein the sustenance of the servants; these are the means of sustenance.
Mūsā related to us, who said: ʿAmr related to us, who said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he says: its means of sustenance for its inhabitants.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: and He determined therein what keeps it in good order.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, who said: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, on the authority of Khulayd ibn Daʿlaj, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: its welfare.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: and He determined therein its mountains, its rivers, and its trees.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, who said: Yazīd related to us, who said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا : He created therein its mountains, its rivers, its seas, and its trees, and all the animals that inhabit it.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, who said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: its mountains, its animals, its rivers, and its seas.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: and He determined therein its means of sustenance by means of the rain.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, who said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, who said: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, who said: al-Ḥasan related to us, who said: Warqāʾ related to us — both of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: by means of the rain.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: and He determined in each region of it something which He did not place in another region, as sustenance, so that they may live off one another through trade from one region to another.
* Mention of who said that:
al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Dhāriʿ related to me, who said: Abū Miḥṣan related to us, who said: Ḥusayn related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: the Yemeni goods in Yemen, and the Sābūrī goods in Sābūr.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bazīʿ related to me, who said: Abū Miḥṣan related to us, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn, who said: ʿIkrima said: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا : the Yemeni goods in Yemen, and the Sābūrī goods in Sābūr, and the like of that.
Abū Kurayb related to us, who said: Ibn Idrīs related to us, who said: I heard Ḥuṣayn on the authority of ʿIkrima concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: in every land there is a product that does not thrive in another land; the Yemeni goods in Yemen, and the Sābūrī goods in Sābūr.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, who said: Hushaym related to us, who said: Ḥuṣayn informed us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: the land in which there is a certain product or a certain thing that another land does not have. Do you not see that the Sābūrī cloth occurs only in Sābūr, and that the ʿaṣb cloth occurs only in Yemen, and the like?
Ismāʿīl ibn Sayf related to me, who said: Ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād related to us, on the authority of Khuṣayf, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: the Sābūrī cloth in Sābūr, and the ṭayālisa cloaks from Rayy.
Ismāʿīl related to me, who said: Abū al-Naḍr, the companion of al-Baṣrī, related to us, who said: Abū ʿAwāna related to us, on the authority of Muṭarrif, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: the Sābūrī cloth in Sābūr, and the ṭayālisa cloaks from Rayy.
Concerning His word: وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , he said: the Sābūrī cloth from Sābūr, the ṭayālisa cloaks from Rayy, and the dyed cloths (al-ḥibar) from Yemen.
The correct view on this is to say: that Allah, the Exalted, informed that He determined in the earth the food of its inhabitants, and that is what nourishes them in the way of nourishment and what keeps their subsistence in good order. The Exalted, whose praise is great, did not, by His word وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا , specify that He determined therein one particular food and not another; rather, the report concerning His determination therein encompasses all means of sustenance. And among that which nourishes its inhabitants is that for which nothing else of nourishment can take its place, and that comes about only through the rain and through trade between the lands on account of that with which He has favored some regions over others, and through what is extracted from the mountains in the way of precious stones, and from the sea in the way of food and ornaments. There is no statement on this more correct than what the Exalted, whose praise is great, said: He determined in the earth the food of its inhabitants — for the reason which we have described.
And the Exalted, whose praise is great, said: فِي أَرْبَعَةِ أَيَّامٍ (in four days), on account of what we mentioned earlier from the report which we related on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that He completed the creation of the earth and all its causes and benefits — of the trees, the water, the cities, the cultivation, and the wasteland — in four days, the first of which was Sunday and the last of which was Wednesday.
Mūsā related to me, who said: ʿAmr related to us, who said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, who said: He created therein the mountains, the food of its inhabitants, its trees, and what befits it, in two days: on Tuesday and Wednesday.
And some grammarians of Basra said: He said: He created the earth in two days, and then said "in four days," because He means that this, together with the first, makes four days, just as you say: "Yesterday I married one woman, and today two" — while one of the two is the one whom you married yesterday.
And His word: سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ (equally for those who ask). The scholars of interpretation differed over its meaning. Some said: the meaning is: equally for whoever asks about the duration of the term in which Allah created the earth, placed the firm mountains upon it above it and the blessing, and determined therein the means of sustenance for its inhabitants — he will find it just as Allah informed: four days, neither more nor less.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, who said: Yazīd related to us, who said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ : whoever asks about that will find it just as Allah has said.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, who said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ , he said: whoever asks, it is just as Allah has said.
Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, who said: ʿAmr related to us, who said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: فِي أَرْبَعَةِ أَيَّامٍ سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ , he says: whoever asks, so is the matter.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: equally for whoever asks his Lord for something he is in need of, such as sustenance, for Allah has already determined for him of the means of sustenance in the earth, according to the measure of the request of everyone who asks — if he were to ask Him — in accordance with what of His knowledge concerning them had already been established before He created them.
* Mention of who said that:
Yūnus related to me, who said: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ , he said: He determined that according to the measure of their asking; He knows that there is nothing of their asking but that it is something He already knew before it existed. And the reciters differed in the recitation of this. The majority of the reciters of the cities — except for Abū Jaʿfar and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī — read it: سَوَاءً with the naṣb (accusative ending). Abū Jaʿfar the reciter read it: "سَوَاءٌ" with the rafʿ (nominative). And al-Ḥasan read: "سَوَاءٍ" with the jarr (genitive).
The correct view in the recitation of this is that which the reciters of the cities adhere to, namely its recitation with the naṣb, on account of the agreement of the authoritative proof among the reciters concerning it, and on account of the soundness of its meaning. That is because the meaning of the sentence is: He determined therein its means of sustenance, equally for those who ask of it, according to what they need of it and according to what keeps them in good order.
And it is related concerning Ibn Masʿūd that he read this: "وَقَسَّمَ فِيهَا أقْوَاتَهَا" (and He apportioned therein its means of sustenance).
The Arabic linguists differed over the mode of the naṣb in "سَوَاءً". Some grammarians of Basra said: whoever places it in the naṣb regards it as a maṣdar (verbal noun), as though He said: "equalization" (istiwāʾ). He said: and it has also been read with the jarr, whereby one regards it as a noun describing the things made equal, that is to say: in four complete days. And some grammarians of Kufa said: whoever places "سَوَاء" in the jarr regards it as a qualifier (naʿt) of "the days" — and if you wish: of "the four" — and whoever places it in the naṣb connects it with "the means of sustenance." He said: and it may also stand in the rafʿ, as though it were a new beginning (ibtidāʾ), as though He said: "that is سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ ," that is to say: for whoever desires the knowledge of it.
And the correct view on this is that the naṣb, when it stands in the naṣb, is a ḥāl (circumstantial qualifier) of the means of sustenance, since "سَوَاء" has come to be assimilated to the indefinite nouns, so that one says: "I passed by a group of people made equal," whereby it follows the indefinite words; and when it follows the indefinite words, it becomes detached from the definite words and comes to stand in the naṣb, so that one says: "I passed by your brothers, equally." And it is possible that, when no dual or plural is applied to it, it is assimilated to the maṣdars. As for when it stands in the rafʿ: then it stands in the rafʿ as a new beginning with the pronoun "that" and the like; and when it stands in the jarr, then that is as a follower (tabaʿ) of "the days" or of "the four."
