Tafseer of The Morning Star · At-Taariq · 86:8
Indeed, Allah, to return him [to life], is Able.
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.
His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ (Verily, He is able to bring him back). The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: verily, He who created you, O people, from this gushing water and made you into a well-formed human being, after you were spilled-out water, He is able to bring him back.
The people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have differed concerning the letter hāʾ in His saying: عَلَى رَجْعِهِ (to bring him back), to what it refers. Some of them said: it refers back to the water. They said: the meaning of the saying is: verily, Allah is able (لَقَادِرٌ) to return the drop of semen to the place from which it came out.
* Mention of those who said that:
Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: verily, He is able to bring it back into his loins.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Abū al-Nuʿmān al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: to the loins.
ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl al-Hubārī related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: that He brings the water back into the urethra.
Naṣr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awdī al-Washshāʾ related to me, he said: Abū Qaṭan ʿAmr ibn al-Haytham related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: to bring the drop of semen back into the urethra.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: into the urethra.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: bringing it back into the urethra.
Others said: no, rather its meaning is: verily, He is able to return the human being to water, as he was before He created him from it.
* Mention of those who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — if I will, I bring him back as I created him from water.
Others said: no, rather its meaning is: verily, He is able to hold back that water.
* Mention of those who said that:
Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — he said: He is able to hold back that water, so that it does not come out; just as He was able to create from it what He created, He is able to bring it back.
Others said: no, rather its meaning is that He is able to bring the human being back from the state of old age to the state of youth.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, on the authority of Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, he said: I heard him say concerning His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — He says: if I will, I bring him back from old age to youth, and from youth to childhood, and from childhood to the drop of semen. According to this interpretation, the hāʾ in His saying عَلَى رَجْعِهِ refers back to the mention of the human being.
Others, among those who claimed that the hāʾ refers to the human being, said: its meaning is that He is able to bring him back to life after his death.
* Mention of those who said that:
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His saying: إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ — verily, Allah, whose remembrance is exalted, is able to raise him up and bring him back.
The most correct of these sayings is the saying of the one who says: its meaning is: verily, Allah is able to bring the human being, created from gushing water, back alive after his death, in his form as he was before his death.
I have said: this is the most correct of these sayings, because of His saying: يَوْمَ تُبْلَى السَّرَائِرُ (on the Day when the secrets are tested). For His following His saying إِنَّهُ عَلَى رَجْعِهِ لَقَادِرٌ with a report from the reports of the Resurrection is an indication that what precedes it also belongs to that, and to that belongs يَوْمَ تُبْلَى السَّرَائِرُ . The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: verily, He is able to bring him back to life after his death on the Day when the secrets are tested. Thus "the Day" is a specification for the bringing back, for the meaning is: verily, He is able to bring him back on the Day when the secrets are tested.
