The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 12
CH. 3 ĀL-E-‘IMRĀN PT. 3 إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَخْفَى عَلَيْهِ شَيْ فِي الْأَرْضِ Surely, nothing in the earth. 6 وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِن or in the heavens is hidden from Allah. 297 هُوَ الَّذِي يُصَوِّرُكُمْ فِي الْأَرْحَامِ كَيْفَ He it is Who fashions you in. 7 the wombs as He wills; there is يَشَاءُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ no God but He, the Mighty, the Wise. 298 14:39; 40:17; 64:5; 87:8. 22:6; 23:13-15; 39:7; 40:65; 64:4. 297. Commentary: God is not only Mighty and the Possessor of the power to requite but He is also All-Knowing, which is a necessary attribute for the successful exercise of power and the infliction of punishment. The thus child verse constitutes yet another argument against the alleged divinity of Jesus. Nothing is hidden from God, His knowledge encompassing everything; but Jesus, according to his own admission, did not know many things (Mark 11:12, 13). He even did not know when the Judgement Day was to be (Matt. 24:36). Such lack of knowledge is evidently incompatible with the dignity of God. 298. Important Words: (fashions) is derived from ✓. They say to meaning: (1) he made the thing inclined; (2) he divided or cut the thing into parts or pieces. means, he formed or fashioned it; he gave it a shape. 8 means, he fashioned it and gave it a definite shape. means, the image or form or shape of a thing by which it is distinguished from other things (Aqrab & Lane). Commentary: with moral are two different things as is clear from 7:12 and 82:89. which takes place before means creating a thing and giving it a general physical form, whereas signifies detailed formation and the endowing of a and spiritual faculties. Thus andare interrelated like body and soul. Medical research has shown that there exists some subtle relationship between the physical features of a man and his morals. The clause, He it is Who fashions you in the wombs, would, therefore, mean that after God brings into existence a body in the womb, He endows it with faculties and capacities necessary to fulfil its destiny. So it is in the womb of his mother that the foundations of a man's future are laid, and it is to this fact that the Holy Prophet referred when he said that when the formation of the child in the womb begins, the angels ask God whether they should write it down as lucky or ill-fated (Bukhārī). As the formation of the child takes place in the womb of the mother, naturally it is affected by its environment, i. e. the physical and (fashioning) and (creating) moral condition of the mother. So 452