Surah Ya-Sin 36:81
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 81 of 83
أَوَلَيْسَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ بِقَٰدِرٍ عَلَىٰٓ أَن يَخْلُقَ مِثْلَهُم ۚ بَلَىٰ وَهُوَ ٱلْخَلَّٰقُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ
Translation
Is He who created the heavens and earth not able to create the likes of these people? Of course He is! He is the All Knowing Creator:
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Is not the One who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes indeed, He is the Supreme Creator, the All-Knowing.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the a-fortiori force: the One who built the vast heavens and earth can obviously remake the small matter of a human being, the greater achievement guarantees the lesser. And the verse answers its own question emphatically: 'Yes indeed.' Ask yourself: I gaze up at the scale of the cosmos and feel my own smallness as insignificance, as if something so vast could not be bothered with re-creating tiny me. This verse turns that exact scale into reassurance: the One who made all that is more than able to remake me. Does the enormity of creation shrink me into despair, or point me toward a Creator for whom my renewal is easy?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:81 is discussed in 6 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:81 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.