Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:59
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 59 of 96
ءَأَنتُمْ تَخْلُقُونَهُۥٓ أَمْ نَحْنُ ٱلْخَٰلِقُونَ
Translation
do you create it yourselves or are We the Creator?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Is it you who create it, or are We the Creator?' al-Saadi and Ibn Ashur note the unanswerable question: the drop is placed, but the fashioning of a hearing, seeing, thinking human from it, the forming, shaping, ensouling, is entirely His. Ask yourself: the honest answer strips away my last claim to self-authorship. I did not build the intricate person that grew from that drop, not one cell of the eye, not a single neuron of the mind now reading this. This verse presses me to admit the plain truth: I am created, through and through, by Another. And if I did not create myself, then I do not own myself outright either, I am held, made, sustained. Does that humble the pride with which I run 'my own' life, as though I were its author?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:59 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:59 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.