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64
اللَّهُ الَّذي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الأَرضَ قَرارًا وَالسَّماءَ بِناءً وَصَوَّرَكُم فَأَحسَنَ صُوَرَكُم وَرَزَقَكُم مِنَ الطَّيِّباتِ ۚ ذٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُم ۖ فَتَبارَكَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ العالَمينَ

Yusuf Ali

It is God Who has1 made for you the earth as a resting place,2 and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape-3 and made your shapes beautiful,- and has provided for you Sustenance,4 of things pure and good;- such is God your Lord. So Glory to God, the Lord of the Worlds!
  • The argument in the last two verses was from man’s personal experience of his physical life. In this and the next verse a parallel argument is addressed to man on a much higher plane: 'look at the spacious earth and the canopy of the sky; look at the special position you occupy above other animals that you know, in shape and form, and moral and spiritual capacities; consider your refinements in food and fruits and the higher spiritual Sustenance of which your physical food is a type; would you not indeed say that the Lord is good, and would you not glorify His Holy Name?'
  • A resting place. I understand this to imply a temporary place of rest or sojourn, a period of probation, to be followed by the eternal Home.
  • Cf. 7:11 and n. 996. The shape and form refer to the physical form as well as to the inborn moral and spiritual capacities of man. As regards physical form, Cf. Milton’s description of Adam and Eve, “Two of far noble shape, erect and tall” (Paradise Lost, 4:288). As regards moral and spiritual capacities, they are typified by the breathing of God’s spirit into man: 15:29 (see also 64:3).
  • “Sustenance” all that is necessary for growth and development, physical, moral, and spiritual (Cf. n. 2105 and 16:73).