24 Preface هُوَ اللَّهُ الخالِقُ البارِئُ المُصَوِّرُ ۖ لَهُ الأَسماءُ الحُسنىٰ ۚ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ ما فِي السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضِ ۖ وَهُوَ العَزيزُ الحَكيمُYusuf AliHe is God, the Creator,1 the Evolver, the Bestower of Forms2 (or Colours). To Him belong3 the Most Beautiful Names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory:4 and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.God’s attributes of Goodness and Power having been referred to, we are now told of His creative energy, of which three aspects are here mentioned, as explained in the following note. The point is emphasised that He does not merely create and leave alone; He goes on fashioning, evolving new forms and colours, and sustaining all the energies and capacities which He has put into His Creation, according to various laws which He has established.The act or acts of creation have various aspects, and the various words used in this connection are summarised in n. 120 to 2:117, as supplemented by n. 916 to 6:94 and n. 923 to 6:98. Khalaqa is the general term for creation, and the Author of all Creation is Khaliq. Bara'a implies a process of evolving from previously created matter or state: the Author of this process is Bari, the Evolver. Sawwara implies giving definite form or colour, so as to make a thing exactly suited to a given end or object: hence the title Musaxvwir, Bestower of Forms or Colours: for this shows the completion of the visible stage of creation.Cf. 7:180. n. 1154; and 17:110, n. 2322.Thus the argument of the Sūra is rounded off on the same note as was struck at the beginning, 59:1. The first verse and the last verse of the Sūra are the same, except as regards the tense of the verb sabbaha. In the first verse it is the optative form of the preterite sabbaha: 'let everything declare the Glory of God'. After the illustrations given, the declaratory form of the aorist is appropriate, yusabbihu: “everything doth declare the Glory of God”.