2هُوَ الَّذي خَلَقَكُم مِن طينٍ ثُمَّ قَضىٰ أَجَلًا ۖ وَأَجَلٌ مُسَمًّى عِندَهُ ۖ ثُمَّ أَنتُم تَمتَرونَMuhammad AsadHe it is who has created you out of clay, and then has decreed a term [for you] - a term known [only] to him.1 And yet you doubt -Lit., "and a term is stated with Him" - i.e., known to Him alone (Manor VII, 298). Some of the authorities are of the opinion that the "term" refers to the end of the world and the subsequent resurrection, while others relate it to individual human lives. Other commentators, again, see in the first mention of this word a reference to individual lives, and in the second, to the Day of Resurrection; according to this latter interpretation, the concluding phrase might be rendered thus: "and there is [another] term...", etc. However, in view of several other occurrences of the expression ajal musamma in the Qur'an, it is best rendered here as "a term set [by Him]" or "known [to Him]", i.e., relating both to individual lives and to the world as a whole.