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Sura 16
Aya 2
2
يُنَزِّلُ المَلائِكَةَ بِالرّوحِ مِن أَمرِهِ عَلىٰ مَن يَشاءُ مِن عِبادِهِ أَن أَنذِروا أَنَّهُ لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا أَنا فَاتَّقونِ

Muhammad Asad

He causes the angels to descend with this divine inspiration,1 [bestowed] at His behest upon whomever He wills of His servants: "Warn [all human beings] that there is no deity save Me: be, therefore, conscious of Me!"
  • The term ruh (lit., "spirit", "soul" or "breath of life") is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of "inspiration" - and, more particularly, "divine inspiration" - since, as Zamakhshari points out in connection with the above verse as well as with the first sentence of 42:52, "it gives life to hearts that were [as] dead in their ignorance, and has in religion the same function as a soul has in a body". A very similar explanation is given by Razi in the same context. The earliest instance in which the term ruh has been used in this particular sense is 97:4.