“They said, ‘Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers.’ He said, ‘Descend: you are enemies to one another. On earth you will have a dwelling-place and provision for a time.’ He said, ‘Therein you shall live, therein you shall die, and from it you shall be brought forth.’ O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you clothing to cover your nakedness, and as adornment. But the garment of taqwa is better. That is among the signs of Allah, so that they may take heed.’”

“‘Therein you shall live’—that is, you shall live on earth—‘therein you shall die, and from it you shall be brought forth,’” meaning: you will be brought forth from the earth, from your graves, for the Resurrection. Ibn Amir, Hamzah, and al-Kisa’i recited it here and in Surat al-Zukhruf in the active voice: “you shall emerge.” Ya‘qub agreed with them here, while Hamzah and al-Kisa’i also recited, “And thus you shall emerge,” at the beginning of Surat al-Rum. The remaining reciters read it in the passive voice in all these instances.

“O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you”—that is, We have created for you—“clothing.” It is also said that He said, “We have bestowed,” because clothing is derived from the vegetation of the earth, and vegetation grows through what descends from the sky. Thus, the meaning of His saying, “We have bestowed,” is: We have bestowed its means. It is also said that all the blessings of the earth are attributed to the blessings of heaven, as He Most High says: “And We sent down iron” (Surat al-Hadid, 25), even though iron is extracted from the earth.

The reason for the revelation of this verse is that, in the pre-Islamic period, they would circumambulate the House naked, saying, “We do not circumambulate in