(11) “Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then made you into pairs. No female conceives or gives birth except with His knowledge. No one is granted a long life, nor is his lifespan diminished, except that it is recorded in a Book. Surely that is easy for Allah.”

Allah Most High mentions His creation of the human being and his passage through these stages, from dust to a sperm-drop and then through the stages that follow.

“Then made you into pairs”—that is, He continues moving you from one stage to another until you become pairs, a male marrying a female. Marriage is intended for progeny and children. Although marital union is one of the means to that end, it remains bound to Allah’s decree, predestination, and knowledge. “No female conceives or gives birth except with His knowledge.” Likewise, every stage through which the human being passes occurs by His knowledge and decree.

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“No one is granted a long life, nor is his lifespan diminished”—that is, the lifespan of anyone granted longevity is known to Allah Most High. Alternatively, whatever is cut short from the lifespan a person would otherwise have been on course to reach—were it not for the causes of a shortened life that he pursued, such as fornication, disobedience to parents, severing ties of kinship, and similar acts mentioned among the causes of a shortened life—is likewise known to Him.

The meaning is that whether a life is long or short, with or without an apparent cause, it is all known to Allah Most High. He has recorded it “in a Book” that encompasses everything which will befall the servant throughout all the times and days of his life.

“Surely that is easy for Allah”—that is, His knowledge encompasses this vast amount of information, and His Book comprehensively records it. These are three rational proofs for resurrection and the raising of the dead to which Allah draws attention in these verses: His reviving the earth after its death, for the One who revived it will also revive the dead; the human being’s passage through all those stages; and His all-encompassing knowledge.

The One who brought the human being into existence and moved him from one stage to another and from one condition to another until he reached what had been decreed for him is all the more able to restore him and bring him forth in the next creation—and that is easier for Him. His knowledge encompasses every part of the upper and lower realms, the minute and the immense, what lies within hearts, the embryos within wombs, the lengthening and shortening of lifespans, and the recording of all of this in a Book. For the One whose [attribute] (1) is this, all of that is easy; restoring the dead is easier still. Blessed is He whose goodness is abundant and who has directed His servants to that wherein lies their well-being in this life and in the Hereafter.