there remains between him and it only a forearm’s length, yet what has been decreed overtakes him and he performs the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it.” Agreed upon.
[Explanation]
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—cites this report in the chapter on fear and on warning against feeling secure from Allah’s plan. He transmits, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“Indeed the creation of each of you is gathered in his mother’s womb for forty days as a drop of fluid, then he is a clot for the same length of time, then a morsel of flesh for the same length of time. After that an angel is sent to him, breathes the spirit into him, and is commanded with four words: to record his provision, his lifespan, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or blessed. By the One besides Whom there is no god, one of you may perform the deeds of the people of Paradise until there remains between him and it only a forearm’s length, yet what has been written overtakes him and he performs the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it; and one of you may perform the deeds of the people of the Fire until there remains between him and it only a forearm’s length, and what has been written overtakes him and he performs the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it.”
His statement, “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) told us, and he is the truthful, the one who is believed,” means that he is truthful in everything he says and believed in everything that is revealed to him. He relates only the truth, and whatever he is informed of through revelation is nothing but truth—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him.
He prefaced the hadith in this way because he was about to speak of an unseen matter that unfolds within three layers of darkness: “The creation of each of you is gathered in his mother’s womb for forty days as a drop of fluid.” When a man has marital relations with his wife and deposits semen in her womb, it remains for forty days in its liquid state. During that period it gradually changes, tending toward a reddish color, until the forty days are complete.
When the first forty days end, it has turned completely red and become a clot of blood (ʿalaqah). It persists in that form for another forty days, a congealed piece of blood that slowly thickens and hardens, until eighty days have elapsed.
When the eighty days are complete, it becomes a muḍghah—a morsel of flesh—within the womb. Concerning this stage Allah the Exalted says, “formed and unformed” (Q 22:5). This stage lasts forty days, from day eighty-one to day one hundred and twenty, and the features generally do not become clearly distinguishable until about the ninetieth day.
When it has spent forty days as a muḍghah, Allah sends to it the angel