These, too, fall into four categories:
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“He grants females to whom He wills” —that is, without any sons. Some people are given only daughters; no male child is ever born to them, and all their offspring are female.
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“And He grants males to whom He wills,” so that all their children are sons with no daughters among them.
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“Or He pairs them—males and females.” He “pairs” them, meaning He mixes their offspring, for the word zawj (“pair”) can denote “kind” or “category,” as in His words, “And other of their kind, in pairs” (Ṣād 38:58), meaning kinds; and “Gather those who did wrong and their kinds” (al-Ṣāffāt 37:22), that is, their sorts and counterparts. Thus He pairs them—some sons, some daughters. These are the first three categories.
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The fourth is: “And He makes whom He wills barren,” so that no child is born to him, neither male nor female. For Allah—to Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth—creates whatever He wills; none can overturn His decree, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.
The Exalted also says: “And We made you nations and tribes.” The nations (shuʿūb) are the large groupings—such as the Arabs, the non-Arabs, and the like—while the tribes (qabāʾil), the plural of qabīlah, are the groupings beneath that level. Humanity, the children of Adam, are thus nations and tribes.
The nations are vast, encompassing peoples: you might say, for example, the Arabs in all their branches, and the non-Arabs in all theirs. Tribes are smaller divisions: Quraysh, Banū Tamīm, and the like—these are tribes.
“So that you might know one another”: this is the wisdom behind Allah’s making us nations and tribes—so that we may recognize one another: this one an Arab, that one a non-Arab, this one from Banū Tamīm