Say, “He will give them life Who created them in the first instance…,”1
and,
Seeing that He has created you in successive stages,2
which comprise a comparison or analogy, and,
Nor is your Sustainer ever unjust to His servants,3
which points to evidence of justice. We explained in our treatise entitled Nokta (The Point) the substance of the figurative analogy in,
Seeing that He has created you in successive stages,4
Say, ‘He will give them life Who created them in the first instance…’,5
which the Qur’an makes clear through other verses. It was as follows:
On passing from stage to stage, the human body undergoes wondrous and orderly transformations. From sperm to a blood-clot; from a blood-clot to flesh and bone; from flesh and bone to a new creation, that is, the transformation into human form; it follows extremely precise rules. Each of these stages has such particular laws, such determined order, such regular development that it displays the manifestations of a purpose, will, choice, and wisdom as though through glass.
Thus, the All-Wise Maker, Who creates the body in this way, changes it every year as if it were clothes. For the body to be changed and for its continuance, a compound is necessary so that new particles appear that will work and fill the place of the parts that are dissolved. Since the body’s cells are destroyed through an orderly Divine law, it requires a subtle matter, known as sustenance, which will repair it, again through an orderly dominical law. The True Provider allots and distributes this sustenance through a particular law in relation to the different needs of the body’s members.
Now, consider the behaviour of the subtle matter which the All-Wise Provider sends: you will see that while the matter’s particles are dispersed through the air, soil, and water like a caravan, they suddenly gather together in a way that suggests a deliberate action, as though they had suddenly received the order to move. They collect together in the most orderly fashion as if each particle of them was entrusted with a duty and ordered to proceed to a specified place. Also, it is apparent from their conduct that they are being propelled through a particular law of one who acts and has choice, and
Qur’an, 36:79.
Qur’an, 71:14.
Qur’an, 41:46.