As-Sajdah 32:7 - Linguistic Miracle

The one who did Iḥsān of everything He created. He began the creation of man from wet clay. Iḥsān comes from the root ḥāʾ sīn nūn which means to purify something by removing anything impure from it. From this root comes the word Ḥusn which means beauty. It is a beauty achieved because of intense purity, and it being free from anything impure.

Allah created the universe in six stages, then sent down His Amr with tadbīr - with purpose and direction, preordaining its start and end, setting a path that it takes to achieve that end and then making it follow that path with His wisdom. This is Iḥsān in

creation. When He created things, He sent down His Amr which gave these created beings life and purpose like how our spirit gives our bodies life. Creation is a hollow body and Amr is what gives life and purpose to these bodies. Then He did tadbīr of His Amr, i.e; He also set the purpose of the creation, decreed their end, and their path towards this end. Each creation has a purpose rooted in perfect divine wisdom and Allah decrees this for each creation at the time of its creation. It is all planned, it is all accounted for, it is all pre ordained and pre-decreed. The beginning, the end and the

path it will take towards that end, to achieve the purpose for which it was created. Every single thing, accounted for. This is the purity implied by the word iḥsān. His creations are absolutely pure of all shortcomings such as leaving out details, not accounting for the end, creating without purpose, creating imperfectly, creating things not meant for their purpose, creating things that are inadequate to achieve their purpose, creating things without taking into account their end goal, creating things that are not protected from being altered by anyone other than Him, all of these are examples of impurities - of shortcomings.

Next, the subject shifts to the creation of man. First, Allah described the creation of the universe, then His tadbīr that runs this universe, and now He zeros in on man himself; as if to say that man is the very center of it all. Everything that came before, leads to man, the very center and core of this universe. Allah did Iḥsān of everything He created, and that includes man. The audience of all this is man himself, and hence it is only appropriate to zero in on his creation itself.

He began man’s creation from wet clay - it does not say Allah created man from wet clay but rather He began man’s creation from it. Just as Allah created the universe in

stages, so did He create man, in stages. The first step is his creation from wet clay. Why wet clay? Because it can be fashioned and molded in any shape you desire without breaking the soil apart. Allah molded us into an entity of His desires. What He wanted us to do, what He set our purpose for, He molded and shaped us according to it.

Lastly as we will see, iḥsān also implies - especially in the context of this surah - the fact that Allah has created perfect systems. If you believe that death is the end and there is no reckoning of deeds after death, then this implies that Allah created an imperfect system because then this would be an inherently unjust system. Allah has done iḥsān of everything He has created and this includes the fact that His creations are not void of justice.