Faistaftihim ahum ashaddu khalqan am man khalaqna inna khalaqnahum min teenin lazibin
English
Ahmed Ali
So ask them if they are more difficult to create, or the rest We have created? Indeed (man) We created from fermented clay.
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (then ask them (o muhammad)) ask the people of mecca: (are they stronger as a creation) as a resurrected people, (or those (others) whom we have created) of angels and all other people? (lo! we created them of plastic) sticking (clay) we created them from adam and adam is from clay.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : so ask them, in other words, inquire of the people of mecca for affirmation or by way of rebuke: are they stronger as a creation, or those [others] whom we created?, of angels, heavens, the two earths and all that is in them (the use of man, ‘those whom’ [in man khalaqnā] indicates that the reference is predominantly to [other] rational creatures). indeed we created them, that is, their origin, adam, from a viscous clay, that sticks to the hand. the [intended] meaning is that their physical make-up is fragile so let them not behave arrogantly by rejecting the prophet and the qur’ān, a fact which will result in their — easily accomplished — destruction.
