He strikes for Us1 a similitude and forgot his own creation.2 He says: “Who will quicken the bones when they have decayed?”
Footnotes
[1]
That is, he regards Us powerless and weak like the creation, and thinks that just as man cannot raise the dead back to life, so also can’t We.
[2]
“Forgets his own creation”: Forgets that We created the basic germ of life from dead matter, which became the means of his creation; then We caused the germ to develop to such an extent that now he stands before Us as a disputant.
[3]Qira’at: All except for Ibn Kathir, Hafs, Abu Jaʻfar and Yaʻqub read it as: “. . . when We herd them . . .”
[4]Qira’at: Ibn ʻAmer read it as: “. . . then We say . . .”