And He is the One Who originated you all from a single soul,13 then assigned you a place to live and another to ˹be laid to˺ rest. We have already made the signs clear for people who comprehend.
It is He Who have produced you 923 from a single person: here is a place of sojourn and a place of departure: 924 We detail Our signs for people who understand.
923 Produced: an sh a'a = made you grow, increase, develop, reach maturity: another of the processes of creation. This supplements n. 120 to 2:117 and n. 916 to 6:94. It is one of the wonders of Allah's Creation, that from one person we have grown to be so many, and each individual has so many faculties and capacities, and yet we are all one. In the next verse we have the allegory of grapes and other fruits: all grapes may be similar to look at, yet each variety has a distinctive flavour and other distinctive qualities, and each individual grape may have its own special qualities. So for man.
924 In the sojourn of this life we must respond to Allah's hand in fashioning us, by making full use of all our faculties, and we must get ready for our departure into the Life that will be eternal.
And He it is who has brought you [all] into being out of one living entity, 82 and [has appointed for each of you] a time-limit [on earth] and a resting-place [after death] : 83 clearly, indeed, have We spelled out these messages unto people who can grasp the truth!
82 See surah 4, note 1.
83 The commentators differ widely as to the meaning of the terms mustaqarr and mustawda` in this context. However, taking into account the primary meaning of musstagarr as "the limit of a course"-i.e., the point at which a thing reaches its fulfilment or end-and of mustawda` as "a place of consignment" or "repository", we arrive at the rendering adopted by me above. This rendering finds, moreover, strong support in 11:6, where God is spoken of as providing sustenance for every living being and knowing "its time-limit [on earth] and its resting-place [after death]" (mustagarraha wa-mustawda'aha), as well as in verse 67 of the present surah, where mustaqarr is used in the sense of "a term set for the fulfilment [of God's tiding]".
13 i.e., Adam (ﷺ).