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Surah Ash-Shuraa — 42:11

فَاطِرُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا وَمِنَ ٱلْأَنْعَـٰمِ أَزْوَٰجًا ۖ يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ ۚ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِۦ شَىْءٌ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ

Faatirus samaawaati wal ard; ja'ala lakum min anfusikum azwaajanw wa minal an'aami azwaajany yazra'ukum feeh; laisa kamislihee shai'unw wa Huwas Samee'ul Baseer

the Creator of the heavens and earth.’ He made mates for you from among yourselves––and for the animals too––so that you may multiply. There is nothing like Him: He is the All Hearing, the All Seeing.

Originator of the heavens and the earth. He made for you mates from among yourselves, and pairs among the cattle — multiplying you thereby. Nothing is like him, and he is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.

Reflection

The denial of likeness lands immediately after the most ordinary image of resemblance there is: mates made from among yourselves, pairs among the cattle, each kind reproducing its own. Laysa ka-mithlihi doubles the comparison, kāf on top of mithl, and grammarians have read the doubling either as emphasis or as a second layer of distance. The verse then closes on hearing and seeing, which is where the argument over the attributes has always begun.

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