وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦٓ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًۭا لِّتَسْكُنُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَّوَدَّةًۭ وَرَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
And of His signs is that He created for you mates from your own selves that you may take comfort in them, and He ordained affection and mercy between you. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.
وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ خَلْقُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلَٰفُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَٰنِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّلْعَٰلِمِينَ
Among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. There are indeed signs in that for those who know.
وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ مَنَامُكُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ وَٱبْتِغَآؤُكُم مِّن فَضْلِهِۦٓ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَسْمَعُونَ
And of His signs is your sleep by night and day, and your pursuit of His bounty. There are indeed signs in that for a people who listen.
وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ يُرِيكُمُ ٱلْبَرْقَ خَوْفًۭا وَطَمَعًۭا وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءًۭ فَيُحْىِۦ بِهِ ٱلْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَآ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَعْقِلُونَ
And of His signs is that He shows you the lightning, arousing fear and hope, and He sends down water from the sky, and with it revives the earth after its death. There are indeed signs in that for people who exercise their reason.
وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦٓ أَن تَقُومَ ٱلسَّمَآءُ وَٱلْأَرْضُ بِأَمْرِهِۦ ۚ ثُمَّ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ دَعْوَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ إِذَآ أَنتُمْ تَخْرُجُونَ
And of His signs is that the sky and the earth stand by His command, and then, when He calls you forth from the earth, behold, you will come forth.
وَلَهُۥ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ كُلٌّۭ لَّهُۥ قَٰنِتُونَ
To Him belongs whoever is in the heavens and the earth. All are obedient to Him.
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ وَهُوَ أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْهِ ۚ وَلَهُ ٱلْمَثَلُ ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
It is He who originates the creation, and then He will bring it back—and that is more simple for Him. His is the loftiest description in the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.
ضَرَبَ لَكُم مَّثَلًۭا مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ ۖ هَل لَّكُم مِّن مَّا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَٰنُكُم مِّن شُرَكَآءَ فِى مَا رَزَقْنَٰكُمْ فَأَنتُمْ فِيهِ سَوَآءٌۭ تَخَافُونَهُمْ كَخِيفَتِكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍۢ يَعْقِلُونَ
He draws for you an example from yourselves: Do you have among your slaves any partners [who may share] in what We have provided you, so that you are equal in its respect, and you revere them as you revere one another? Thus do We elaborate the signs for people who exercise their reason.
بَلِ ٱتَّبَعَ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوٓا۟ أَهْوَآءَهُم بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍۢ ۖ فَمَن يَهْدِى مَنْ أَضَلَّ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن نَّٰصِرِينَ
Indeed, the wrongdoers follow their own desires without any knowledge. So who will guide those whom Allah has led astray? They will have no helpers.
فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًۭا ۚ فِطْرَتَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّتِى فَطَرَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا ۚ لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلْقَيِّمُ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
So set your heart as a person of pure faith on this religion, the original nature endowed by Allah according to which He originated mankind (There is no altering Allah’s creation; that is the upright religion, but most people do not know.)
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
This passage runs the great catalogue of "signs" — spouses and the affection set between them, the heavens and earth with the diversity of tongues and colors, sleep and the quest for provision, the lightning, and the standing of heaven and earth (21–25) — then turns to God's ownership of all and His originating-and-repeating creation "more easily" (26–27), the parable of the slave-partners (28), the charge that idolaters merely "follow desire" (29), and the command to set one's face to "the religion of the fiṭra" (30).
Convergence — signs of an undivided Lordship. All sources read 21–25 as proofs of tawḥīd and rubūbiyya. On the spouses (21), [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] record the same options ("from yourselves" = from your kind, or Eve from Adam's rib per Qatāda, or women from men's seed) and gloss mawadda/raḥma via al-Suddī as "love and compassion"; [tabatabai_al_mizan] deepens this into a sociology of the household and the wider civil order. On the diversity of "tongues" (22), [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] debate whether languages are divine appointment (tawqīf) or human convention (muwāḍaʿa) — concluding that even on the latter God enables them — while [tabatabai_al_mizan] reads it straightforwardly as the diversity of languages and complexions. [bahrani_al_burhan] uniquely turns "signs for the knowers (li-l-ʿālimīn)" (22) into an Imāmate proof: the Imām knows a man by his face or his voice from behind a wall, the "knowers" being the Imāms.
The parable's occasion (28) — a striking convergence. All five present strands carry the same asbāb al-nuzūl: Iblīs, disguised as an old man, corrupted the Abrahamic talbiya of Quraysh by appending "except a partner who is Yours, whom You own with all he owns," which the Prophet (ṣ) later condemned as shirk. [bahrani_al_burhan] (ḥadīth 8325) and [qummi] give the fullest narration; [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], [tusi_al_tibyan], and [tabatabai_al_mizan] anchor it to Saʿīd b. Jubayr. All read the parable identically: you would not accept your own slaves as equal co-owners, so how ascribe partners to God?
A philological crux (27) — "easier for Him." On "and it is easier for Him" [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] catalogue the standard options (it means "easy," afʿal = fāʿil; or "easier" by people's own logic that re-creation is easier than origination; or the pronoun refers to the creature), and both reject Mujāhid's claim that origination is "easier for God," since nothing is easier than another for Him. [tabatabai_al_mizan] makes this his showpiece: he reviews and rejects six readings (including al-Zamakhsharī's twice) and resolves the difficulty through the next clause, "to Him belongs the highest likeness" — every perfection in creatures is mixed and limited, whereas God's is pure and unlimited, so the "ease" found in re-creation is, with Him, pure ease, His infinite power admitting no toil in either act.
The fiṭra (30) — shared text, divergent depth. All agree the verse commands turning to the innate religion, and [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], [tusi_al_tibyan], and [tabatabai_al_mizan] all cite the Prophetic ḥadīth "every child is born upon the fiṭra…". But the readings then diverge sharply in register. The Imāmī narration-works concentrate here: [bahrani_al_burhan] amasses some twenty-five chains and [qummi] adds their core, glossing fiṭra as tawḥīd, as the walāya of ʿAlī, as the three testimonies, and as the primordial covenant of alast — and "set your face to the religion" as either "the walāya" or, practically, "stand in prayer and do not turn aside." [tabatabai_al_mizan] supplies the philosophical capstone: a four-part treatise arguing that, as every species is guided by its constitution to its end, man's real needs (confirmed by intellect, not desire) ground a single fixed social law — the religion derived from the human creation itself — which is why "there is no change to God's creation"; he then harmonizes the Imāmī "three-testimonies" gloss as tawḥīd, prophethood, and walāya latent in the fiṭra. [enlightening_commentary] frames the whole section as "Islam, the Natural Religion."
Divergence on "no change to God's creation." [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] preserve the spread of views — no altering God's religion (al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Mujāhid, Qatāda), the indication-of-the-Maker that cannot be altered (Abū Muslim), or even Ibn ʿAbbās's reading as a prohibition of castration. [tabatabai_al_mizan] explicitly rejects both the "prohibition" sense and al-Rāzī's "creatures never leave servitude," distinguishing creational ownership (unchangeable) from legislative ownership (which can be neglected).
On the misguided (29). [tabatabai_al_mizan] alone draws out the grammar's theology: the verse says "those who wrong" (not "those who associate") precisely so that wrongdoing grounds the divine "leading astray," and reads the negation of helpers (plural) as implying that others do have intercessors.
Coverage note: al-Mīzān's unit and al-Burhān's/al-Qummī's blocks here run through vv.37–39 (provision, the kinsman's due, ribā vs zakāt), which formally belong to the next passage; that material is carried in these sources' entries and revisited in passage 4.