He Determined the Spans of Their Lives

Article 21. Wa ḍaraba lahum ājālā: He determined the spans of their lives.

This, in a bit more detail, is the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) which mentions the embryonic stage, and says how it begins to form, from the clot of blood to the clump of flesh. And then, at about a hundred and twenty days or so, the angel comes and gives a special designation: how long it is going to live; whether it is going to be shaqiyyun am saʿīd — which means whether it is going to end up with a wretched end or a good end, destined for Paradise or Hell — and so on and so forth.

Of course, these things are predetermined and known by Allah (swt) from eternity, and they are in the Book. But when this particular embryo is forming, then the soul — which was created from before, and is by the Throne of Allah (swt) — is attached by the angel, who comes and designates that this soul is for this embryo, and writes all of these things. These things are all determined. This is not something that is determined later on. It is not that the angel determined this later on, and Allah (swt) did not know about it before. All of this was in the knowledge of Allah (swt) before; this is just a specific action that takes place at that time, for that particular embryo, from the general knowledge of everything. This is simply then specified.

Allah knows what each individual is going to be; but when that individual is forming, that is when that designation is created with that individual — just for our sake, so that we can understand that the soul comes in at this time, and for the spiritual benefit of the knowledge that there are certain determinations that have been made. Though those determinations have already been made from eternity by Allah (swt).

So wa ḍaraba lahum ājālā: He determined the spans of their lives, so that they can live for this much, or this long; and this is how much provision they will get and receive.