Message #16937

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Salams all.  Sister Zeynab's interpretation is quite an eye opener.  I mean, I didn't think of the analogy of sleep with death.   Pickthall's translation makes this interpretation a possibility. But certain other translations don't.   The more general explanation of this Verse is reference to sleep as a form of death along with the actual death, in that, the soul passes out of the body during sleep as it does during death .... the only difference being that the soul returns to the body of those who are asleep after they wake up because death isn't yet ordained for them, while for those whom death is ordained by The Almighty, He keeps their souls.   And of course, those who are asleep and get back their souls when they awake only get it back temporarily ("till an appointed term").

The following are two other translations, one from the standardi Sahih International  and the other from the late Abu Alaa Maududi. 

"Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought."  39:42   (Standard Sahih International translation).

"It is Allah Who takes the souls at death and the soul of the one, who has not yet died, during sleep. Then He withholds that for whom He decrees death and restores the souls of others till an appointed time. In this there are many signs for the people who reflect."  39:42  (Maududi translation).