وَأَنَّهُ خَلَقَ الزَّوجَينِ الذَّكَرَ وَالأُنثىٰ

That it is He who created the mates, the male and the female.

EXEGESIS

Zawjayn literally means the two which are paired. The male and the female have been created by God to be pairs with each other. While this may have seemed like stating the obvious, we see that even the reality of there being a male and a female has been questioned by some, let alone the fact that they are meant to be pairs for each other.

EXPOSITION

This and the next verse describe one of the ways in which God gives life as we read in the previous verse. While it is in God’s power to bring about life and death and whatever He wills in an immediate way, His practice is to do so through a causal chain. Life is brought about through the joining of the male and the female. There is a wisdom in the creation of these opposites, as they complete each other and are together capable of more than they are individually.

Of course, this causal chain all traces back to the originator, which is God, the terminus is toward your Lord (verse 42), as was discussed.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Rāzī mulls over the missing huwa (he) in this verse compared to the previous verse and states that perhaps people may think that a person is capable of laughter and weeping on his own, or that he may kill or grant life – like Nimrod said to Prophet Abraham (a), I give life and bring death (2:258) – but no person would claim that they can create life out of nothing.^{‎[1]Razi, 29/280, who also tries to apply this thought to the following verses as well, saying for example that the Arabs doubted that the God of Muhammad (s) was also the God of Sirius, or that a person acquired wealth through his own cleverness or other merits, and so on.}

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.^{‎[2]Genesis 1:27.}
2. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.^{‎[3]Mark 10:6.}
3. Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female?^{‎[4]Matthew 19:4.}

[1] Razi, 29/280, who also tries to apply this thought to the following verses as well, saying for example that the Arabs doubted that the God of Muhammad (s) was also the God of Sirius, or that a person acquired wealth through his own cleverness or other merits, and so on.
[2] Genesis 1:27.
[3] Mark 10:6.
[4] Matthew 19:4.