2. [ al-Baqarah. Medina 87 ]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّ
فِي خَلْقِ
السَّمَاوَاتِ
وَالأَرْضِ
وَاخْتِلاَفِ
اللَّيْلِ
وَالنَّهَارِ...
2: 164. Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day;
... وَالْفُلْكِ الَّتِي تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِمَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ ...
in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind;
... وَمَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ مِنَ السَّمَاء مِن مَّاء فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الأرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا...
in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead;
... وَبَثَّ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ دَآبَّةٍ ...
in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth;
... وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ وَالسَّحَابِ الْمُسَخِّرِ بَيْنَ السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ...
in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth;
... لآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ ﴿١٦٤﴾
(here) indeed are signs for a people that are wise.
C166. This magnificent Nature passage stands out like a hill in a landscape, enhancing the beauty of our view, and preparing us for the every-day laws and ordinances which follow.
Note its literary architecture. Allah is One and among His wondrous Signs is the unity of design in the widest diversity of Nature. The Signs are taken from the features of beauty, power, ad utility to man himself, and lead up to an appeal to Man’s own intelligence ad wisdom.
We begin with the glory of the heavens ad the earth, the wide spaces covered by man’s imagination, remote and yet so near to his own life. The most striking everyday phenomenon resulting from the interrelations of the heavens ad the earth is the alternation of day ad night, regular and yet changing in duration with the seasons ad the latitudes of our globe.
The night for rest, and the day for work; and we can think of the work in terms of nature’s beauty; the stately ships “flowing” (as the original text has it) across the seas, for communications ad merchandise as between men ad men. The seas thus serve us no less than land, and the give-and-take as between sea, sky, ad land, is further exemplified by the rain.
The rain leads to the fertility of the land, and here we are reminded of the contrast between Winter’s death of Nature ad her revivification in the Spring. Here we are reminded of agriculture ad the use we make of cattle ad all kinds of living creatures.
The word translated “beasts” has a wide meaning, including crawling creatures, insects, etc. - all contributing to the round of Nature’s operations.
This leads us on to the wonderful winds, the region of the air, which man is just beginning to explore ad navigate. The personified winds drive the clouds in the sky like “slaves.”
Here is another aspect of clouds besides that of giving rain. The fleecy clouds are things of sunset beauty; at midday they temper the glare of the sun; at all times they affect radiation ad other processes going on in the sky. So we come back to the sky, rounding off the argument, and correlating our life with the Will ad Power of Allah, if we had the wisdom to see!.
2: 164
Asad Verily, in the creation of the heavens and of the earth, and the succession of night and day: and in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man: and in the waters which God sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless, and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon: and in the change of the winds, and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth: [in all this] there are messages indeed for people who use their reason.
Pickthall Lo! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use to men, and the water which Allah sendeth down from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kinds of beasts therein, and (in) the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth: are signs (of Allah's sovereignty) for people who have sense.
Transliteration Inna fi khalqis sama_wa_ti wal ardi wakhtila_fil laili wan naha_ri wal fulkil lati tajri fil bahri bima_yanfa'un na_sa wa ma_ anzalalla_hu minas sama_'i mim ma_'in fa ahya_ bihil arda ba'da mautiha_ wa bassa fiha_ min kulli da_bbah(tin), wa tasrifir riya_hi was saha_bil musakhkhari bainas sama_'i wal ardi la a_ya_til li qaumiy ya'qilu_n(a).
[ Asad’s note 130 This passage is one of the many in which the Quran appeals to “those who use their reason” to observe the daily wonders of nature, including the evidence of man’s own ingenuity (“the ships that speed upon the sea”), as so many indications of a conscious, creative Power pervading the universe. ]
[ Ruby’s note – The word “ayat” is used here the same term is used to denote a verse of the Quran or of another scripture meaning a “Message” or a “Sign”. It is important to note this because a message inscribed in the nature can be read and understood in the same way a verse can be read. Both convey the Messages of God in the same way. It is interesting the way the Quran use this term “ayat” to convey that God is speaking not only through the scriptures and revelations but He is also speaking or revealing the same way through nature and the reality. It is up to one’s reason and sincerity to receive that Message. Islam is proclaiming here that faith is based on “reason”. The reason that is exercised through humility, purity and sincerity in taking everything into account and in helping
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6. Sura al-Anam
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّ
اللّهَ
فَالِقُ
الْحَبِّ
وَالنَّوَى...
6: 95. It is Allah Who causeth the seed-grain and the date-stone to split and sprout.
C918. Another beautiful nature passage, referring to Allah's wonderful artistry in His Creation.
In how few and how simple words, the whole pageant of Creation is placed before us. Beginning from our humble animal needs and dependence on the vegetable world, we are asked to contemplate the interaction of the living and the dead. Here is mystic teaching, referring not only to physical life but to the higher life above the physical plane, -not only to individual life but to the collective life of nations.
Then we take a peep into the daily miracle of morning, noon, and night, and pass on to the stars that guide the distant mariner. We rise still higher to the mystery of the countless individuals from the one human soul, -their sojourn and their destiny. So we get back to the heavens: the description of the luscious fruits which the "gentle rain from heaven" produces, leaves us to contemplate the spiritual fruits which faith will provide for us, with the aid of the showers of God's mercy.
C919. The seed-grain and the date-stone are selected as types in the vegetable kingdom, showing how our physical life depends on it.
The fruits mentioned later (in 6:99) start another allegory which we shall notice later.
Botanists will notice that the seed-grain includes the cereals (such as wheat, barley, rice, millet, etc.) which are monocotyledons, as well as the pulses (such as beans, peas, gram, etc.) and other seeds which are dicotyledons.
These two represent the most important classes of food-grains, while the date-palm a monocotyledon, represents for Arabia both food, fruit, confectionery, thatch and pillars for houses, shady groves in oases, and a standard measure of wealth and well being.
"Split and sprout": both ideas are included in the root falaqa, and a third is expressed by the word "cleave" in the next verse, for the action of evolving day-break from the dark. I might almost have used the word "churn," familiar to students of Hindu lore in the Hindu allegory of the "churning of the ocean." For vegetables, "split and sprout" represents a double process:
- the seed divides, and
- one part shoots up, seeking the light, and forming leaves and the visible parts of the future tree, and the other part digs down into the dark, forming the roots and seeking just that sustenance from the soil, which is adapted for the particular plant.
This is just one small instance of the "Judgement and ordering" of God, referred to in the next verse.
...يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَمُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتِ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ...
He causeth the living to issue from the dead, and He is the one to cause the dead to issue from the living.
C920. This does not mean that in physical nature there are no limits between life and non-life, between the organic and the non-organic. In fact physicists are baffled at the barrier between them and frankly confess that they cannot solve the mystery of Life.
If there is such a barrier in physical nature, is it not all the more wonderful that Allah can create Life out of nothing? He has but to say, "Be," and it is. He can bring Life from non-Life and annihilate Life.
But there are two other senses in which we can contemplate the contrast between the living and the dead.
- We have just been speaking of the botanical world. Take it as a whole, and see the contrast between the winter of death, the spring of revivification, the summer of growth, and the autumn of decay, leading back to the death of winter. Here is a cycle of living for dead, and dead from living.
- Take our spiritual life, individual or collective. We rise from the darkness of spiritual nothingness to the light of spiritual life. And if we do not follow the spiritual laws, Allah will take away that life and we shall be again as dead. We may die many deaths. The keys of life and death are in Allah's hands. Neither Life nor Death are fortuitous things. Behind them both is the Cause of Causes, -and only He.
...ذَلِكُمُ اللّهُ فَأَنَّى تُؤْفَكُونَ ﴿٩٥﴾
That is Allah;
then how are ye deluded away from the truth?
Asad’s Version:
6: 95 Verily, God is the One who cleaves the grain and the fruit-kernal asunder, bringing forth the living out of that which is dead, and He is the One who brings forth the dead out of that which is alive. This, then, is God: and yet, how perverted are your minds! Asad, see note 80.
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10. Surah Yunus
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
قُلْ مَن
يَرْزُقُكُم
مِّنَ السَّمَاء
وَالأَرْضِ...
10: 31. Say:
"Who is it that sustains you (in life) from the sky and from the earth?
C1422. Sustenance may be understood in the sense of all the provision necessary for maintaining physical life as well as mental and spiritual development and well-being.
- Examples of the former are light and rain from heaven and the produce of the earth and facilities of movement on land and sea and in air.
- Examples of the latter are the moral and spiritual influences that come from our fellow-men, and from the great Teachers and Prophets.
...أَمَّن يَمْلِكُ السَّمْعَ والأَبْصَارَ...
Or who is it that has power over hearing and sight?
C1423. Just two of our ordinary faculties, hearing and sight, are mentioned, as examples of the rest.
All the gifts of Allah, physical and spiritual, are enjoyed and incorporated by us by means of the faculties and capacities with which He has endowed us.
وَمَن يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَيُخْرِجُ الْمَيَّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ...
And who is it that brings out the living from the dead and the dead from the living?
C1424. Cf. 3:27 and n. 371; 6:95 and n. 920 ; and 30:19.
...وَمَن يُدَبِّرُ الأَمْرَ...
And who is it that rules and regulates all affairs?"
C1425. This is the general summing-up of the argument. The government of the whole Creation and its maintenance and sustenance is in the hands of Allah.
How futile then would it be to neglect His true worship and go after false gods?
...فَسَيَقُولُونَ اللّهُ...
They will soon say, "Allah."
...فَقُلْ أَفَلاَ تَتَّقُونَ ﴿٣١﴾
Say, "Will ye not then show piety (to Him)?"
فَذَلِكُمُ
اللّهُ رَبُّكُمُ
الْحَقُّ فَمَاذَا
بَعْدَ الْحَقِّ
إِلاَّ الضَّلاَلُ...
10: 32. Such is Allah, your real Cherisher and Sustainer:
apart from Truth, what (remains) but error?
C1426. The wonderful handiwork and wisdom of Allah having been referred to, as the real Truth, as against the false worship and false gods that men set up, it follows that to disregard the Truth must lead us into woeful wrong, not only in our beliefs but in our conduct. We shall err and stray and be lost.
How then can we turn away from the Truth?
...فَأَنَّى تُصْرَفُونَ ﴿٣٢﴾
How then are ye turned away?
Other Versions:
10: 31
Asad Say: “Who is it that provides you with sustenance out of heaven and earth, or who is it that has full power over hearing and signt?..........[asad ntoe 49]
Pickthall Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Who provideth for you from the sky and the earth, or Who owneth hearing and sight; and Who bringeth forth the living from the dead and bringeth forth the dead from the living; and Who directeth the course? They will say: Allah. Then say: Will ye not then keep your duty (unto Him)?
Transliteration Qul may yarzuqukum minas sama_'i wal ardi ammay yamlikus sam'a wal absa_ra wa may yukhrijul hayya minal mayyiti wa yukhrijul mayyita minal hayyi wa may yudabbirul amr(a), fa sayaqu_lu_nalla_h(u), fa qul afala_ tattaqu_n(a).
10: 32
Pickthall Such then is Allah, your rightful Lord. After the Truth what is there saving error? How then are ye turned away!
Transliteration Fa za_likumulla_hu rabbukumul haqq(u), fa ma_za_ ba'dal haqqi illad dala_l(u), fa anna_ tusrafu_n(a).
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16. [an-Nahl, Mecca 70]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَاللّهُ أَنزَلَ
مِنَ الْسَّمَاء
مَاء فَأَحْيَا
بِهِ الأَرْضَ
بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا...
16: 65. And Allah sends down rain from the skies, and gives therewith life to the earth after its death:
... إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآيَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يَسْمَعُونَ ﴿٦٥﴾
verily in this is a Sign for those who listen.
C2092. When the earth with all its vegetation is well-nigh dead, parched and shriveled up, a vivifying shower of rain from above gives it new life.
This natural phenomenon is a sign of Allah's infinite power, especially of His power to resurrect the dead, and thereafter muster them for judgment. [Eds.]
Other Versions:
16: 65
Asad And God sends down water from the skies, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless: in this, behold, there is a message indeed for people who listen.
Pickthall Allah sendeth down water from the sky and therewith revives the earth after her death! Lo! herein is indeed a portent for a folk who hear.
Transliteration Walla_hu anzala minas sama_'i ma_'an fa ahya_ bihil arda ba'da mautiha_, inna fi za_lika la a_yatal liqaumiy yasma'u_n(a).