2 Sura al-Baqara

The Quranic text and 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!.

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