Man has been made superior to all creations in this universe so that he should observe everything around him, feel and ponder over the purpose of life. Many of us though think less and enjoy more, forgetting that Allah has not created us purposelessly. There has to be a greater reason than we can ever imagine.
Man is thus reminded time and again to use his hearing and vision to excavate the true purpose of life - but we remain ungrateful and set aside the Divine guidelines which if pondered over, we will be more than grateful to Allah for having us made humans with a faculty of feeling as well as of rational thinking, and not mere mindless animals.
قُلۡ هُوَ الَّذِىۡۤ اَنۡشَاَكُمۡ وَجَعَلَ لَـكُمُ السَّمۡعَ وَالۡاَبۡصَارَ وَ الۡاَفۡـئِدَةَ ؕ قَلِيۡلًا مَّا تَشۡكُرُوۡنَ
( 23 ) Say, "It is He who has produced you and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful."
That is, Allah had made you men, not cattle. You were not meant to follow blindly whatever error and deviation you found prevailing in the world, without considering for a moment whether the way you had adopted was right or wrong. You have not been given these ears that you may refuse to listen to the one who tries to distinguish the right from the wrong for you, and may persist in whatever false notions you already had in your mind. You have not been given these eyes that you may follow others like the blind and may not bother to see whether the signs scattered around you in the world testified to the unity of God, which the Messenger (peace be upon him) of God is preaching, or whether the system of the universe is Godless, or is being run by many gods simultaneously.
Likewise, you have also not been given this knowledge and intelligence that you may give up thinking and understanding to others and may adopt every crooked way that was enforced by somebody in the world, and may not use your own intellect to see whether it was right or wrong. Allah has blessed you with knowledge and intelligence, sight and hearing, so that you may recognize the truth, but you are being ungrateful to Him in that you are employing these faculties for every other object than the one for which these had been granted. (For further information, see explanation of verses (59-60 of Surah An- Naml); (80 of Surah Al-Mominoon); (9 of Surah As-Sajdah); (26 of Surah Al-Ahqaf).
Tafsir Ibn Kathir: Allah's Power to create and It being an Evidence of the Final Abode:
Allah says, ( قُلْ هُوَ الَّذِى أَنشَأَكُمْ Say it is He Who has created you,) meaning, He initiated your creation after you were not even a thing worth mentioning (i.e., nothing). Then He says, ( وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْسَّمْعَ وَالاٌّبْصَـرَ وَالأَفْئِدَةَ and endowed you with hearing and seeing, and hearts.) meaning, intellects and powers of reasoning. ( قَلِيلاً مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ Little thanks you give.) meaning, how little you use these abilities that Allah has blessed you with to obey Him, to act according to His commandments, and avoid His prohibitions.
Yusuf Ali Explanation:
The Prophet is asked to draw constant attention to Allah, the source of all growth and development, the Giver of the faculties by which we can judge and attain to higher and higher spiritual dignity. And yet, such is our self-will, we use our faculties for wrong purposes and thus show our ingratitude to Allah.
Listen to eminent Muslim scholar Nouman Ali Khan explaining the meaning of the above mentioned verse:
If man makes the right use of his faculties and observes these things properly, he can find the truth, for it is obvious that the great mechanism of the universe could not have come into existence by a mere accident. There must be its Creator who need not have any associates or partners and that the universe could not have been created without a purpose as a mere sport. The very existence of a wonderful, rational thinking and feeling creature, man, who has been delegated with powers, is a clear proof that his real life will not come to an end at death.
May Allah help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.
For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'an. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'an. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that:
- The plain translation has been taken from the Qur'ān officially published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- The exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi.
In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided by [2], additional input has been interjected from following sources:
- Towards Understanding the Quran
- Tafsir Ibn Khatir
- Muhammad Asad Translation
- Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
- Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
- Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle
In addition the references of other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.
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