Verse:77 Commentary - - - Verse:78 Commentary Commentary

The Divine statement: لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا (when you knew nothing - 78) indicates that knowledge is not an ingrained personal excellence of man. When born, man has no knowledge or skill. Then, in proportion to growing human needs, man is made to absorb some knowledge, bit by bit, directly from Allah Ta' ala in which no role is played by the parents or teachers. First of all, man was taught to cry. This one qualification alone provides all he needs at that time. Hungry or thirsty, he cries. Feels hot or cold, he cries. If some other discomfort bothers him, he would still cry. Nature has poured a special kind of love in the hearts of the father and the mother for the needs of the infant, because of which, when they hear the sounds made by the child, they become all too eager to find out what is bothering the baby, and all too willing to remove the problem. If the child was not inducted into this act of crying as part of his or her early education from a side no less than that of Allah Himself, who else could have trained the child to employ this skill and start crying like that as and when there be some need. Along with it, Allah Ta' ala also taught the child, inspiration-wise, that he or she should use gums and lips to suck milk, the child's energy food, from the breast of the mother. If this education and training was not natural and direct, no teacher anywhere could dare make this newborn learn to pout and move the mouth right and suck nipples on the breast. Thus, with the increase in the needs of the child, nature took care of teaching its charge directly without the intermediary link of the father and mother, in a manner almost spontaneous and self-regulating. After the passage of some time, the child starts learning a little by hearing parents and others around say what they do, or pick up a few tips by seeing a few things around. This, then, creates in the child the ability to understand sounds heard and things seen.

Therefore, after: لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا (when you knew nothing) in the verse under comment, it was said: وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ‌ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ (and He made for you ears, eyes and hearts). It means: Though, human beings knew nothing about anything at the early stage of their birth, but nature had installed in their very frame of existence novel instruments to fulfill their need to learn. Out of these instruments, the first to be mentioned was سَمَع 'sam' a', that is, the faculty of hearing which precedes perhaps for the reason that the very first knowledge, and the most of it, comes through nothing but ears. In the beginning, eyes are closed, but ears hear. Furthermore, if we were to think about it, we shall not fail to realize that the amount of information one acquires in a whole life time is mostly what has been heard with ears. Information collected visually is much less than that.

After these two, comes information which one deduces by deliberating into things heard and seen. According to the statements of the Qur'an, this is a function of the human heart. Therefore, stated at number three is: أَفْئِدَةَ (afidah) which is the plural of: فُواد fu' ad which means the heart. Scientists identify the human brain as the center of understanding and reason. But, the statement of the Qur'an tells us that though the brain plays a role in this process of reasoning, yet the real center of knowledge and reason is the heart.

On this occasion, Allah Ta'a1a has mentioned the faculties of hearing, seeing and understanding. Speech was not mentioned because speech plays no role in the acquisition of knowledge. It is, rather, a source of the expression of knowledge. In addition to that, according to Imam Al-Qurtubi, the word: سَمَع 'sam' a" (hearing) is inclusive of نُطق nutq (speech) as a corollary, as experience bears out that a person who hears speaks as well. A person deprived of the power of speech remains deaf in the ears as well. Perhaps, the reason why a dumb person cannot speak lies in the person's very inability to hear any sounds which could make learning to speak through hearing possible. وَاللہُ اَعلم Wallahu a` lam: 'And Allah knows best' is a standard appendage to conclusions where definite knowledge about a subject in flux is not available or accessible or reliable. For a believer, this serves as a safety device against the possibility of having made any false statements, which may be a sin. Verse:79 Commentary - - - Verse:80 Commentary In the statement: وَاللَّـهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّن بُيُوتِكُمْ سَكَنًا (And Allah has made for you of your houses a place of comfort - 80), the word: بُيُوتِ (buyut) is the plural of bayt (بَیت) which means a house where night could be spent. Imam Al-Qurtubi says in his Tafsir:

کُلُّ مَا عَلَاکَ فَاَظَلَّکَ فَھُوَ سَقفُ وَّسَمَآُء وَ کُلُّ مَآ اَقَلَّکَ فَھُوَاَرضُ وَّ کُلُّ مَا سَتَرَکَ مِن جِھَاتِکَ الاَربَعِ فَھُوَ جِدَارُ فَاِذَا انتَظَمَت فَھُوَ بَیتُ

'Whatever is above your head and provides shade for you is roof or sky, and whatever holds you atop is earth, and whatever screens you out from all four sides are walls, and when (all these components are) put together properly, that is a house.

The real purpose of making a house is to have peace for body and heart

Here, by calling the human house a place of comfort and peace Allah Ta' ala has made the logic and wisdom of making houses fully evident, that is, its real purpose is to have comfort of the body and peace of the heart. Customarily, the avenues of human work lie outside houses. Human work owes its existence to human movement and struggle. The real purpose of one's house is to go there, when tired after moving around and doing things, and rest and enjoy peace - even though, there are times when one keeps moving around and doing things in one's own house, but such instances are usually on the lower side.

This help us realize that peace is really the peace of mind and heart, something one finds in one's home only. This also tells us that the highest qualification of human home is that it provides peace. The world of today is at the height of its building craze. Limitless expenditure is incurred on their superficial finishing. But, there are very few homes among them which would provide peace of mind and heart. In fact, the artificially imposed additions in them become the very agents which destroy comfort and peace, and even in the absence of such material extravagance, the kind of people one confronts in the house is a misfortune which sucks that peace away. When such elegant houses are compared with a modest hut, the dweller of the hut who is blessed with comfort and peace for his body and heart is certainly living in a better place.

The Qur'an manifests the 'elan vital, the essence and the root of everything. Hence, peace was declared to be the real purpose of human home, and the greatest need indeed. Similarly, the real purpose of marital life was also determined to be peace as in: لِّتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا (so that you may enjoy peace with her - 30:21). A married life which fails to achieve this pur-pose remains deprived of the real benefit destined for it. Life in our day is infested with so many customs and formalities reaching the limits of absurdity in showing what you have through all sorts of artificial veneers. To compound the problem further, the outpourings of Western cultural and social norms and products have provided everything one needs to embellish personal surroundings with artificial decor - but, it has certainly made human beings become all deprived of what would be real comfort for their bodies and peace for their hearts.

The statement: مِّن جُلُودِ الْأَنْعَامِ (from the hides of the cattle - 80) and the statement: أَصْوَافِهَا وَأَوْبَارِ‌هَا out of their wool and their fur and their hair 80) prove that it is Halal to use everything out of the hide, wool and hair of animals. Here, even the restriction that the animal be properly slaughtered or be a dead animal does not exist, nor is there any restriction as to their meat being Halal or Haram. It is perfectly Halal to use the hides of the animals of this kind by tanning them, and as for hair and wool, the death of the animal leaves just no effect on them. That remains halal and permissible without any specific technical treatment. This is the Madhab (creed) of the great Imam, Abu Hanifah. However, the hide of swine and all parts thereof are unclean and unfit for use under all conditions. Verse:81 Commentary Finally, a note about the statement: سَرَ‌ابِيلَ تَقِيكُمُ الْحَرَّ‌ (shirts which protect you from heat - 81). Here, protection from heat has been identified as the purpose of a shirt - though, a shirt protects one from heat and cold both. This has been answered by Imam Al-Qurtubi and other commentators by saying that the Holy Qur' an has been revealed in the Arabic language, its first addressees are Arabs, therefore, it speaks by taking Arab habits and needs into account. Arabia is a hot country where the very thought of snow and winter chill is far-fetched, therefore, the statement was left with the mention of protection from heat as being sufficient. Yet another explanation for this has been given by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanavi in Bayan al-Qur' an by saying that in the beginning of this Surah, the Qur' an had already said: لَكُمْ فِيهَا دِفْءٌ (and for you, there is provision against cold in them - 16:5). Thus, it was in view of this earlier mention of beating cold and having warmth that only protection from heat has been mentioned here. Verse:82 Commentary - - - Verse:83 Commentary - - -