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Towards Understanding the Quran
With kind permission: Islamic Foundation UK
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 Surah Ar-Rum 30:20-22 [3/6]
  
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Verse Summary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
وَمِنْAnd among
ءَايَـٰتِهِۦٓHis Signs
أَنْ(is) that
خَلَقَكُمHe created you
مِّنfrom
تُرَابٍdust
ثُمَّthen
إِذَآbehold!
أَنتُمYou
بَشَرٌ(are) human beings
تَنتَشِرُونَdispersing.
﴿٢٠﴾
وَمِنْAnd among
ءَايَـٰتِهِۦٓHis Signs
أَنْ(is) that
خَلَقَHe created
لَكُمfor you
مِّنْfrom
أَنفُسِكُمْyourselves
أَزْوَٲجًاmates
لِّتَسْكُنُوٓاْthat you may find tranquility
إِلَيْهَاin them;
وَجَعَلَand He placed
بَيْنَكُمbetween you
مَّوَدَّةًlove
وَرَحْمَةً‌ۚand mercy.
إِنَّIndeed,
فِىin
ذَٲلِكَthat
لَأَيَـٰتٍsurely (are) Signs
لِّقَوْمٍfor a people
يَتَفَكَّرُونَwho reflect.
﴿٢١﴾
وَمِنْAnd among
ءَايَـٰتِهِۦHis Signs
خَلْقُ(is the) creation
ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ(of) the heavens
وَٱلْأَرْضِand the earth,
وَٱخْتِلَـٰفُand the diversity
أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ(of) your languages
وَأَلْوَٲنِكُمْ‌ۚand your colors.
إِنَّIndeed,
فِىin
ذَٲلِكَthat
لَأَيَـٰتٍsurely (are) Signs
لِّلْعَـٰلِمِينَfor those of knowledge.
﴿٢٢﴾


وَمِنۡ اٰيٰتِهٖۤ اَنۡ خَلَقَكُمۡ مِّنۡ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ اِذَاۤ اَنۡتُمۡ بَشَرٌ تَنۡتَشِرُوۡنَ‏  وَمِنۡ اٰيٰتِهٖۤ اَنۡ خَلَقَ لَكُمۡ مِّنۡ اَنۡفُسِكُمۡ اَزۡوَاجًا لِّتَسۡكُنُوۡۤا اِلَيۡهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيۡنَكُمۡ مَّوَدَّةً وَّرَحۡمَةً  ؕ اِنَّ فِىۡ ذٰ لِكَ لَاٰيٰتٍ لِّقَوۡمٍ يَّتَفَكَّرُوۡنَ‏  وَمِنۡ اٰيٰتِهٖ خَلۡقُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضِ وَاخۡتِلَافُ اَلۡسِنَتِكُمۡ وَاَلۡوَانِكُمۡ​ؕ اِنَّ فِىۡ ذٰلِكَ لَاٰيٰتٍ لِّلۡعٰلِمِيۡنَ‏ 

Translation
(30:20) And of His26 Signs is that He created you from dust and behold, you became human beings, and are multiplying around (the earth).27 (30:21) And of His Signs is that He has created mates for you from your own kind28 that you may find peace in them29 and He has set between you love and mercy.30 Surely there are Signs in this for those who reflect. (30:22) And of His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth31 and the diversity of your tongues and colours.32 Indeed there are Signs in this for the wise.

Commentary

26. It should be noted that from here to the end of (verse 27), the signs of Allah that are being mentioned, on the one hand, point to the possibility and occurrence of the life Hereafter, in the context of the foregoing discourse. And on the other hand, the same sings also point to the reality that this universe is neither Godless nor under many gods, but One God alone is its Creator, Disposer, Master and Ruler. Thus, this section (Ayats 20-27)is fully connected with the discourse preceding it and the discourse following it.

27. That is, the stuff from which man has been created is nothing but a few dead substances which are found in the earth, like carbon, calcium, sodium and a few other elements like them. With their combination a wonderful being, called man, has been raised up, and in him have been placed great powers of sentiments, consciousness, and imagination. None of which can be traced back to any of the constituent substances of his physical being. Then, not only has just one man so risen up by a mere accident, but in him has also been placed that wonderful procreative power by which millions and billions of human beings are coming continuously into being bearing the same physical structure and capabilities and possessing countless hereditary and personal characteristics. Therefore, O man! Does your intellect approve that this extremely wise creation has come into being of itself without the creative power of a Wise Creator? Can you say, being in your senses, that making a wonderful design of the creation of man and bringing it into effect and rendering the countless powers of the earth and heavens favorable and subservient to human life could be the result of the thinking and design of many gods? And will you be in your right senses when you think that the God, Who has brought man into being from absolute nothingness, will not be able to raise the same man back to life after giving him death?

28. That is, the Creator’s perfect wisdom is such that He has not created man in one sex only but in two sexes, which are identical in humanity, which have the same basic formula of their figure and form, but the two have been created with different physical structures, different mental and psychological qualities, and different emotions and desires. And then there has been created such a wonderful harmony between the two that each is a perfect counterpart of the other. The physical and psychological demands of the one match squarely with the physical and psychological demands of the other. Moreover, the Wise Creator is continuously creating the members of the two sexes in such a proportion since the dawn of the creation that in no nation and in no region has it ever happened that only boys or only girls may have been born. This is one thing in which human intelligence has absolutely no part to play. Man cannot at all influence the course of nature according to which girls continue to be born with the feminine qualities and the boys with the masculine qualities, which are perfectly complimentary to each other, nor has he any means by which he may change the proportion in which men and women continue to be born everywhere in the world. The working of this system and arrangement so harmoniously and perpetually in the birth of millions and billions of human beings since thousands of years cannot be accidental either, nor the result of the common will of many gods. This is a clear indication of the reality that One Wise Creator and One only, in the beginning made a most appropriate design of a man and a woman by His infinite Wisdom and Power and then made arrangements that precisely in accordance with that design countless men and countless women should be born along with their separate individual qualities in the right proportion.

29. That is, this system has not come about by chance, but the Creator has brought it about deliberately with the object that the man should find fulfillment of the demands of his nature with the woman, and the woman with the man, and the two should find peace and satisfaction in association and attachment with each other. This is the wise arrangement which the Creator has made the means of the survival of the human race on the one hand, and of bringing the human civilization into existence on the other hand. If the two sexes had been created on different patterns and designs, and the state of agitation which changes into peace and tranquility only through union and attachment between the two had not been placed in each, the human race might have survived like sheep and goats, but there was no possibility of the birth of a civilization. Contrary to all other species of animal life; the fundamental factor that has helped create human civilization is that the Creator by His wisdom has placed a desire and a thirst and a lodging in the two sexes for each other, which remains unsatisfied unless the two live in complete attachment and association with each other. This same desire for peace and satisfaction compelled them to make a home together. This same desire brought families and clans into being, and this same desire made social life possible for man. In the development of social life man’s mental capabilities have certainly been helpful, but they were not its real motives. The real motivating force was the same longing with which man and woman were endowed and which compelled them to establish the “home”. Can anyone, possessed of common sense, say that this masterpiece of wisdom has come about by chance through the blind forces of nature? Or, that it has been arranged so by many gods, and countless men and women have been continuously coming into being with the same natural longing since thousands of years? This is a sign of the wisdom of One Wise Being, and of One only, which the people devoid of common sense only can refuse to acknowledge.

30. “Love” here means sexual love, which becomes the initial motive for attraction between man and woman, and then keeps them attached to each other. “Mercy” implies the spiritual relationship which gradually develops in the matrimonial life, by virtue of which they become kind, affectionate and sympathetic towards each other; so much so that in old age, sexual love falls into the background and the two partners in life prove to be even more compassionate towards each other than they were when young. These two are the positive forces which the Creator has created in man to support the initial longing of his nature. That longing and restlessness only seeks peace and satisfaction and brings the man and the woman into contact with each other. After that these two forces emerge and bind the two strangers brought up in different environments so intimately together that the two remain attached to each other through every thick and thin of life. Evidently, this love and mercy which is being experienced by millions and millions of people in their lives, is not anything material, which may be weighed and measured, nor can it be traced back to any of the constituent element of human body, nor the cause of it birth and growth found out in a laboratory. The only explanation of this can be that the human self has been endowed with it by a Wise Creator, Who has done so of His own will to serve a special purpose.

31. That is, their coming into existence from nothingness and their being established an eternal law, and the functioning in them of innumerable forces in great harmony and equilibrium, contain many signs of the reality that One and One only Creator has brought the entire universe into existence, and He alone is running this grand system. On the one hand, by reflecting over the origin of the initial energy that assumed the form of matter, then the transformation of the matter into so many elements, then the combination of the elements in a wonderful and wise proportion and coming into being of an awe-inspiring system of the universe, and then the functioning of this system since billions of centuries with such regularity and discipline, every unbiased mind will come to the conclusion that all this could not happen by mere chance, without the all-embracing will of an All-Knowing, All-Wise Creator. Then, on the other hand, if one sees that every thing from the earth to the farthest stars in the universe is made up of the same basic elements and the same law of nature is working in it, every intellect, which is not stubborn, will certainly admit that this cannot be the result of the godhead of many gods but there is One God Who is the Creator and Sustainer of this whole universe.

32. That is, “Although your vocal chords are similar, and there is no difference in the structure of the mouth, the tongue and the brains, yet people speak different languages in different regions of the world. Even in the regions where the same language is spoken, different dialects are spoken from city to city and from town to town. Moreover, the accent and pronunciation and the style of speech of every person is different from the other. Similarly, although the semen and the formula of your physical structure is the same, yet your colors are so different that, nations apart, even the colors of the two sons of the same parents are not exactly the same. In this verse, attention has been drawn only to two aspects, but if one looks around he will notice an infinite variety everywhere in the world. One will find countless differences in the species of man, animal, plants and other things in spite of the basic uniformity in their different members; so much so that no member of the species is exactly identical with the other. Even the two leaves of a tree are not exactly alike. This shows that the world is not a factory in which automatic machines might be working and turning out things in mass production bearing the stamp of their own separate species. But in this factory there is a Master-Artist at work, Who gives individual attention to everything and produces it on a new design with new embellishments and proportions and qualities, and everything thus produced is unique in its own way. His inventive genius is turning out a new model of everything every moment, and His creative power abhors repeating the same design the second time. Anyone who sees this wonderful phenomenon with open eyes can never be involved in the foolish misconception that the Maker of the universe has gone to sleep after having made it go. This is, on the contrary, a clear proof of the fact that He is ever engaged in His creative activity, and is giving individual attention to each and everything in His creation.