Topic: Cattle (An‘am)

See 2:209.

Important Words:

فرشا (for slaughter) is derived from فرش. They say فرشه i.e. he spread it or expanded it; or he prostrated it; or he threw it down (for slaughter). فرش means, what is spread on the ground, etc.; a plain tract of land; a depressed tract of land; shrubs or small trees; such animals as are fit for slaughter, or such as are thrown down for slaughter (Lane).

Commentary:

Apart from its primary meaning the verse also hints that the eating of lawful things is a means of ensuring one against the attacks of Satan.

2:8; 22:47; 45:24.

25:45.

Important Words:

The particle ل in the expression لجھنم is used to denote "end or result" and not "object" of the creation of the jinn and men. Such use is in perfect conformity with the idiom of the Arabic language, the لام in such a case being known as لام عاقبة(Lane).

Commentary:

The verse does not at all mean that men and jinn were created to be thrown into Hell. The use of the word "many" also belies that inference. Their creation, in fact, is intended to serve a great purpose (see 51:57). The present verse has thus nothing to do with the object of man’s creation, but only mentions the regrettable end of the life of many a man and jinn, the latter word also meaning a special class of men, i.e. rulers or chiefs or great men. They lead an evil life, the inevitable result of which is Hell. But from the way in which they spend their days in sin and iniquity it seems as if they were only created for Hell. The verse gives a brief but perfect description of those destined for Hell. They are the people whom God had endowed with understanding and with the faculty of perception and sight. They were blessed with all the necessary means by which they could find out and follow the right path and attain nearness to their Maker; but out of their perversity and waywardness they did not avail themselves of those means, with the result that they wandered away from the truth and fell into error. It was not, therefore, for Hell but for Heaven that God created them, but they themselves forsook the path of Heaven and chose the path of Hell.

The condition of such men is indeed worse than that of "cattle", because in spite of the fact that they possess understanding and the power to rise, they do not avail themselves of their understanding and, instead of rising (for which they are meant) ever go on falling lower and lower.

6:143; 23:22; 36:72-74; 40:80-81.

Commentary:

This verse contains a crushing reply to man’s arrogance referred to in the previous verse. It purports to say that though he has been created by God, yet he claims to be independent of Him. As regards himself, however, he exercises control over things which he has not created and freely subjects them to his service. Nay, he does not even hesitate to take their life, asserting that, as he is superior to all creation, it is permissible for him to slaughter animals for his own use. If it is true that lower life can be sacrificed for the higher one and if it is permissible for man to exact service from animals, then with what justification can he object to God’s rule over him or to the authority of His Messenger? Why does he cavil and carp when he sees in his own case the same law enforced which he himself enforces in the case of others?

The verse may have another interpretation. In the previous verse the objections of those who found fault with God for His sending down the angels with His word upon whomsoever of His servants He pleases were answered. Disbelievers objected to God’s selection of a person of humble origin for His revelation. The answer given was that when God had bestowed His favours upon them, although they had been created from such humble and paltry matter as seminal fluid, they could not possibly object to His bestowing His favours upon a Prophet whom they regarded as humble.

Commentary:

Another benefit which man derives from cattle is that their possession redounds to his glory. Man takes pride in the abundance of his material possessions in the form of buffaloes, cows, horses, camels, sheep, etc. It is strange that while in his own case he regards the possession of things of which he is not the creator as a source of legitimate pride and glory, in the case of God he thinks that after having brought him into existence He should have left him to himself, so that, instead of glorifying Him and extolling His praise, he should find fault with His works and become a source of mischief in the world. Why should man not think that God, Who is the Creator of all, would also like His creatures to become a source of beauty and glory for Him? i.e. to become possessed of high morals and reflect in their persons Divine attributes so as to bring home to doubters and disbelievers the nobility and dignity of God’s servants.

It is noteworthy that cattle are spoken of as "being driven" to pasture in the morning, and "returning" (not "being driven") in the evening. The use of two different expressions viz. تریحون (you bring them home in the evening) andتسرحون (you drive them forth to pasture in the morning) points to the fact that the young ones of the cattle are left behind when they are driven to pasture in the morning, and therefore the return of the cattle to their young in the evening is spontaneous without needing any driving. Also, contrary to the natural order, the coming home of cattle is here mentioned before their being driven to pasture in the morning. This is because there is more beauty and pride for the owner in a herd of cattle coming home in the evening well-fed, hale and strong, than when they go out to pasture weak and hungry in the morning with the added fear that all of them may not return home safe.

6:143; 36:73; 40:81.

Commentary:

When God has provided so many facilities for the physical journeys of man, how can He fail to provide similar facilities for his spiritual journey? To say that God is too exalted a Being to have such regard for the welfare of man as to provide for his spiritual needs is only a puerile pretext to deny Divine revelation. If God is Exalted, the verse seems to say, He is also Kind and Merciful to His creatures and therefore His solicitude for the spiritual wellbeing of man is not at all inconsistent with His Dignity and Majesty, and instead of detracting anything from His Glory, it rather enhances it. This Divinesolicitude for man’s welfare may metaphorically be called God’s carrying man’s burden for him.

The use of the word رءوف translated here as 'Compassionate' is intended to express that feeling of sympathy and love which one feels at seeing a person in trouble and distress. The verse means to say that as God is رءوف (Compassionate) He cannot bear to see man in distress.

36:73; 40:81; 43:13.

Commentary:

The word زینة (as a source of beauty) literally meaning ornament, is here used in the sense of splendour and pomp. This meaning is in keeping with the significance of the words, that you ride them, thus hinting that their beauty lies in their being used as a means of conveyance. The animals mentioned in this verse are those that are used in warfare and serve to show the power and might of a people in opposition to the enemy.

In this and the preceding three verses, the Quran speaks of two kinds of things created for the good of man: (1) those that are of use to him in his private life; (2) those that serve his political ends. These things have been created to serve the following six purposes; (a) to protect man from the inclemency of weather; (b) to provide him with food; (c) to bring him honour and glory; (d) to carry his burdens; (e) to be used as a means of personal conveyance; and (f) to serve as a source of strength and power for him.

The verse purports to say that when God has taken so much care to provide for the above six physical and material needs of man, the idea cannot be entertained for a single moment that He should have neglected to make a similar provision for his spiritual needs. The verse also hints that although man exacts work from other creatures in spite of the fact that he is not their creator, he denies God (Who does not derive any benefit from him) the right to reform and guide him to a stage where he should constitute an evidence of His Holiness and Sanctity and a means of His glorification.

The expression, And He will create what you do not yet know, embodies a prophecy that God will bring into existence new means of conveyance which were yet unknown to man. This prophecy has been wonderfully fulfilled by the discovery of comfortable and ever-increasing means of conveyance such as railway trains, steamships, motor cars, aeroplanes, etc. God only knows what new means of conveyance are yet to be discovered by man.

As against the six physical objects enumerated above, the six spiritual characteristics that the word of God must possess are the following:

(1) It should protect man from the evil effects of heat and cold, i.e. it should guard him against extremes in everything. Absence of the love of God may be called cold in religious terminology and abusing or persecuting in the name of religion those who differ from us in their views and compelling them to subscribe to our views against their will may represent heat. The word of God inspires man with His love on the one hand and on the other enjoins its followers to be tolerant towards those who hold views different from theirs.

(2) It should serve the purpose of spiritual food, i.e. it should contain all those elements which develop and strengthen the spiritual faculties of man. It should inculcate teachings which tend to suppress and subdue his evil inclinations and propensities and inspire him with spiritual strength and vigour.

(3) It should be a source of beauty and glory i.e. those who act upon it should appear beautiful and dignified in the eyes of others. Their compatriots should feel and admit that the word of God has worked a great revolution in their lives.

(4) It should bear man’s burdens, i.e. it should make him realize his duties and responsibilities and, by freeing him from the shackles of superstitious customs and usages, should enable him to achieve true liberty.

(5) It should serve as a means of conveyance, i.e. it should help man speedily to attain nearness to his Creator by understanding and realizing His attributes, and should save him from a long and fatiguing spiritual journey.

(6) It should impart vigour and strength to man, i.e. by acting upon it, its followers should lead a respectable and honourable life in both worlds, their organization should become strong, and they should win the esteem and regard of nations by living up to their ideals and teachings.

These are the six essential qualities which the word of God must possess and without which it forfeits the title of being called Divine.

23:22.

Important Words:

سائغا (pleasant) is derived from ساغ. They say ساغ فی الحلق i.e. it (beverage) was easy and agreeable to swallow or it passed the faeces easily and agreeably. ساغ له ما فعل means, what he did was allowable to him. ساغت به الارض means, the ground or earth sank with him; or sank with him and swallowed him up or enclosed him. سائغ applied to beverage or wine and food, means, descending easily and agreeably down the throat or easy and agreeable to swallow; not choking (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The word انعام translated as "cattle" includes the camel, the cow, the goat, the sheep, etc. All these are very useful animals. Their flesh and milk form the principal articles of man’s food. They are also used as means of conveyance and for carrying loads. In short they are of great use to man in many ways.

While drawing attention to the great and manifold benefits that man derives from these animals, the verse uses the word عبرة which means, 'an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge'. The word seems to allude to some subtle process taking place inside the bellies of some of these animals by pondering over which one is led 'to pass from ignorance to knowledge'. The subtle process is something like this. The cattle eat grass, herbage, leaves of trees, etc. Of this faecal matter is formed in their intestines in the course of digestion. Part of that faecal matter becomes converted into blood which supplies the nutrients to form sweet and wholesome milk. Intelligent and reverential study of this conversion of grass or leaves of trees into milk in the bellies of the animals leads to the inevitable conclusion that the natural propensities and inclinations of man cannot lead him to the right path unless they are controlled and regulated by some heavenly machine which is Divine revelation.

This verse affords one more evidence of the Divine origin of the Quran. The process the Quran has described of the formation of milk from faeces and blood was not known to man until very recent times. It was not known to the old commentators of the Quran. They have, therefore, greatly stumbled and erred in explaining this verse. For example, Zamakhshari, the well-known author of Al-Kashshaf, says that when food goes into the belly of an animal its lower portion forms the faeces, the middle portion milk and the upper part becomes turned into blood. The verse under comment, however, clearly, states that the matter of which milk is made passes through the forms of faeces and blood before it assumes the form of milk. This fact has been discovered by scientists only in recent times.

The verse does not mean that man cannot produce milk synthetically. What is here meant is that he cannot produce it in such quantity that it may become an article of food. This is only possible in the way mentioned in this verse. Synthetically prepared milk can no more be a substitute for natural milk than artificial showers of rain are for natural rain.

The verse also suggests that just as man can only corrupt food but cannot convert it into milk, even so can he only corrupt Divine teaching but it is not in his power to convert the defective laws devised by himself into eternal spiritual truths.

Important Words:

اثاثا (household goods) is derived from the word which means, it was or became much in quantity; abundant or numerous and great or large.

اث النبات means, the herbage was or became abundant or plenteous and tangled or luxuriant.اثاث means, goods; or utensils and furniture of a house or tent; household goods; all property consisting of camels, and sheep or goats and slaves and utensils and furniture or household goods or abundant property (Lane).

Commentary:

Disbelievers are told here not to excite the displeasure of God by rejecting His Prophet and thus deprive themselves of His great blessings and boons.

10:25; 25:50; 32:28.

Important Words:

النھی (reason) is derived from نھی (naha). They say نھاہ عن کذا i.e. he forbade him to do such a thing. نھی (nuha) is the plural of نھیة (nuhyatun) which means, reason. It is so called because reason restrains a man from doing what is bad and from all that which is contrary to reason and common sense (Aqrab).

Commentary:

The truths narrated in the previous verse constitute "Signs" or proofs of the existence of God. They also prove the need of Divine revelation, because they show that if God has made so much provision for the physical needs of man, He must have made similar provision for his spiritual needs also.

2:199; 5:3.

2:204.

Commentary:

Apart from the spiritual good that the Pilgrimage does to a Muslim, it possesses great social and political significance. It has great potentialities for welding different Muslim countries into one strong international brotherhood of Islam. Muslims from all parts of the world, who meet at Mecca once a year can exchange views on all sorts of matters of international importance, renew old and establish new contacts. They have opportunities to acquaint themselves with the problems that confront their brethren in faith in other countries, to copy one another’s good points and profit by one another’s experience and also to cooperate with one another in many other ways. Mecca being God’s appointed centre of Islam, the Pilgrimage can serve as a sort of a United Nations Organization for the whole Muslim world. All other religions have failed to produce such a forum for the exchange of international ideas and programmes. But it is regretted that Muslims have not yet awakened to the realization of Mecca being an international capital for the whole Muslim world. These are some of the material benefits and advantages to which reference has been made in the words, "that they may witness its benefits;" and the words "and may mention the name of Allah," refer to the great spiritual benefits which Muslims can and should derive from the Pilgrimage to Mecca. See also 3:98.

5:5; 6:119.

5:74; 16:23; 37:5.

Important Words:

منسکا (rites of sacrifice) is derived from نسك . They say نسك الذبیحة i.e. he slaughtered and sacrificed the animal. نسك الرجلmeans, the man led a life devoted to God; he practised virtue and piety. نسك للّٰه means, he sacrificed seeking to win the pleasure of God; he did good deeds willingly and spontaneously in order to win nearness to God. نسك الثوب means, he washed the cloth. منسك means, rites of sacrifice; place where those rites are performed; one’s native place. مناسك الحج means, the religious rites and ceremonies of the Pilgrimage.

For مخبتین see 11:24.

Commentary:

With this verse begins the subject of sacrifice, one of the three main themes with which this Surah deals, the other two being Hajj and jihad.

The words "And to every people We appointed rites of Sacrifice," show that the commandment relating to Sacrifice is not confined to Islam. Sacrifice is common to all religions because they have proceeded from the same Divine source. It also appears from this verse that it was the sacrifice of animals that was originally enjoined on the followers of all religions and that the cruel practice of offering human beings as sacrifice was a later innovation.

In view of the different meanings of the root word true sacrifice possesses three essential characteristics:-

(a) It should be fully voluntary and spontaneous;

(b) It should be offered with the purest of motives, i.e. only to win the pleasure of God;

(c) It should not be offered from ulterior motives and material considerations.

Thus the first commandment relating to sacrifice though apparently very simple is of great inward significance. It is that sacrifice should be offered only for the sake of Allah and that Allah’s name should be invoked while the animal is being slaughtered for food. This not only sanctifies and blesses the food but is also calculated to turn attention to the sublime object underlying the act of slaughtering the animal—to win the pleasure of God and to be prepared to sacrifice the dearest thing in His way and for His sake.

The words, "So your God is one God, therefore, submit ye all to Him," have twofold significance: (1) The fact that the rite of sacrifice is common to all religions, although they are so widely separated from one another as regards the time and place of their origin, shows that originally they all emanated from the same Supreme Source and that the God of all nations is One God. (2) That the object underlying sacrifice is to realize and proclaim the Oneness of God by sacrificing our ambitions and aspirations, all our ideas and ideals and even life and honour for His sake, and by completely submitting ourselves to His commandments. The concept of sacrifice according to Islam does not consist in appeasing an offended deity or in atoning for one’s sins but in sacrificing one’s all for the sake of God and in the way of God. Those who have full realization of this concept of sacrifice are called (humble) in the language of the Quran.

6:143; 16:6; 36:72-73; 40:80-81.

Important Words:

عبرة (lesson) is derived from عبر and means, admonition or exhortation; or an admonition or exhortation by which one takes warning or example; a thing by which one is admonished; an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge of what is not seen from the knowledge of what is seen (Lane & Arab). See also 4:44.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that man derives great benefits from the cattle. They are living machines which produce for him such a wholesome and nutritious food as milk, from fodder, grain herbage and leaves of trees, etc. which they eat. Man has so far failed to devise a machine which like these divinely devised machines could produce milk from these things. The word عبرة which as given under "Important Words" above, means an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge seems to allude to the subtle process which takes place in the bellies of some of the animals and which turns grass or herbage eaten by them into pure and wholesome milk and by pondering over which one is led to acquire an insight into God’s great power and into the subtle ways through which divine laws work. By this simile of grass and milk we are led to think that just as fodder, grain and grass, without passing through the wonderful machine created by God in the bellies of animals, cannot produce milk, similarly human reason which is like grass and grain, cannot produce, without the aid and assistance of Divine revelation, a teaching which like milk is very useful for man’s moral and spiritual development.

7:180.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that when in spite of his being endowed with the faculties of intellect and hearing which should help him to recognize and realize truth, man refuses to make proper use of these God-given faculties to see light, and instead chooses to grope in darkness, he comes down to the level of cattle, even lower than that, because cattle are not given the gift of discretion and discrimination while man is.

The verse also implies an allusion to the great reformation brought about by the Holy Prophet in the lives of his people. They were no better than animals and beasts. They worshipped images and held foolish and superstitious ideas. They gambled and drank and indulged in extreme sexual excesses and depleted and destroyed their manhood by fighting for generations about trivialities. They had no idea of moral virtues or at best had a very low concept of them and did not know economics or statecraft. Such were the people among whom the Holy Prophet Muhammad was raised and history bears witness to the fact that he wrought a wonderful reformation among them. From the dregs of humanity they rose to be its cream.

Commentary:

Arabia before the Holy Prophet’s appearance was a spiritually dead land. Heavenly rain in the form of the Quranic revelation descended upon it and the whole country began to pulsate and vibrate with a new life and in turn imparted a new life to the world around it.

The words, "cattle and men" refer to two classes of men. Those who had become morally so depraved as apparently to be beyond redemption have been described as "cattle" and those who were spiritually somewhat better have been described as "men" in this verse. The former have already been referred to in v. 45 above. Both these classes of people drank deep at the fountain which the Holy Prophet caused to flow and by drinking of the Quranic elixir they got a new and everlasting life.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the kaleidoscopic variety in form, colour, and kind to which reference has been made in the preceding verse does not only exist in flowers, fruits and rocks, but in men, beasts and cattle as well. The words الناس (men), الدواب (beasts) and الانعام(cattle) may also represent men of different capabilities, dispositions and natural aptitudes. The words, "only those of His servants who possess knowledge fear God," further lend weight to the view that these three words stand for three classes of men from among whom only those endowed with right knowledge fear God. Knowledge, here, however, does not necessarily mean spiritual knowledge but also knowledge of the laws of nature. A reverent study of nature and its laws inevitably leads one to realise the great powers of God and consequently makes him hold God in reverential awe.

Commentary:

After mentioning the fact that the Holy Prophet has been raised to impart spiritual life to a dead people, the Surah proceeds to give in the present and next few verses the reasons for a new revelation. When God has provided, the verses purport to say, all necessary things to meet man’s physical needs and requirements, it does not stand to reason that He should have neglected to make similar provision for his moral and spiritual needs. These verses refer to some of the things which man needs and uses most in his daily life.

6:143; 16:6; 40:80-81.

16:6, 67.