Topic: Milk (Laban)

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.

13:36.

Important Words:

أنھار (rivers) is the plural of نھر which is inf. noun from نھر (nahara) which means, it flowed or flowed with force. نھر means, a river, a brook, a stream. The word also means, amplitude, or light and amplitude (Lane).

عسل (honey) is inf. noun from عسل (‘asala). عسل الطعام means, he prepared the food with honey. They say عسله i.e. he made him an object of eulogy; he made him an object of love to men. عسل means, honey; flowers or blossoms because honey is made therefrom; a good or righteous deed, the eulogy for which a person is deemed sweet (Lane).

Commentary:

The verse mentions four kinds of favours and blessings promised to believers in this and the next life, i.e. rivers of pure water, rivers of milk of which the taste does not change, rivers of wine which gives delight and rivers of clarified honey. The word أنھار which has been used four times in the verse, besides other senses, signifies light and amplitude; and عسلamong other things, means a good or righteous deed which wins for the doer the love and esteem of men. In view of the signification of these two words the verse may mean that the four things mentioned will be given to the righteous in plenty: viz. water which is the source of all life (21:31); milk which, besides giving health and vigour to the body, stands for spiritual knowledge; wine which gives pleasant sensations and forgetfulness of worries; and honey, being the means of curing many a disease, represents good and righteous deeds which make the believers beloved of men. Taken in the physical sense, i.e. pertaining to the present life, the verse would signify that in the present life the believers will have in plenty all those things which make life pleasant, delightful and useful; and taken symbolically and in a spiritual sense, it would mean that believers will have a full life, they will be endowed with spiritual knowledge, will drink the wine of God’s love and will do deeds that will win for them love and esteem of men.