Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 96

Overview (Verses 96 - 98)

Perfectionism at Its Best
 
He is the One who causes the day to break. He has made the night to be [a source of stillness], and the sun and the moon for reckoning. All this is laid down by the will of the Almighty, the All-Knowing. (Verse 96)
 
He who splits the grain and the fruit-stone is the One who causes the break of dawn. He has made the night a period of time when living things have their repose. Moreover, He has given the sun and the moon cycles that can be calculated with great accuracy. It is His power that controls everything in the universe. His knowledge overlooks nothing.
 
In the Arabic text the word used to denote the break of dawn is the same that describes the splitting of grains and fruit-stones. Life begins to spread as a result of dawn breaking in the same way as a plant shoots out of a grain that has been split. Aspects of vigour, liveliness and beauty are common to both phenomena. Moreover, there is an added link between these two phenomena and the stillness of the night. The cycles of morning and evening, activity and stillness in this planet have a direct bearing on plants and life. The fact that the earth revolves on its axis in front of the sun, the sizes given to the sun and the moon, the distances between them and the earth and the temperature of the sun are all determined by the Almighty who is in full control of all things and whose knowledge is faultless. Had these been different, life would not have sprung out of this earth in this fashion. We would not have had plants and trees sprouting forth from grains and fruit-stones.
 
Everything in the whole universe has been calculated and determined most accurately in order to determine the type and degree of life that exists in each part of it. There is simply no room for any coincidence in the universe. Indeed, even what some people call coincidence, or the result of chance, is subject to a definite law and is accurately calculated.
 
Some people say that life has been no more than a side affect in a small corner of the universe, to which the rest of the universe is blind or even hostile. They maintain that the fact that this type of life has taken place on a very small planet confirms the same. Indeed, some of them go further and say that the smallness of the earth suggests that had there been a god in control of the universe, he would not have bothered himself with this life. They assert such absurdities describing them at times as ‘scientific logic’ or ‘philosophical theories’, when they do not merit any discussion whatsoever.
 
Such people allow their prejudices to dictate their views. They do not pay heed to the results of their own scientific work which stares them in the face. When you read their writings you sense that they do everything in their power in order to evade a truism which they have already decided not to face. They see all the pointers asserting God’s existence, His oneness and absolute power everywhere in the universe, but they flee from acknowledging these facts. Every time they take a route hoping to avoid such a confrontation and manage to reconcile themselves to the universal fact, they find that they come to the same end. Agitated and scared, they hurriedly try another route, but again they come to the same end. They find that they must acknowledge God’s existence and His absolute power. Poor and helpless is what they are. One day they broke loose from the tyrannical rule of the Church, which was in the habit of imposing its fetters on people’s minds and souls. In their flight, they behaved “like terrified asses, fleeing from a lion.” (74: 50-1) But they continued in their flight until the early decades of the twentieth century, not daring to turn back and find out whether the Church was pursuing them, or whether it too was breathless like them.
 
They are indeed poor and helpless, because they have to face today the inescapable conclusions of their scientific work. Where can they flee?
 
Frank Allen, the Biophysicist whom we have already quoted, says in the same article:
 
The adjustments of the earth for life are far too numerous to be accounted for by chance. First, the earth is a sphere freely poised in space (“He hangeth the earth upon nothing” — Job 26: 7), in daily rotation on its polar axis, giving the alternation of day and night, and in yearly revolution around the sun. These motions give stability to its orientation in space, and, coupled with the inclination (23 degrees) of the polar axis to the plane of its revolution (the ecliptic), affords regularity to the seasons, thus doubling the habitable area of the earth and providing a greater diversity of plant life than a stationary globe could sustain.
 
Secondly, the atmosphere of life-supporting gases is sufficiently high (about 500 miles) and dense to blanket the earth against the deadly impact of twenty million meteors that daily enter it at speeds of about thirty miles per second. Among many other functions the atmosphere also maintains the temperature within safe limits for life; and carries the vital supply of fresh water- vapour far inland from the oceans to irrigate the earth, without which it would become a lifeless desert. Thus the oceans, with the atmosphere, are the balance-wheel of Nature.
 
Scientific evidence piles up in front of them and scientific facts support one another confirming that the theory of coincidence cannot give any plausible explanation for the origin of life. For life to begin, develop, progress, continue, be sustained and varied requires an endless number of balances and compatibilities in the design of the whole universe. Every scientist is aware of many of these in his own field, but beyond the total sum of these there are countless other balances and compatibilities that are required. How could they have come about except by the will and determination of the Almighty, the All-Knowing, who has given everything its shape and form, and guided it along its course of life, and who has created everything according to an established measure?
 
The sūrah continues with this awe-inspiring scene of the universe and relates it to human life and people’s interests and concerns. The whole space, with its sun, moon and stars, is portrayed as directly relevant to people’s lives: “It is He that has set up for you the stars, so that you may be guided by them in the deep darkness of land and sea. We have made Our revelations plain indeed to people who have knowledge.” (Verse 97)
 
On land and at sea people continue to find themselves lost at times and feel themselves to be in total darkness, and they continue to be guided by the stars. This used to be the case in ancient times, and it continues to be so today. Methods of being guided by stars may vary, and may indeed be wider in scope as a result of scientific discoveries, but the rule remains the same: these stars provide guidance out of darkness, whether the darkness be of the physical or mental type that affects people’s thinking and colours their concepts. The Qur’ānic statement remains valid at all times. It addresses mankind in their primitive days, and they find its address true in their lives. It also addresses human beings after they have made great scientific advances and far-reaching discoveries relating to man and the universe. They continue to find the Qur’ānic statement true in their practical world.
 
The Qur’ānic method remains unique. As it addresses men, it does not portray universal facts in the form of a theory. It portrays them as they are, so that we see beyond them the work of the Creator: His elaborate design and His grace. It, thus, addresses people’s hearts and minds, urging them to reflect and to make use of whatever knowledge they have in order to arrive at the great truth beyond. Hence, the verse which refers to the stars God has made to provide people with guidance in the darkness of land and sea is concluded with this inspiring comment: “We have made Our revelations plain indeed to people who have knowledge.” (Verse 97)
 
In order to be guided by the stars, people need to have knowledge of their positions, orbits and cycles as well as knowledge of how all these point to the Creator and His wisdom. As we have already said, the guidance is provided out of the physical darkness as well as the mental one. Those who make use of the stars to determine their route, without relating the information they receive from the stars to their Creator, do not receive their full benefit and do not have their full guidance. Such people overlook the relationship between the marvels of this universe and their definite pointer to the great Creator.
 
He it is who has brought you all into being from a single soul and has given you a dwelling and a place of sojourn. We have made Our revelations plain indeed to people of understanding.” (Verse 98)
 
This time the sūrah provides a direct touch referring to the single human soul in which both the male and the female have one nature. With that single soul life begins its first step towards procreation with a fertilized cell. Thus we have a soul which provides a dwelling place for this cell in the body of the male and a soul which gives it its place of sojourn in the female’s uterus. Life then begins its cycle of development, progress and procreation. The result is different races, tribes, nations, characteristics, colours and languages: countless patterns and widely different communities.
 
“We have made Our revelations plain indeed to people of understanding.” (Verse 98) A quality of understanding is necessary here in order to appreciate what God does with each single soul in order to bring out of it all those diverse communities and endless patterns. It also helps men to understand the remarkable compatibilities which are necessary to make conception the means for procreation and to always provide the appropriate numbers of human males and females, in order to establish the institution of marriage within which the process of conception and procreation operates. Marriage also provides the proper conditions for children to grow up within so that they, in turn, become fit to play their roles in promoting human life.
 
It is beyond the scope of this commentary to go deeper into this notion of necessary compatibilities. That would require a more specialized study. It is sufficient for our purposes here to mention that the sperm originates with male or female characteristics, and then the proper distribution dictated by God ensures that sufficient numbers of males and females are produced to sustain life and ensure its progress. We have mentioned earlier in this commentary that God’s will, which is free and absolute, determines whether the fertilized egg produces a male or a female child.
 
As God operates His will every time a human conception takes place, giving whomever He wills of His servants daughters or giving them sons, He ensures that a permanent balance is maintained between the numbers of males and females in the whole world. There may be local or temporary variations, but at the level of humanity as a whole, the balance is never disturbed. Its function is not merely to ensure procreation, but it also serves for the establishment of stable marital life. Conception and procreation can take place with a minimum number of males. However, God does not wish to make the preservation of the human species the sole purpose of the union between the male and the female. The purpose which distinguishes human beings from animals is the creation of a stable marital life between a man and a woman. Such stability ensures the most important result of allowing young children to be taken care of by their parents within a family atmosphere. In this way, the parents do not merely provide food and physical protection for their offspring, as animals do, but they also prepare them for their human role which requires that the children stay a much longer time with their parents than young animals do.
 
Maintaining such a permanent balance is a sufficient indication of the Creator’s elaborate planning and wisdom, provided people are endowed with understanding: “We have made Our revelations plain indeed to people with understanding.” (Verse 98) But the obstinate rejecters of the truth, particularly those who boast of their scientific approach and ridicule the notion of a world beyond, continue to persist in their obstinate rejection: “Even though they may see every sign of the truth, they do not believe in it.” (7: 146)