Part 24

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“Allah it is Who raised up the heavens without visible supports, then mounted the Throne, and compelled the sun and _ the moon to be of service, each runs unto an appointed term; He details the revelations, that haply you may be certain of the meeting with your Lord.

“And He it is Who spread out the earth and placed therein firm hills and flowing streams, and of all fruits He placed therein two spouses (male and female). He covers the night with the day. Lo! herein verily are portents for people who take thought.

“And in the Earth are neighbouring tracts ...” (13:24).

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“Lo! in the heavens and the earth are portents for believers. And in your creation, and all the beasts that He scatters in the earth, are portents for people whose faith is sure.

“And the difference of night and day and the provision that Allah sends down from the sky and thereby quickens the earth after her death, and the ordering of the winds, are portents for people who have sense. These are portents of Allah which We recite unto you (Muhammad) with truth. Then in what fact, after Allah and His portents, will they believe?” (45: 3-6)

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“He has created the heavens without supports that you can see, and has cast into the earth firm hills, so that it quakes not with you; and He has dispersed therein all kinds of beasts. And We send down water from the sky and We cause plants of every goodly kind to grow therein.

“This is the creation of Allah. Now show me that which those you worship beside Him have created. Nay, but the wrongdoers are in error manifest.” (31: 1011)

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“He has created man from a drop of fluid, yet behold! he is an open opponent. And the cattle has He created, whence you have warm clothing and uses, and whereof you eat.” (16: 4-5)

“Is He then Who creates as him who creates not? Will you not then remember?” (16: 17)

Observe how He focuses on a single theme in this verse:

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whence you have drink, and whence the trees on which you send your beasts to pasture!” (16: 10)

while He concludes the same verse with a reference to the thinking group. The single note in the verse is because the point of interest is single, the water which falls from the sky, by which all that is mentioned in the verse grows

from the ground; all the mentioned plants with their variety have a single germinator and are born of the same mother, so they are all one type of His signs.

As for confining the benefitters to the thinking group, that is because the creatures mentioned are thoughtful beings, that it, they contemplate by the heart and not mere spectators; a looker on does not benefit by mere looking with the eye, unless it is coupled with the attention of the heart, which ponders the wisdom of what it sees, the splendour of creation, and its pointing to the Creator and Maker. This is the core of thinking. As for this clause in the verse quoted above :

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“herein verily are portents for people who have sense,” (13: 4) it covers all the preceding verses, because they refer to the day and night, the sun; the moon and the stars; all of which are different, varied signs in their structure, their creation and their qualities; the setting of the sun and the resultant darkness of the atmosphere embody manifest signs; the coming of the night, which covers the world like an apparel worn by it, bringing tranquillity to the creatures it covers, is a glowing sign; the arrival of the army of light, heralded by the harbinger of morning, when the army of dark is defeated, animals spread, and all dimness is removed, is another sign; the moon, the miracle of night, is another sign; the stars embody other signs as detailed above. There are besides other signs associated with this above and beyond the previous ones, including the winds with their variation and _ all that they cause of other signs. It is here fit to bring together the major portents of creation, and these portents are directed to the thinking people, because the signs mentioned in this context are more compelling than the

preceding ones, and are more physically massive; the previous ones are preparatory to these, so those who find in them guidance and give them their due of significance are worthy of being described as persons of thought, which is the mind. Because the status of intellect subsumes thought, those who are guided by the earlier signs to exercise thought are promoted in the next sign, which is more impressive, to the status of intellect, which is higher than thought. So, here is something for you to think over.

As for the following words from Surah An-Nahl, a little further down from the part quoted above:

“Therein is indeed a portent for people who take heed” (16: 13), the discussion is in singular terms, and at the same,time it addresses those who remember. Its singularity is identical with the previous one; what Allah has spread in the ground in its variety, precious stones, plants, minerals, and animals are all on the same place; they all are the same type of sign despite the diversity of their apparent shapes and types. Reserving it to the people of remembrance alone is in line with the Qur’anic method of using Allah’s signs for thinking and remembrance; as we read in a similar context in Surah Qaf:

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“And the earth have We spread out, and have flung firm hills therein, and have caused of every lovely kind to grow thereon. A vision and a reminder for every penitent

Vision is reflection and remembrance, and thought is the means to that and the first stage of it. If one thinks, he will gain insight; when he gains insight he will remember. In the above verse, remembrance is mentioned as a stage following the intellectual effort, and the latter is based on thought. Thought is given as the first stage, as being the first stage and the means, intellect occupies a middle ground as being the fruit and result of thought, while remembrance is kept to the end, since it is the aim of thought and intellect. So, here you have food for good thought.

Various stars have their specific types of radiation; many of those types are fatal to all known living beings. Radiation varies also as to intensity and amount by a range of thousands of times. As for our sun, if its radiation were to diminish to half its present amount, we would freeze. If it increased by half its present amount, we would have burned to ashes a long lime ago. From this it will be manifest that our sun is the single sun among the millions of suns that is fit for our life. Do you not think that these facts are worth pondering?

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The earth comes into being

If it is right the temperature of the earth at the time of its separation from the sun was about 12,000 F, the same as the surface temperature of the sun, all elements were free, which means that no significant chemical reaction was possible. When the earth, or its componcnts, started to cool down gradually, reactions started to take place, and the world as we know it began to take shape. Oxygen and hydrogen would not

have combined until the temperature fell to 4000 F. At this point, these two elements combined to form water, but it was in the form of vapour engulfing the earth, It must have been of immense volume at that time; all the oceans were still in the sky; all the elements had not yet combined; they were gases in the atmosphere. After water formed in space, it began to fall on the earth; but it could not reach it at first, as temperature close to land was higher than it was thousands of miles away. The time came, however, when floods did reach the earth, but they rose again as vapour. As all oceans were still suspended in the sky, the floods that took place with progressive cooling were unimaginable. The turbulence was accompanied with fragmentation, and a state of infinite chaos reigned for millions of years. But during this state of unthinkable disorder, oxygen was combining with many of the other elements; it combined for instance with available hydrogen and in this way oceans came into being. No doubt, enormous amounts of hydrogen escaped from earth gravity before this process of cooling down; otherwise the mass of water would have been so colossal that it would have drowned the earth several miles deep. It seems that things calmed down and settled about a billion years ago, and this paved the way for dry land and oceans, and the atmosphere, that close-to-earth layer that we call air. The combination of elements was so complete that what was left, i.e. air that consists mainly of oxygen and nitrogen, consists no more than one millionth of the earth’s mass.

is the difference, you may ask, between

remembrance and thinking? Recognizing the difference is beneficial to those who realize it. In answer to this I say: Thinking and remembrance are the basis of guidance and success, the two poles of happiness. That is why we

expatiated on thinking because of the great benefit connected to it and the great need for it. It is as Al-Hasan said: People of knowledge have always based remembrance on thought and thought on remembrance, and they addressed hearts until they came to be articulate, and they acquired hearing and vision.