The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 267
PT. 2 AL-BAQARAH It is also used about beasts used for riding or for carrying burden, like the horse, the mule, the donkey, etc. (Lane). سخر CH. 2 man, He cannot be imagined to have neglected his spiritual needs which are much more important. Let all thinking men think and ponder and (pressed into service) is the again think and ponder. passive participle from sakhkhara. They say (sakhkhara- hū or sakhara-hū, not sakhira which gives a different meaning), i. e. (1) he employed him or imposed on him a task without compensation; (2) he subjugated him and made him subservient to himself. Thus is that who or which has been made subservient to another, being unable The Quran takes the universe as a whole to prove its theme. The objects of nature taken individually do not furnish such conclusive evidence of the existence of God as the whole to free himself or itself from constraint (Aqrab). Commentary: This verse gives a twofold meaning, one literal and the other metaphorical. In the former sense, it supplies an argument in support of the existence of God referred to in the preceding verse. A careful study of the universe unfailingly points to a Creator on the one hand and to man being created with a definite object on the other. It also proves that, having created the world, God did not leave it alone but continues to watch over and control its affairs and is the First Cause of all change and every working in the universe. Heaven and earth, night and day (with alternating light and darkness), the supply of provisions, rainfall with its power of quickening and devastating, the means of communications, blowing of winds, and shade and sunshine, all point to one controlling agency, God, the Maker of heavens and earth. And if God has done so much for the material requirements of the 267 universe taken together. The earth may be said to owe its existence to a fortuitous concourse of atoms, or a similar reason may be given for the origin of the sun and the moon and so on. But when the universe as one united whole and the deep order that permeates it are taken into consideration, it becomes impossible to escape the conclusion that this universe has not come into existence accidentally. Indeed, the consummate harmony that prevails throughout the universe, forcefully points to the fact that the whole system has been created and is being directed by one Intelligent Being Who is All- Powerful and All-Knowing. Taken in the metaphorical sense, the ship mentioned in the verse will be taken to stand for Prophets who help men to cross the gulfs of carnal desires and materialistic concepts of things which separate men from God, rain being likened to God's revelation which comes down like rain and gives life to the world after it has become dead. The clouds send down no new water. Water already exists in the vast oceans of the earth but, as it is impure, men cannot make use of it. God purifies it and changes it into clouds and then sends it back to earth in the form of pure rainwater.