The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 439
PT. 14 AN-NAHL CH. 16 وَتَحْمِلُ أَثْقَالَكُمْ إِلَى بَلَدٍ لَّمْ تَكُونُوا 8. And they carry your loads to a land which you could not بُلِغِيْهِ إِلَّا بِشِقِّ الْاَنْفُسِ إِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ reach except with great hardship لَرَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمُن to yourselves. Surely, your Lord is Compassionate, Merciful. 1809 وَالْخَيْلَ وَالْبِغَالَ وَالْحَمِيرَ لِتَرْكَبُوهَا And He has created horses. 9 وَزِيْنَةً وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ and mules and asses that you may ride them, and as a source of beauty. And He will create what you do not yet know. 1810 a6:143; 36:73; 40:81. b36:73; 40:81; 43:13. 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. 1809. 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 Divine solicitude for man's welfare may metaphorically be called God's carrying man's burden for him. The use of the word 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, (Compassionate) He cannot bear to see man in distress. 1647 1810. Commentary: The word aus (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