The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 442
CH. 16 R. 2. AN-NAHL PT. 14 هُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً لَكُمْ مِنْهُ He it is Who sends down. 11 شَرَابٌ وَ مِنْهُ شَجَرٌ فِيهِ تُسِيمُونَ water for you from the clouds; out of it you have your drink, and there grow from it trees on which you pasture your cattle. 1812 "2:23; 6:100; 13:18; 16:66; 22:64 and which gives everyone his due, neither more nor less, can be devised and promulgated by God alone. On the contrary, as man is a slave of his sentiments, laws made by him can have regard only for his own sentiments and susceptibilities and can reflect only his own feelings to the exclusion of the feelings of other people. Only that Law can have due regard for all sorts of temperaments and dispositions and conditions and circumstances which is devised by that Being Who has created all men and Who has full knowledge of their temperaments and circumstances. He alone can maintain the right balance between men of different sentiments and ideas. It further appears from this verse that when God has arranged to satisfy the physical needs of man, it follows as a corollary that His word should satisfy his spiritual needs also. The words, And if He had enforced His will, He would have guided you all, suggest that if God had not undertaken to provide guidance for mankind, the only other alternative for Him would have been to make human nature such that man could not pursue a wrong course or deviate from the right path. But God in His infallible wisdom has not chosen to do so. So when He gave man the freedom and the choice to follow the right or the wrong course, He should have also revealed to him His guidance from time to time and should have helped him to avoid the wrong path in his march to the destined goal. 1812. Commentary: The Arabs were the first addressees of the Quran and in Arabia water is very scarce. So they have been told in this verse that water which is the source of all life and which brings out food and vegetation for them and their cattle is indeed a great gift of God. And, repeating the argument embodied in the preceding verse, the when God has made ample provision present verse goes on to say that for the physical needs of man, He could not have neglected to provide for his spiritual needs. Also that when man very gladly accepts and uses all the physical provisions made for him, why should he decline to make similar use of God's spiritual gifts? 1650 The expression (for you) in the verse points to the truth that the whole universe has been created for the service of man because he is the acme and end of all creation. So it is