The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 492
CH. 16 AN-NAHL PT. 14 held under subjection in the الَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى الطَّيْرِ مُسَخَّرَاتٍ فِي جَو Do they not see the birds. 80 السَّمَاءِ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا اللهُ إِنَّ فِي vault of heaven? None keeps ذُلِكَ لَآيَتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ them back save Allah. Verily, in that are Signs for a people who believe. 1880 "67:20. not only does not make proper use of these faculties for the attainment of this noble object but often misuses them and thus, instead of winning the pleasure of God, deserves and draws upon himself His punishment. The verse continues the main theme of the chapter and gives one more argument in support of the need for Divine revelation viz. that when man is born he is devoid of all kinds of knowledge but is endowed with the faculties of hearing, sight and understanding. With their help he gradually acquires knowledge of the physical world. He depends upon these Divine gifts for the acquisition of material knowledge but in the matter of spiritual knowledge he has the hardihood to deny the need of Divine guidance. The words, that you might be grateful, point to the fact that the gifts of God as mentioned in this verse should have naturally led man to grateful appreciation of Divine grace, but instead they serve to make him proud and so deny the need of Divine assistance. One point worthy of special note in this verse is that the faculties of hearing, seeing and understanding have been mentioned in the order in which they help man to acquire knowledge. Scientists have only recently discovered the fact that first of all a new-born child makes use of the power of hearing. The faculty of seeing develops later and the faculty of understanding is the last to mature. The fact that in many of the lower animals the eyes of the young remain closed for several days after birth confirms the above view. The fact that the Quran should have mentioned a physiological truth which was not generally known at the time of its revelation certainly constitutes an unanswerable argument in favour of its Divine origin. 1880. Commentary: Some commentators of the Quran erroneously consider that this verse alludes to the Almightiness of God Who has given the birds the power to fly in the air but there is no such allusion here to any such power and might of God. The verse only contains a reference to the punishment that was soon to overtake the disbelievers of Mecca. The keeping back of the birds signifies the withholding of the punishment that was in store for them. Arabic poetry abounds in verses where birds are spoken of as attending a victorious army to feed on the dead bodies of 1700