The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 290
CH. 23 AL-MU'MINÜN many benefits, and of them you also eat; 2526 PT. 18 كَثِيرَةٌ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَعَلَيْهَا وَعَلَى الْفُلْكِ تُحْمَلُوْنَ 23. And "on them and on ships jégk you are borne. 2527 "16:8-9; 36:42-43; 43:13. 2526. Important Words: (lesson) is derived from C and means, admonition or exhortation; or an admonition or exhortation by which one takes warning or example; a thing by which one is admonished; an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance knowledge of what is not seen from the knowledge of what is seen (Lane & Arab). See also 4:44. Commentary: to The verse means to say that man derives great benefits from the cattle. They are living machines which produce for him such a wholesome and nutritious food as milk, from fodder, grain herbage and leaves of trees, etc. which they eat. Man has so far failed to devise a machine which like these divinely devised machines could produce milk from these things. The word which as given under "Important Words" above, means an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge seems to allude to the subtle process which takes place in the bellies of some of the animals and which turns grass or herbage eaten by them into pure and wholesome milk and by pondering over which one is led to acquire an insight into God's great power and into the subtle ways through which divine laws work. By this simile of grass and milk we are led to think that just as fodder, grain and grass, without passing through the wonderful machine created by God in the bellies of animals, cannot produce milk, similarly human reason which is like grass and grain, cannot produce, without the aid and assistance of Divine revelation, a teaching which like milk is very useful for man's moral and spiritual development. 2204 2527. Commentary: The cattle are very useful animals. We eat their flesh, drink their milk and use them also as mounts and as beasts of burden, etc. Similarly, ships are extremely useful things. Reference has been made in this and the preceding few verses to several of the things which are highly beneficial to man for his material needs and upon which to a very large extent his very existence depends. It is quite obvious that God Who has made such vast provision for the physical needs of man could not have failed to make similar provision for his moral and spiritual needs. This is the meaning and purport of this verse.