The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 5) — Page 509
AT-TĪN PT. 30 5. Surely, We have created man in "the best make; 4779 "23:13-15. CH. 95 لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍة from rotting and decaying. to some 3. According commentators "the Fig" stands for Buddhism, "the Olive" for Christianity, "Mount Sinai" for Judaism and "this City of Security" for the Holy Prophet of Islam. 4. But perhaps the best explanation of the symbolism used in these verses is the one according to which the four words represent four periods in the history of human evolution, "the Fig" representing the era of Adam, "the Olive" that of Noah, "Mount Sinai" that of Moses and "this City of Security" the Islamic epoch. This explanation finds ample support from the Bible and the Quran. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and found themselves naked, they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons (Gen. 3:7). About Noah we read: "And the dove came in to him in the evening; and lo! in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth" (Gen. 8:11) And it is an accepted fact that Moses received the Divine Law on Mount Sinai and that Mecca, the birthplace of Islam was, from time immemorial, regarded as, and proved to be, the "City of Security. " These four periods represent the four cycles through which man had to pass to reach the stage of complete development. In the cycle of Adam the foundations of human civilization were laid. Noah was the founder of the Shari'ah. In the cycle of Moses the details of the Shari'ah were revealed, while with the advent of the Holy Prophet the Divine Law became complete and perfect in all its manifold aspects, and man attained his complete intellectual, social, moral and spiritual development. The verse signifies that the circumstances of the Holy Prophet resemble those of Adam, Noah and Moses. Like them he will suffer hardships in the beginning and like them will succeed in the end. 4779. Important Words: 3405 (make, formation or build) is inf. noun from. They says i. e. he managed the affair well. means, he set the thing right or made it straight or even (Aqrab & Lane). Commentary: The verse may mean: 1. Man has been endowed with the best natural powers and qualities, by making use of which he can make infinite progress. 2. God has endowed man with a creative power, i. e. he can be a good architect and builder in both the physical and spiritual senses. The question naturally arises: When man has been endowed with such wonderful natural powers and capacities, why does he sin? Various schools have their own explanations for this baffling question. According