Taha · Makki · ayah 53 of 135

Taha 20:53

ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ مَهْدًا وَسَلَكَ لَكُمْ فِيهَا سُبُلًا وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِۦٓ أَزْوَٰجًا مِّن نَّبَاتٍ شَتَّىٰ

“[It is He] who has made for you the earth as a bed [spread out] and inserted therein for you roadways and sent down from the sky, rain and produced thereby categories of various plants.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The earth laid out like a cradle, roads threaded through it, rain sent down, and then Allah's own voice breaks in: so We brought forth.

A reflection

Then the voice changes

A woman stands in a supermarket aisle in front of forty kinds of apple. Crisp, sour, sweet, red, green, speckled. She picks one bag in a few seconds and moves on. Somewhere behind each of those apples are orchards, rain, soil and sun. She thinks of none of it.

This ayah stops at exactly that moment. Musa has been describing his Lord to Pharaoh in the third person. He made the earth a cradle, threaded roads through it, sent down water. Then the grammar turns. Fa-akhrajnā bihi: so We brought forth by it pairs of plants of every kind.

The commentators noticed the change at once. Some say Musa's words end with the rain, and Allah Himself takes up the sentence. Others say Musa said 'He brought forth', and when Allah retold it, He spoke it in His own voice. Either way, the effect is deliberate. One commentator explains: the shift to 'We' shows that He is obeyed. The most varied things submit to His command; nothing resists His will. This is how kings and great ones speak, whose orders are carried out. A great act is attributed to the Great.

That is how majesty humbles the ego. We speak of 'our' harvest, 'our' supply chains, 'our' food security. The ayah reminds us who actually brings anything out of the soil. Ploughing and sowing are real, but the commentators note that the rain is only the means; the bringing forth is His.

Does Allah need us to admire His harvest? He gains nothing from it; He is free of all need (35:15). The reminder is ours to receive. Next time you stand before forty kinds of apple, let one of them stop you. Whose voice is it that says: We brought this forth?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.