Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 21 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:21

وَإِنَّ لَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَنْعَـٰمِ لَعِبْرَةً ۖ نُّسْقِيكُم مِّمَّا فِى بُطُونِهَا وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَنَـٰفِعُ كَثِيرَةٌ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ

“And indeed, for you in livestock is a lesson. We give you drink from that which is in their bellies, and for you in them are numerous benefits, and from them you eat.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In the livestock around you there is a crossing to be made: from the milk, wool and meat they give to the One who placed it in them for you.

A reflection

The farm visit

Nusqīkum mimmā fī buṭūnihā: We give you to drink from what is in their bellies. The subject of the verb is Allah. Not the farmer, not the dairy, not the supermarket. We give you to drink.

One classical commentator dwells on what makes this a lesson. The milk gathers in the udder, he says, drawn out from between digested food and blood, by Allah's permission. It is turned into something pure, with a colour and taste that suit the one who drinks it, and it becomes nourishment. Another adds an observation. Milk that flows so freely from the living animal leaves no trace when the animal is slaughtered. Both see in this a sign of immense power.

Picture a class of seven-year-olds from a city school on a farm visit. A farmer lets them watch a cow being milked by hand into a pail. One little girl's mouth falls open. She has drunk milk every day of her life from a plastic bottle in the fridge. She had genuinely never connected it to an animal. She keeps saying: from the cow? From the cow?

Most adults are not much different, only better at hiding it. The machinery of modern food hides the source so well that a person can drink milk for fifty years without once thinking of who gave it.

The ayah undoes that forgetfulness with one verb. The pride that says I buy what I need, I provide for myself, is reminded that the first provider is neither the shop nor the shopper. The little girl's astonishment is the right response, and the ayah invites every adult to recover it.

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.