'Abasa · Makki · ayah 28 of 42

'Abasa 80:28

وَعِنَبًا وَقَضْبًا

“And grapes and herbage”

Saheeh International

Essence

Grapes for our pleasure and green fodder for the animals are named in one breath: Allah's generosity reaches both the table and the trough.

A reflection

The grape and the fodder, side by side

The list of what Allah caused to grow continues with two words that could hardly be more different. ʿInab: grapes, sweet and prized. And qaḍb: fresh green fodder, the clover-like crop that animals eat. The commentators explain qaḍb as the fodder the people of Makkah fed their beasts, or as all the herbs that are cut and grow again.

One is a luxury for the table. The other is plain food for a cow. And the Quran names them together, joined by the same small 'and', both introduced by the same majestic 'We caused to grow'.

That pairing says something about the reach of Allah's care. His generosity does not stop at what people consider refined. It extends to the humblest feed in the humblest trough. The One who sweetens a grape also greens a field of clover for animals that will never thank Him in words.

Picture a class of city schoolchildren on a farm visit. They have been excited about the strawberry tunnels. Then the farmer takes them to a field of lucerne. This is what the cows eat, he explains, and he grows it as carefully as the strawberries. One girl is indignant: 'But it's just grass for cows.' The farmer smiles. 'No such thing as just grass,' he says. 'If they don't eat, you don't get your milk.'

That is exactly the humility this ayah invites. We rank things: this food is fine, that food is fodder. This person matters, that one does not. The self-sufficient man of this surah ranked people in the same way, and ranked the blind man low.

Allah's list does not rank. The grape and the fodder stand side by side, each grown with the same care, each serving its place. The ego that insists on its own importance looks small beside a Lord who attends as carefully to the trough as to the table.

Someone may ask why Allah lists these gifts at all. It is not to be praised. It is so that we notice, and are thankful, and stop dividing the world into what matters and what does not.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.