قُلْ هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنشَأَكُمْ وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْأَبْصَٰرَ وَٱلْأَفْـِٔدَةَ ۖ قَلِيلًا مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ قُلْ هُوَ ٱلَّذِى ذَرَأَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَإِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
Qul huwa'lladhī anshaʾakum wa jaʿala lakumu'l-samʿa wa'l-abṣāra wa'l-afʾida, qalīlan mā tashkurūn — qul huwa'lladhī dharaʾakum fi'l-arḍi wa ilayhi tuḥsharūn "Say: It is He who brought you into being and gave you hearing, eyes and hearts. How little you are grateful! Say: It is He who scattered you over the earth, and to Him you will be gathered."
For the first time in the sūra the command قُلْ (say) comes, and after this it will come five times more (24, 26, 28, 29, 30). That is, six of the sūra's last eight verses begin with this command.
This settles the character of the last part of the sūra: up to here the speaker was the owner of the text directly; now the messenger comes in between. And what the messenger is made to say are the answers to be given to the objections of the one addressed.
Nashaʾa — to come into being little by little, to come about by growing. Nashʾa — coming into being, birth. Nāshiʾ — a growing youth. The Qurʾān says nāshiʾata'l-layl (al-Muzzammil 73/6) — the "rising" of the night, that is, the time that comes about little by little.
| Verb | What it describes |
|---|---|
| خلق | To bring into being according to a measure — giving form |
| فطر | To split out of nothing and begin — the first opening |
| أنشأ | To bring into being and grow — a process |
| ذرأ | To multiply and scatter — distribution |
All four verbs are used in the Qurʾān for creating and each brings a different aspect to the fore. In this verse two of them come one after the other: anshaʾakum (23) and dharaʾakum (24).
And the choice of the verb anshaʾa agrees with the context: the verse is going to count the organs that were given. Organs come about not in a moment but by developing. The verb contains the process.
This is a repeated pattern in the Qurʾān — the triad is in the same form almost everywhere it occurs. The classical lexicographers and exegetes have tried to explain it and several accounts are given:
| Explanation | Its ground |
|---|---|
| The kind of thing heard is one | The ear takes in only sound; the eye takes in colour, shape, movement, distance — many kinds of thing. The singular comes from the singleness of the subject |
| Samʿ is a verbal noun | The word is not the name of an organ but the name of an act (hearing); verbal nouns are not pluralised. Abṣār, by contrast, is the plural of the name of an organ |
| Hearing is passive, seeing active | The ear does not close, it cannot select; the eye turns, it selects. The plurality reflects the variety of selection |
All three explanations are reasonable and they do not exclude one another. The second is the soundest linguistically; samʿ really is in the pattern of a verbal noun. The others add a layer of meaning.
The ordering is meaningful too: hearing, sight, heart. That is, from outside inwards. Sound comes, image comes, and the two are gathered in one place.
And this order connects with the tenth verse of the sūra — it was recorded earlier: there it was said "had we listened or used our reason". Here hearing and the heart are counted as things that were given.
Root: ف-أ-د. This word was treated in the discussion of al-Humaza (104/7); I do not repeat it here. The summary of the finding there: a difference is observed between fuʾād and qalb — fuʾād, because of the idea of "burning, kindling" in its root, brings to the fore the moving, passionate, burning side of the heart.
I add a layer here. That afʾida and not qulūb was chosen in the verse suggests that what was given is not an organ but a centre of comprehension. And its standing at the end of the triad shows that what the two senses bring is processed somewhere.
A point of word order: qalīlan has been brought forward. The normal order would be tashkurūna qalīlan. The element brought forward carries the emphasis — the emphasis falls on the littleness.
شَكَرَ — root ش-ك-ر. And the concrete sense of the root is worth dwelling on: the lexicographers say shakara'l-dābba — the animal grew fat on little fodder. That is, in the root there is making little seem much, bringing out what has been given.
From here comes the definition of gratitude, and it differs from the English "thanks": gratitude is not a word but the making visible of what has been given. To use what was given, to produce something from it, to show its effect.
And now the two halves of the verse come together: hearing, sight and heart were given. Gratitude is to use these. The verse does not say "you do not say thank you"; it says you do not put the instruments given to you to work.
This reading overlaps exactly with the tenth verse of the sūra: there regret was expressed because the instruments had not been used. Here the name of not using them is given: ingratitude.
Root: ذ-ر-أ. To create and multiply, to scatter like seed. The word's relation to dharra is disputed; but its closeness in meaning to dhurriyya (offspring, progeny) is plain.
The distinguishing side of the verb is multiplying and dispersal. Khalaqa brings a thing into being; dharaʾa spreads it.
| First half | Second half |
|---|---|
| dharaʾakum fi'l-arḍ — He scattered you over the earth | ilayhi tuḥsharūn — to Him you will be gathered |
حَشَرَ — root ح-ش-ر. And the concrete sense of the root gives exactly this: to drive what is scattered together into one place. Ḥashr — to drive a community to a place and gather it; for war, for migration, for a census. In the word there is compulsion: the one gathered does not come of his own will, he is driven.
Scattering and gathering: in the fifteenth verse of the sūra there was nushūr (opening out); here ḥashr (gathering). The two words complete each other — opening out and gathering.
And the structure of the two verses is identical: each begins with qul huwa'lladhī…, each counts a favour, each ends with a sentence of consequence. One is tied to gratitude, the other to the reckoning. Two different outcomes in the same pattern.