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wa-ʾāyatun lahumu l-ʾarḍu l-maytatu ʾaḥyaynāhā wa-ʾakhrajnā minhā ḥabban fa-minhu yaʾkulūna
A sign for them is the dead earth, which We revive and bring forth grain out of it, so they eat of it.
— Ali Quli Qarai
36Yā-SīnيسVerse 33 of 83
Ya-Sin36. Yā-Sīnيس
Yā Sīn
Ya Sin
MeccanVerse 33 of 83
Surah Ya-Sin - Verse 33
33. “And a sign for them is the dead earth; We give life to it and We bring forth from it grain so they eat of it.”
The best way of having faith in Resurrection is carefulness in the created things. The verse under discussion states some signs of Unity and Resurrection with together in order that it can be a means for the rejecters to become aware and believe in the Origin and Resurrection. At first it refers to the revival of the dead lands and the blessings from which reach to mankind. It says:
“And a sign for them is the dead earth; We give life to it and We bring forth from it grain so they eat of it.”
The subject of life is one of the most important proofs of Monotheism. It is a very complicated, mysterious and wonderful problem which has caused the intellect of all scientists to surprise. With all great progresses which man has gained in science, none has opened its puzzle yet. It has not exactly been known to anyone that under what factors at the beginning the inanimate beings changed into living cells.
Still no one knows how the seeds of plants and their different levels have minutely been built; and what mysterious laws administer them that they move when the suitable conditions are provided, and they begin to grow and absorb the atoms of the dead land into their own being; and, in this way, they change the dead beings into some tissues of the living creature so that every day it shows some new manifestations of life. From one side, the subject of life in the world of plants, animals, and revival of the dead lands are some clear proofs upon the fact that there have been applied a great knowledge in the creation of this world; and, on the other hand, they are as a manifest sign upon Resurrection.
It is clear that the Arabic pronoun /lahum/ (for them) refers to /‘ibad/ (servants) which has been mentioned in previous verses; and the purpose of /‘ibad/ here is all the servants who made mistake and deviated in the subjects of Origin and Resurrection, and the Qur’an counts their circumstance as the cause of regret and sigh. The application of the Arabic word /’ayah/ in an indefinite form points to the greatness, importance and clarity of this monotheistic sign.
The Qur’anic sentence /fa minhu ya’kulun/ (so they eat of it), from one side, points to this fact that man feed from a part of vegetal grains, and some others of them are not edible for man, but they have some other benefits, such as: food for animals, producing the colouring matters, medicine, and other things which are utilized in man’s life. And, on the other side, by preceding the word /minhu/ to /ya’kulun/, which is usually used for restriction, expresses this point that the most (and also the best) source of man’s food is vegetal stuffs, so much so that as if they form all foods of man.