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la-khalqu s-samāwāti wa-l-ʾarḍi ʾakbaru min khalqi n-nāsi wa-lākinna ʾakthara n-nāsi lā yaʿlamūna
The creation of the heavens and the earth is surely more prodigious than the creation of mankind, but most people do not know.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Ghafir - Verse 57
57. The creation of the heavens and the earth is indeed greater than the creation of mankind; yet, most of people know not.
If we take a glance at the grandeur of the creation of the world of existence, we will never find ourselves superior to others. Since one of the most significant issues disputed by disbelievers against the Noble Prophet of Islam (S) is Resurrection, the blessed Verse in question explicitly raises the issue saying:
One Who is Able to create such celestial bodies and galaxies with such grandeur and set them in order will not be incapable of raising the dead. Some people are too ignorant to understand such truths. Most of Qur’anic exegets maintain that the blessed Verse is a response to disbelievers’ disputes against Resurrection.39 Some also hold that the blessed Verse may be a response to the arrogant who consider their narrow minded though great; however, compared to the grandeur of the world of existence, they were not but an iota. The latter is not too remote from the contextual meaning of the Verses, but taking the following Verses into account, the former interpretation sounds more appropriate.
Thus, ignorance is mentioned in this blessed Verse as one of the reasons of false disputes. The issue of vanity and arrogance was already raised and the two, i.e., ignorance and vanity, are closely intertwined since vanity springs from ignorance toward one’s limited extent of knowledge.
Footnotes