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allāhu lladhī jaʿala lakumu l-ʾarḍa qarāran wa-s-samāʾa bināʾan wa-ṣawwarakum fa-ʾaḥsana ṣuwarakum wa-razaqakum mina ṭ-ṭayyibāti dhālikumu llāhu rabbukum fa-tabāraka llāhu rabbu l-ʿālamīna
It is Allah who made for you the earth an abode and the sky a canopy. He formed you and perfected your forms, and provided you with all the good things. That is Allah, your Lord! Blessed is Allah, Lord of all the worlds!
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Ghafir - Verse 64
64. Allah, it is He Who has made for you the earth as a dwelling place and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape and made your shapes good and has provided you with good things. That is Allah, your Lord: so Bountiful and Exalted is Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
The earth as a serene dwelling place, fashioning the sky, creation of man, and providing him with blessings are all for fostering him as his good shape and pure provision and sustenance are manifestations of Divine Lordship. The blessed Verse in question resumes the discussion on Divine Favors bestowed upon servants so as to accord them further knowledge and hope in whose light they may invoke God Almighty and their prayers be answered. It is worthy of note that the preceding Verses treated of temporal bounties, i.e. night and day, and the blessed Verse in question deals with spatial Bounties, e.g. the earth as a dwelling place and the elevated canopy of the sky, saying:
God Almighty created all the prerequisites for the establishment of a secure and serene dwelling place, free from quaking, harmonious with human physical and psychological aspects, and abounding in many Bounties encompassing all human needs. The blessed Verse further adds:
The word bana’, according to Ibn Mansur’s Lisan al-’Arab, is applied to tents and canopies and the like used by Bedouin. The sky is interestingly depicted as a canopy surrounding the earth. It is worthy of note that the word sky indicates the atmosphere surrounding the earth like a canopy. This great Divine canopy serves as a means of protection against severe sun shine without which the rays of the sun and the fatal rays of galaxies would have perished all living beings on the face of the earth.
It is for the same reason that astronauts have to constantly wear specially heavy and valuable clothes to protect them against such rays. Furthermore, the “canopy” protects the earth from meteors constantly absorbed toward the earth and burns them at the outset of entering the atmosphere due to their velocity and pressure so that their ashes calmly subside on the earth. The same idea is attested elsewhere in the Holy Qur’an1:
The blessed Verse proceeds from physical to spiritual issues:
With his erect, well built body, and beautiful visage, man is superior to other living beings and he is thus able to perform all kinds of delicate or heavy tasks and live conveniently and enjoy the bounties of life. Contrary to most of animals that use their mouths nozzles to eat and drink, man uses his hands to select healthy food, peel fruits, and dispense with useless pieces. A number of Qur’anic exegets interpret
herein in the sense of outward and inward aspects designating faculties and tastes created by God Almighty in man through which he is superior to all living beings. The fourth and the last Bounty mentioned in the blessed Verse is that God Almighty
The word tayyibat is of broad semantic range encompassing any good and pure thing, e.g. food, clothes, spouses, homes, mounts, and even good words and conversations. Man may render such bounties impure through ignorance, but God Almighty has created them pure. Following an enumeration of these four great Bounties, which are two by two granted to the sky and the earth and man, the blessed Verse says:
The Bestower of all these bounties upon mankind is the Creator of the world of existence and He is worthy to be worshipped for His Lordship.
Footnotes