(78–80) “He is the One who created for you hearing, sight, and hearts—yet little thanks you give. He is the One who spread you throughout the earth, and to Him you will be gathered. He is the One who gives life and causes death, and to Him belongs the alternation of night and day. Will you not then understand?”
Allah Most High speaks of the blessings He has bestowed upon His servants, which prompt (1) them to thank Him and fulfill His due rights. He says: “He is the One who created for you hearing” ⦗557⦘ so that you may perceive sounds and thereby benefit in your religious and worldly affairs; “and sight,” so that you may perceive visible things and benefit by means of it (2) in pursuing your interests.
“And hearts”—that is, minds through which you comprehend things and by which you are distinguished from beasts. If you were deprived of hearing, sight, and reason, and were deaf, blind, and mute, what would your condition be? How many of your necessities and perfections would you lose? Will you not then thank the One who bestowed these blessings upon you by affirming His oneness and obeying Him? Yet how little gratitude you show, despite the continuous succession of His blessings upon you.
“He” Most High “is the One who spread you throughout the earth”—that is, He dispersed you across its regions and lands, empowered you to extract its benefits and advantages, and made it sufficient for your livelihoods and dwellings. “And to Him you will be gathered” after your death, whereupon He will recompense you for the good and evil you committed on earth, and the earth upon which you lived will recount its news.
“He” Most High, alone, “is the One who gives life and causes death.” In other words, Allah alone has control over life and death. “And to Him belongs the alternation of night and day”—that is, their succession and rotation. If He willed to make the day everlasting, “what god other than Allah could bring you a night in which to rest?” And if He willed to make the night everlasting, “what god other than Allah could bring you light? Will you not then see?” “Out of His mercy, He made for you the night and the day, so that you may rest therein and seek of His bounty, and so that you may give thanks.”
Hence He says here: “Will you not then understand?” That is, will you not recognize that He alone granted you the blessings of hearing, sight, and hearts; that He alone spread you throughout the earth; that He alone gives life and causes death; and that He alone controls the night and day? All this requires you to devote worship sincerely to Him alone, without partner, and to abandon the worship of those who can neither benefit nor harm, who have no control over anything and are utterly powerless in every respect. Had you possessed reason, you would not have done so.