(78) “Allah brought you forth from your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing, and He gave you hearing, sight, and hearts, so that you might be grateful.”

That is, He alone bestows these blessings: “He brought you forth from your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing” and unable to do anything. Then “He gave you hearing, sight, and hearts.” He singled out these three faculties because of their nobility and excellence, and because they are the gateways to all knowledge: no knowledge reaches a person except through one of these three gateways. As for all other limbs and faculties, both outward and inward, it is He who bestowed them upon people and caused them to develop gradually until each person attained the condition suited to him. This was so that they might give thanks to Allah by using the faculties He granted them in obedience to Him. Whoever uses them for anything else will find them serving as evidence against him, and will have repaid the blessing in the ugliest manner.