As-Sajdah 32:9 - Linguistic Miracle

Thumma, He balanced him by breathing into him from His spirit. He made for you, hearing, perception and emotions. How little are you grateful!

At the end of the surah, Allah will connect this verse with verse 27 that mentions dead earth coming to life. You will see there how Allah connects not only these two verses, but also the whole surah to present a holistic, uniform and complete picture. We covered earlier that everything Allah creates has two parts. Creation ( khalq) and

amr. When describing the creation of man, Allah described his creation from dirt and then from semen. This is khalq. Now, Allah will describe the amr. The creation of man is presented as a case study of how Allah does Iḥsān of everything He creates. The way He creates, khalq and amr, makes it perfect as mentioned in his words الذي أحسن كل شيء خلقه

The one who did iḥsān of everything that He created First, you have the human body, created from dust, then Allah breathed into him His spirit - the rūḥ.

Thumma here is التراخي الرتبي again which is used to indicate something even more important. So, it is better translated as - Even greater; He balanced him by breathing into him....

What is meant by balancing was explained in surah al Shams. After this balancing, Allah says He made FOR YOU, the hearing, sights and emotions. I highlighted FOR

YOU since it is emphasized in the verse itself because of being advanced. Allah made them for you. For your sake, and benefit.

There is one thing to note here. Hearing is singular, while sights and hearts are plural. The Qurʾān is primarily meant to be recited and hence the primary mode of how it was originally preached was through being heard by others. Even today, people often hear about it from others rather than opening it themselves and reading it. Secondly, the word أبصار is different from رأى . Both mean to see but بصر , the word used in this verse, is much deeper. It is better translated as perception and understanding. You can look at something, but when you truly understand it and grasp its nature, this word is used. In other places, this word can simply be used in the meaning of understanding and perception. The Qurʾān itself has used this root in those meanings.

Lastly, there are two words for hearts in the Qurʾān, قلب and فؤاد .

قلب is the standard word for heart. Its root meaning is to flip or turn over. The heart is

so called because of its nature to flip and change its state and feelings. So, the standard word for heart is قلب but when a heart is overcome with emotions, it is called

فؤاد - the word used in this ayah.

So, the word ‘hearing’ is singular, but the words ‘sights’ and ‘hearts’ are plural. As mentioned above, ‘hearing’ here means the Qurʾān. It is the primary subject as in verse 2 you have the disbelievers accusing the Prophet ﷺ of concocting the Qurʾān to cause corruption, which was followed by a divine response to their arguments. When people listen to the Qurʾān, different people perceive it differently, which leads to different emotions in the heart of each person, and which mainly drives how people act. This is why hearing is singular and sights and hearts are plural. A person may hear the Qurʾān and be affected by it deeply and fall in love with it. Others may listen and be somewhat drawn yet skeptical. While others may hear it and outright deny it. While still others may hear it and not only deny it but speak out in hate against it. Different people will perceive it differently. Each of these perceptions will lead to different emotions inside the heart. The one who accepts it will feel peace, the skeptical one will feel doubtful, while the deniers will feel uneasy and some, even hate.

As will come later, the disbeliever demands to see things visibly to believe in them. For something to be true, it must be visible. What passed described khalq and amr. They believe in khalq - the visible part - but deny the amr, which is invisible. The Qurʾān promises them things that are not visible - heaven and hell, so they deny them. By believing in this false notion that for something to be true, it has to be visible, they reject the truth. And by doing so, how little grateful have you become.

This is why the ayah shifts from third to second person. It used the third person in the last verse “Then he made his progeny from an extract taken from disdained water” as well as

at the start of this verse “He balanced him by breathing into him from His spirit”. But now it transitions to the second person”He made for you, hearing, perception and emotions. How

little are you grateful” because it is now addressing those who accused the prophet ﷺ of forging the Qurʾān directly.

You

will see verses 15 and 16 directly referencing