Question

Dear Sir,
Need your help to clear myself about the ayah in Quran
51:49 ومن كل شئ خلقنا زوجين لعلكم تذكرون
” And of every thing We have created pairs: That ye may receive instruction.”
As you know there are many organism like Amoeba and plants like Algae and Fungi are among those are not fit in the pairs.

Another Ayah
وجعلنا من الماء كل شئ حي افلايؤمنون 021:030
“We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?”
Question came up like Angels and Gins are not among those created with water. Please Sir if you kindly help me understand these .
Thank you so much in advance.

Answer

Salaam

Such passages in the Qur’an or for that matter any passage, need to be contextualised and read in plain terms rather than with mathematical logic, devoid of any linguistic nuance. The Qur’an is not a book of science or intending to convey scientific information. It reasons with its addressees to make them aware of certain realities or adduce arguments for these.

The Qur’anic reference to ‘creation in pairs’ is actually a reference to the fact that every phenomenon in this world, whether relating to living things or not, is created and designed in such a way that if taken independently, it remains incomplete from one aspect or the other. Every thing is complemented only when it is studied in combination with its other complementary ‘half’. In the referred verse of the Qur’an man is reminded of the Day of Judgement from the particular aspect of the division of various phenomena in complementary pairs. Individual parts of such pairs become meaningful only when the pair is seen as a whole, but when each individual part is studied as an independent entity, they remain incomplete. Seen from this perspective, it should be clear that the referred verse of the Qur’an actually implies that the life of this world is as incomplete, when seen independent of the life hereafter as is the male species without the female species, or the earth without the skies or the or thirst without water etc.

In the second Aayah, the entities being spoken of are the living beings of this planet, that we easily observe around us and whose existence depends on the availability of water. This fact is alluded to after reminding the people about how the heavens and earth are closed up (ratq) i.e. cessation of rain and how the Almighty opens them up (fatq) i.e. rain falls on the earth. Then the dead earth is brought to life and all sorts of living things, both plant life and animal life, thrive because of the water. This is its simple meaning. There is no need to link it to all sorts of creatures.

Hope this helps

Answered by: Mushafiq Sultan

Date: 2018-03-07