ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ مَهْدًا وَسَلَكَ لَكُمْ فِيهَا سُبُلًا وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِۦٓ أَزْوَٰجًا مِّن نَّبَاتٍ شَتَّىٰ · كُلُوا۟ وَٱرْعَوْا۟ أَنْعَٰمَكُمْ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلنُّهَىٰ · مِنْهَا خَلَقْنَٰكُمْ وَفِيهَا نُعِيدُكُمْ وَمِنْهَا نُخْرِجُكُمْ تَارَةً أُخْرَىٰ
Alladhī jaʿala lakumu'l-arḍa mahdan wa salaka lakum fīhā subulan wa anzala mina's-samāʾi māʾan fa-akhrajnā bihi azwājan min nabātin shattā · Kulū war-ʿaw anʿāmakum, inna fī dhālika la-āyātin li-uli'n-nuhā · Minhā khalaqnākum wa fīhā nuʿīdukum wa minhā nukhrijukum tāratan ukhrā
"He who made the earth a cradle for you, opened roads for you in it and sent down water from the sky. With it We brought forth pairs of diverse plants. · Eat and pasture your cattle. In that there are signs for those who possess restraint. · From it We created you, to it We shall return you, and from it We shall bring you out one more time."
A point of word order must be recorded: the fifty-third verse is the continuation of the answer given in the fiftieth. The relative pronoun alladhī attaches to rabbuna'lladhī aʿṭā. That is, Pharaoh's second question (51) has come in between, and the answer nonetheless goes on.
And a shift of address must be recorded: jaʿala, salaka, anzala — third person; then suddenly fa-akhrajnā — first person plural. The speaking party changes in the middle of the sentence.
I record this as an observation about the structure, and this pattern has been treated in many places in the series (Fāṭir on 35/9, Yāsīn): the telling passes over to the speaker at the most concrete verb.
مَهْدًا — root م-ه-د: to level and spread out, to prepare a bed. Mahd — a cradle. The choice of the word is worth recording: a cradle is not merely a flat surface — it is a place prepared for the one inside it, rocking, protective.
نُهَى — root ن-ه-ي: to prevent, to hold back. Ulu'n-nuhā — "those who possess intelligence", but the word itself means "the restrainers".
I record this as an observation, and its ground is the sense of the root: in Arabic, intelligence is named as what holds a person back from what is harmful. The same logic is present in the root ʿaql (the hobbling of a camel). That is, intelligence is named not as something that accumulates knowledge — but as something that sets a boundary.
The word occurs twice in the Qurʾān, and both are in this sūra: 54 and 128. These two verses of the sūra end with the same expression: inna fī dhālika la-āyātin li-uli'n-nuhā. One after the proofs of creation, the other after the remains of generations destroyed. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
| Stage | Preposition | Expression |
|---|---|---|
| Creating | min (from) | Minhā khalaqnākum |
| Returning | fī (into) | Wa fīhā nuʿīdukum |
| Bringing out | min (from) | Wa minhā nukhrijukum |
I record this as an observation about the structure: the sentence names the earth three times and uses it twice as a source and once as a vessel. And the expression tāratan ukhrā (one more time) counts the resurrection as of the same kind as the first creation.
The same proof was treated at Fāṭir on 35/9 and at Qāf on 50/11 (kadhālika'n-nushūr / kadhālika'l-khurūj): the passage from a seen event to an unseen one. I rely on those treatments.