Surah Ar-Rahman Part 2

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace

Part 2

بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الرحمن

علم القران

خلق الانسان

علمه البيان

The Most Gracious,

He taught the Qur'an

He created Mankind

He taught him Al-Bayan

Earlier I reflected on the questions an what I learnt for the first 2 verses.  The next two verses are the continuation of the sentence where Ar-Rahman created mankind and taught us al-Bayan.

If the order is important, then the creation of Man is second to the teaching of the Qur'an.  A question that I have is why the creation of Man is stated in two places in the surah, albeit with more details in verse 14.  Another question is why the creation of Man is considered a mercy.  Next, what is Al-Bayan and its importance given it is again another thing taught by Ar-Rahman himself?  

These two are the next most important of God's favours to the Qur'an.  Let's tackle the first - why is our creation considered a favour and a mercy?  Looking at the state of the world today, one could very well be sceptical as to the mercy aspect to creating mankind.  In fact, one would not be the first to ask...the Angels asked God something similar before the creation of Adam a.s.  (Surah 2:30).  And God's answer was that He knew what they knew not.  

Syed Qutb said this about the above:

"It is true that man would commit corruption and shed blood, but even this apparently evil aspect of his function turns out to be for best.  It is a necessary consequence of perpetual progress and development, and the changes brought about a ceaseless endeavour in pursuit of better and higher things in this world."

Basically there is purpose to our creation and that purpose is fulfilled by our actions, good and bad, whether we understand it or otherwise, because there is a higher plan that neither we nor the angels are aware of.  Furthermore, there is a potential in all of us that God describes in Surah At-Tin as the "best of forms" which can be unlocked through the teachings of the Qur'an.  And that is the reason why the teaching of the Qur'an is mentioned before even our own creation.

The fulfillment of the purpose is why God taught us specifically Al-Bayan, something which is not taught to other creation.  Al-Bayan is actually linked to the concept of Names that God taught Adam a.s. (Surah 2:31).  Al-Bayan, which is often translated as speech, comes from the same root word as Baina (between) - which basically means to distinguish, separate, make clear.  More than just speech, Asad said that it:

"applies to both thought and speech in as much as it comprises the faculty of making a thing or an idea apparent to the mind and conceptually distinct from other things or ideas, as well as the power to express this cognition clearly in spoken or written language."

What are the "Name of All Things/Beings etc" that God taught Adam but in essence the ability to distinguish one thing from another.  Al-Bayan is a skill and ability that is uniquely inherent in mankind, a gift from Ar-Rahman.  It is also the basis of the languages that were/are spoken and written by mankind through time.  Nouman Ali Khan emphasised in one of his lectures that therefore all languages are revealed languages because Ar-Rahman taught them (by teaching Al-Bayan to mankind).  With languages, we are able to communicate and get to know one another as commanded by God (Surah Al-Hujurat).  This beautiful gift of Ar-Rahman needs to be fully appreciated and not abused as we seem to do nowadays - with all the meaningless and almost abusive chatters on social media and in real life.

And through this skill of Al-Bayan, do we come to understand the world around us and live up to our potential and responsibility of being care takers on this Earth on God's behalf.  It is through Al-Bayan, that discoveries are made and progress and development continues in various spheres of life.

And ultimately only with Al-Bayan do we come to understand the underlying messages of the upcoming verses of Surah Ar-Rahman.