An-Nahl (The Bee)

81. “And Allah appointed shadows for you, out of what He has created, and appointed shelters for you of the mountains; and He appointed garments for you to protect you from heat (and cold), and garments to protect you from your (other) violence. Even so does He complete His favours upon you; that perhaps you will surrender (to Him).”

The Arabic term /’akn an/ is the plural form of /kinn/ which refers to an object that is the means for covering something. The objective in this verse is the caves and the tunnels which run under the mountains.

In the previous verse, Allah dealt with the blessing of a dwelling place for the inhabitants of the town and the blessing of tent for the moving tribes and their removable dwelling places. In this verse, He deals with the blessings of the caves for the cave-dwelling people.

The verse says:

“And Allah appointed shadows for you, out of what He has created, and appointed shelters for you of the mountains; and He appointed garments for you to protect you from heat (and cold)…”

From among the garments the name /sar abil/ signifies ‘shirts’ which are sorts of usual clothing for women, men, children as well as adults in all cases and for all circumstances and which can cover the whole body.

Here, the Holy Qur’an mentions only the ‘protection from heat’ while garments are mostly used for protection from cold and not merely from heat. The reason is that whatever protects people from heat it will protect them from cold as well.

Moreover, in their locality the Arabs were facing more with heat than with cold. Thus, they needed something to protect them from heat. In addition, by talking about one of two things, the Arabs overlook the second for the second goes without saying.

The verse continues saying:

“…and garments to protect you from your (other) violence…”

This may refer to the meaning that He has provided you with ‘iron-garments’ ‘armours’ so as to protect you from being beaten by bullets, blades, and the hostile arrows.

Such is the way by which Allah has completed His worldly favours for you. You may perhaps know, O’ the inhabitants of Mecca, that no one else but Allah is able to perform such acts, then worship Him alone and believe in His Prophet (S).

The verse says:

“…Even so does He complete His favours upon you; that perhaps you will surrender (to Him).”