KHUTAV IV: 3. HEARING AND SEEING IN THE QUR’ĀN

3. HEARING AND SEEING IN THE QUR’ĀN

(ANUMA, 24 October 08; CIVIC, 9 July, 10)

Brothers in Islam,

          When Allah mentions the sense of hearing and the sense of seeing in one verse, He mentions the sense of hearing first, and in singular number, السَّمْع )al-sam‘  not in plural which is الأسْمَاع  al-asmā‘). Then he mentions the sense of seeing in plural,  الأبْصَارal-absar, (the plural of البَصَر    al-bas.ar). Allah says in the Qur’ān:

 قُلْ مَنْ يَرْزُقُكُمْ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ أَمْ مَنْ يَمْلِكُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَمَنْ يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ

وَيُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ وَمَنْ يُدَبِّرُ الْأَمْرَ فَسَيَقُولُونَ اللَّهُ فَقُلْ أَفَلَا تَتَّقُونَ  (يونس ١٠ : ٣١)

Say (O Muhammad), “Who provides for you from the sky and

 the earth? Or who owns hearing and sight? And who brings out

 the living from the dead and brings out the dead from the living?

 And who disposes the affairs?” They will say “Allah.” Say:

 “Will  you not then be afraid of Allah’s punishment (for

setting up rivals in worship with Allah)?”  (Q. 10:21)

وَاللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ

 السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ (النحل ١٦: ٧٨ )

   And Allah has brought you out from the wombs of your mothers

 while you know nothing. And He gave you hearing, sight, and

 hearts that you might give thanks (to Allah). (Q. 16:78)

وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْشَأَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ قَلِيلًا مَا تَشْكُرُونَ (المؤمنون ٢٣: ٧٨)

It is He Who has created for you (the sense of) hearing

 (ears), eyes (sight), and hearts (understanding). Little

thanks you give. (Q. 23:78)

وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ قَلِيلًا مَا تَشْكُرُونَ

 (السجدة ٣٢  : ٩, الملك ٦٧:٢٣)

... And He gave you hearing (ears), sight (eyes) and hearts.

 Little is the thanks you  give! (Q. 32:9 and 67:23)

We notice that in the five verses above, the term al-sam‘ (hearing) is mentioned before the  term al-abs.ār (sight), and that al-sam‘  is in singular number (not in its plural which is al-asmā‘) and al-abs.ār (sight) in plural (not in singular number which is al-bas.ār). Hearing is in singular, whereas sight is in plural. The verses above do not say السَّمْعُ وَالبَصَر in singular, or الأسْمَاعُ وَالأَبْصَار in plural, except one verse where both words are used in singular number, as follows:

وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا (الإسراء ١٧:٣٦)

And follow not that of which you have no knowledge. Verily,

 the hearing  [i.e. ears], and the sight [i.e., eyes], and the heart,

of each of those one  will be questioned (by Allah). (Q. 17:36)

Here Allah uses the three words in singular, hearing, seeing, and heart, all will be responsible for what they did in the world.

          In other verses Allah says:

  أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ طَبَعَ اللَّهُ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ وَسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَارِهِمْ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْغَافِلُونَ (النحل ١٦ :١٠٨)

They are those upon whose hearts, hearing and sight Allah

 has set a seal. And they are the heedless!  (Q. 16:108)

حَتَّى إِذَا مَا جَاءُوهَا شَهِدَ عَلَيْهِمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَأَبْصَارُهُمْ وَجُلُودُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ (فصلت ٤١  :٢٠)  

 Till, when they reach it (Hell-fire), their hearing

 [i.e. ears] and their eyes, and their skins will testify

 against them as to what they used to do. (Q. 41:20).

          Again, in the above two verses the hearing is mentioned before sight (seeing), and in the expression سَمْعُهُمْ وَأَبْصَارُهُمْ hearing is in singular whereas sight is in plural. Similar verses are as follows:

وَمَا كُنْتُمْ تَسْتَتِرُونَ أَنْ يَشْهَدَ عَلَيْكُمْ سَمْعُكُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُكُمْ وَلَا جُلُودُكُمْ

وَلَكِنْ ظَنَنْتُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَعْلَمُ كَثِيرًا مِمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ  (فصلت ٤١: ٢٢)

 And you have not been hiding yourselves (in the world), lest

 your hearing [i.e. ears], and your sight [i.e., eyes], and your

skins should  testify against you; but you thought that Allah

 knew not  much of what you weredoing. (Q. 41:22)

وَلَقَدْ مَكَّنَّاهُمْ فِيمَا إِنْ مَكَّنَّاكُمْ فِيهِ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ سَمْعًا وَأَبْصَارًا وَأَفْئِدَةً فَمَا أَغْنَى

 عَنْهُمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُهُمْ وَلَا أَفْئِدَتُهُمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ إِذْ كَانُوا يَجْحَدُونَ

بِآَيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَحَاقَ بِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ (الأحقاف ٤٦: ٢٦)

And indeed We had firmly established them with that

 Wherewith We have not established you (O Quraysh)!

 And We have assigned  them the (facility of) hearing

 (ears), seeing (eyes), and hearts; but their hearing (ears),

 seeing (eyes), and their hearts availed  them nothing

since they used to deny  the āyāt of Allah, and

 they were completely encircled by that which

 they used to mock at!  (Q. 46:26).

          We have seen from the verses mentioned above that hearing is mentioned before sight (seeing), and hearing  is used in singular number, whereas sight (seeing) is used in plural number, except in one verse where hearing and sight (seeing)  are in singular number where it is mentioned that both will be questioned by Allah in the Hereafter. This difference could be ignored and neglected in translating these verses into other languages. This is one example indicating the importance of knowing Arabic in order to have deeper understanding of the verses of the Qur’ān.

          What is the wisdom behind these phenomena of mentioning the word sam‘ (hearing) before the word bas.ar (sight), and using the hearing in singular and the sight (seeing) in plural? Is there any preference here, that hearing is more important than seeing, that the ears are more important than the eyes? Suppose we are to choose between hearing and seeing, living in a noisy but totally dark world, or a bright but totally silent one? It is said that 80% of our knowledge comes through our eyes, and that seeing is believing. We would choose seeing. The eye sight is so important that in Arabic language a person who calls his beloved one “يَا حَبِيْبِيْ “O my beloved one” also calls him ياَ عَيْنِيْ  “O my eye,” indicating that the beloved one is so precious to him like his own eye. However, there is something more important than eyesight; it is insight. When ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbās, the Prophet’s cousin became blind at his old age, probably suffering from cataract, Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufān who turned the caliphate into a dynasty by appointing his son Yazīd to succeed him, said one day to Ibn ‘Abbās:

“O you, Banī ’l-‘Abbās clan, you have lost your eyesight” (أَنْمْ يَا بَنِيْ اْلعَبَّاس, قَدْ فَقَدْتُمْ أَبْصَارَكُمْ) .

 Ibn ‘Abbās answered back, 

“And you, O Banī Umayyah clan, you have lost your insight (mental vision) ” (وَأَنْتُمْ ياَ بَنِيْ أُمَيَّة, قَدْ فَقَدْتُمْ بَصاَئِرَكُمْ).

What Ibn ‘Abbās means is that his condition of losing his eyesight but with healthy mind and insight is better that Mu‘āwiyah's condition who has lost his insight and sound judgment, or being out of his mind by turning the caliphate into a dynasty, despite of his healthy eyesight.

So, what is then the significance of mentioning hearing before mentioning seeing in the Qur’ān?  Shaykh Muhammad Mutawallī al-Sha‘rāwī, who was the Minister of Awqāf (Endowments) and the Affairs of al-Azhar in late 1980s, gives us some explanation of it. He says that when a person loses his eyesight he loses everything, and lives permanently in darkness; he cannot see anything, and he will strike and bang against anything on his way. A person who loses his hearing still can see, he faces less danger than a person losing his eyesight. But when Allah mentions “hearing” He always mentions it first before mentioning “seeing” which is one of the miracles of the Qur’an  (i‘jāz al-Qur’ān). The reasons, according to Shaykh al-Sha‘rāwī, are as follows:

1.             When a baby is born his ears function earlier than his eyes. He can hear, but he cannot see. If you make a noise when a baby is just born he will be disturbed and cry. But if you put your hand close to his eyes he will not move and will not sense any danger, because he is still blind, his eyes do not function yet.

2.      When a person is asleep his eyes totally stop functioning. He cannot see anything, and yet, (to some extent) he still can hear. If you want to wake him up, just make a noise, and he will be awake. Some people cannot sleep, even with a slight noise, let alone hearing someone snoring.  This reminds me of the case of mothers who are sleeping beside their babies, they will keep sleeping when they hear the noise of passing cars, and so on, but will be awake when they hear their babies crying.

 3.      Ears and hearing are the link between man and this world. If the ears totally stop functioning, his link with the world will also stop, like the case of as.h.āb al-kahf (the people who ran away from their king’s persecution and took refuge in a cave, where he fell asleep for hundreds of years). Allah says in the Qur’an,

فَضَرَبْنَا عَلَى آَذَانِهِمْ فِي الْكَهْفِ سِنِينَ عَدَدًا (الكهف ١٨: ١١)

So we cast [a cover of sleep] over their ears within

 the cave for a number of years…(Q. 18:11)

Because their ears were covered and totally stopped functioning, no noise would disturb them from their deep sleep. These are the reasons why Allah mentions the word “hearing” before the word “seeing” in the Qur’ān.

    With regard to the verses in the Qur’ān where Allah mentions “hearing” in singular number (sam‘), whereas “seeing” (abs.ār) in plural, Shaykh al-Sha‘rāwī gives us his explanation as follows:

    Seeing can be controlled by man. He will see when he opens his eyes, and he will not see if he closes his eyes. He can control what to see and what not to see by closing his eyes or by turning his face away from something he does not want to see. No so with his ears. If he is inside a room where many people talk, he cannot control his ears and listen only to the voice he wants to hear. He will hear every voice and sound, whether he wants it or not. He cannot choose the sound or voice he wants to hear. He has no choice with his ears, he can ignore the voice or sound, and yet, it reaches his ears, whereas with his eyes, he can choose what and whom to see and not to see. Everybody in the room hears the same thing, one thing only, the sound, the noise. So, Allah put “hearing” in singular number (mufrad). But these people in the same room see different things; one person is looking at the other person he is talking to, another person is looking at the pictures hanging on the wall, etc., they look at and see different things in the room. There are various seeing and objects of seeing. A person can stop seeing by closing his eyes, but those people in the room will keep hearing every sound in it, as if they have one and the same “hearing”  For this reason, according to Shaykh al-Sha‘rāwī, Allah mentions “seeing” is plural, abs.ār,  the plural of   bas ār.

          In conclusion, Shaykh al-Sha‘rāwī says that Allah makes preference of the sense of “hearing” over the sense of “seeing” in the Qur’ān by mentioning it earlier, because “hearing” keeps functioning, does not sleep, and a thing which does not sleep is in higher position than the one that sleeps. “Hearing” starts functioning at earlier age, since the baby was born, whereas “seeing” develops later. The ears keep functioning while we are sleeping, as we can wake up any time by any noise. It is said that even the baby in his mother's womb could hear her voice. It is highly recommended for pregnant Muslim mothers to recite the Qur’ān during pregnancy. The ears keep functioning days and nights, whereas the eyes can only function with the presence of light, and therefore cannot see in the dark. Moreover, in the Hereafter it is the ears who will function first when the angel Isrāfīl, the angel who will sound the trumpet on the Day of Resurrection. As the English translations keep translating the plural الْأَبْصَار into the single اْلبَصَر (the sight), because it is grammatically wrong to put it in plural (sights), the deep meaning of this word will be lost if we rely on the English translation. "Sight" can only be in plural (sights), but it does not indicate the power of seeing meant in the Qur’anic verses mentioned above, but rather something worthy to be seen, such as historic buildings, palaces, etc, and therefore we can say that "the Grand Canyon is one of the sights of the world." (MAS)