ভূমিকা

Allah, it is He Who has made for you the earth as a dwelling place and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape and made your shapes good and has provided you with good things. That is Allah, your Lord: so Bountiful and Exalted is Allah, the Lord of the worlds. The earth as a serene dwelling place, fashioning the sky, creation of man, and providing him with blessings are all for fostering him as his good shape and pure provision and sustenance are manifestations of Divine Lordship.

The blessed Verse in question resumes the discussion on Divine Favors bestowed upon servants so as to accord them further knowledge and hope in whose light they may invoke God Almighty and their prayers be answered. It is worthy of note that the preceding Verses treated of temporal bounties, i.e. night and day, and the blessed Verse in question deals with spatial Bounties, e.g.

the earth as a dwelling place and the elevated canopy of the sky, saying: “Allah, it is He Who has made for you the earth as a dwelling place.” God Almighty created all the prerequisites for the establishment of a secure and serene dwelling place, free from quaking, harmonious with human physical and psychological aspects, and abounding in many Bounties encompassing all human needs.

The blessed Verse further adds: “and the sky as a canopy.” The word bana’, according to Ibn Mansur’s Lisan al-’Arab, is applied to tents and canopies and the like used by Bedouin. The sky is interestingly depicted as a canopy surrounding the earth. It is worthy of note that the word sky indicates the atmosphere surrounding the earth like a canopy.

This great Divine canopy serves as a means of protection against severe sun shine without which the rays of the sun and the fatal rays of galaxies would have perished all living beings on the face of the earth. It is for the same reason that astronauts have to constantly wear specially heavy and valuable clothes to protect them against such rays.