Once the sound waves reach the inner ear...

Once the sound waves reach the inner ear, they are converted into electrical impulses that the auditory nerve sends to the brain. The brain then translates these electrical impulses into sound. The Ear Relative to the Eyes and the Heart Now let us address the question of why the ear is usually mentioned before the eyes and the heart in the Holy Qur’an.

Let us look at a few verses in this regard: قُلْ مَن يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ أَمَّن يَمْلِكُ السَّمْعَ والأَبْصَارَ “Say: Who is that sustains you (in life) from the sky and from the earth?

Or who is it that has power over hearing and sight?” [The Holy Qur’an, Yunus 10:31] إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولـئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْؤُولاً “Surely the hearing and the sight and the heart, all of these, shall be questioned about that.” [The Holy Qur’an, al-Israa 17:36] Also in Naĥl 16:78, Baqarah 2:7, Ha-Mim 41:20 and many other verses hearing and the ears have been mentioned before seeing and the eyes.

Scientists have mentioned several reasons for the superiority of the ear over the eye. At first we should realize that the range of frequencies we could detect via our hearing is wide. The ratio of the highest frequencies we can hear to the lowest is nearly one thousand. However, our sight is much more limited. We can only sense a small fraction of the wavelengths. We cannot see the infrared or the ultraviolet.

The eyes are also very vulnerable and might easily be damaged if we look at the sun or an eclipse, or ultraviolet light emitted while welding is in progress. However, the ears are much stronger. In addition, our viewing angle is very limited, while we can hear sounds coming to us from all directions.

These seem to be the physical reasons for the superiority of hearing to sight, but it seems that hearing is more powerful than sight in self-reconstruction and spiritual enlightenment.[^7] The Jurisprudents’ View on the Value of the Ear In addition to the rights of the hearing that we discussed, the ear has certain worth expressed in Islamic jurisprudence.

Al-Muĥaqqiq al-Hilli said: “The compensation to be paid for both ears is full compensation: Each ear’s compensation is one half of the full compensation. The compensation for the earlobe is one-third of the full compensation whether it be torn or punctured.[^8] In addition, in the Farsi editions of the Treatise of the Muslim Jurisprudents we read: “If you cut both ears off, or make them deaf you must pay the full compensation.

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