The existence of heavens and the earth are referred to in the preceding Verse...

The existence of heavens and the earth are referred to in the preceding Verse, but the Verse in question regards the creation of mankind and all living creatures of the world as signs for believers who have attained to certitude, since the level of the latter stands above that of faith; knowledge of certitude (‘ilm al-yaqin) is inferior to essence of certitude (‘ayn al-yaqin) and the latter is in turn inferior to realization of certitude (haqq al-yaqin).

Besides signs upon the horizons, the Verse in question treats of signs upon the soul saying: “And in your creation and what He scattered [in the world of existence] of moving [living] creatures are signs [of Divine Omnipotence] for people who have faith with certainty.” According to a well known narration attributed to the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Ali (as), man is the microcosm embracing the macrocosm.

His qualities constitute an admixture of the qualities shared by all living creatures and the diversity of his creation is an extract of all the accidents of the world. The structure of a human cell is as enigmatic as that of an industrial metropolitan city and the creation of one single hair whose various characteristics have…