وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَ كُلَّ دَابَّةٍ مِن مَّاء فَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَى بَطْنِهِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَى رِجْلَيْنِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَمْشِي عَلَى أَرْبَعٍ يَخْلُقُ اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاء إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

Allah created every animal from water. Among them are some that creep upon their bellies, and among them are some that walk on two feet, and among them are some that walk on four. Allah creates whatever He wishes. Indeed, Allah has power over all things.

EXEGESIS

Dābbah (animal) comes from dabba, meaning to move on the ground, and suggests a light gait,[1] especially compared to mashy[2] (akin to the English word ‘amble’). Although it is said that it is used more frequently to describe the gait of insects.[3] The word dābbah is also used to mean animal,[4] and scatters therein every kind of animal (dābbah) (2:164), There is no animal (dābbah) on the earth, but that its sustenance lies with Allah (11:6). It can also include living beings outside of the currently known animal kingdom, And when the word [of judgement] falls upon them, We shall bring out for them an animal (dābbah) from the earth who shall speak to them (27:82).

There is some disagreement amongst scholars if it can include other beings such as angels and jinn, but the more correct opinion should be that it does not.[5]

It has been pointed out that the rational pronoun hum is used in the verse in the word minhum (among them), instead of hā (used for non-human plurals), because humans are also included in the category of animals and therefore the rational plural can be used.[6]

Māʾ (water) is used in indefinite form indicating that the water, which is another term for liquid here, was different for each animal. Or it may be for contempt, indicating that the liquid which is the origin of every living being is an insignificant entity. Alternatively, it may imply excellence pointing to the complicated and amazing nature of that water.

Yamshī (creep/walk) is from mashā, meaning to walk on legs, or whatever is used in their stead.[7] It has a general meaning of moving wilfully from one place to another.[8] Hence, for those who ‘walk’ upon their bellies, the verb walk is used figuratively[9] (the translation creep is meant to avoid confusion, although the Arabic is the same for all three modes).

EXPOSITION

This verse is the final of the three examples that God gives of how we may gaze upon the world around us and derive lessons from it about how He has made everything according to a meticulously designed order. This final example is also perhaps the most amazing of the three and can be seen as the culmination of the previous two. The orbit of the earth exactly around the habitable zone of the sun, the earth’s rotation (which creates the magnetic field around the earth that is critical for life, protecting it from solar and cosmic radiation), and the cycle of water and rains that exist on earth are in reality those things which facilitate life on earth. God now mentions in this verse how amazing it is that all of the diverse animals on earth originate from one simple yet critical compound: an amazing liquid.

Allah created every animal from water: a similar statement is made in Have the faithless not regarded that the heavens and the earth were interwoven and We unravelled them, and We made every living thing out of water? (21:30).[10] However, it should be noted that there is a subtle difference between the verse under review and verse 21:30. In the latter, the word water is definite (al-māʾ), whilst in this verse it is the indefinite māʾin (lit. a water).[11] The usage of the indefinite in the verse under review could be taken as evidence that perhaps what is intended is that all life originated from a specific water. In other words, for example, a specific body of water on earth, which acted as the origin of all life here. Or that each species has a clearly distinct water as its origin.

Finally, it could be mentioned that, based on the verse, It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days and His Throne was [then] upon the water (11:7), some exegetes have suggested that all creation began as water, and all other things were then created from that water.[12] Some modern scientific theories have hypothesised similar thoughts.[13]

Among them are some that creep upon their bellies, and among them are some that walk on two feet, and among them are some that walk on four: out of the differences amongst living animals that could have been mentioned, movement is singled out, as that is symbolically the most appropriate in the context of the preceding and following verses.

Obviously, there are animals that have more than four legs, however the list is not meant to be an exhaustive one, but a nod towards the diversity of living organisms, that all still originate from the same source. This is why God then declares that He has created all manner of things.

Allah creates whatever He wishes, Indeed Allah has power over all things. Explicating the subject of the verb (Allah) twice (instead of saying: Allah creates whatever He wishes, indeed He has power over all things) is because the verse, like the previous ones, wishes to emphasise that all of this occurs with God’s power and will.[14] Whether it is the formation of clouds, or the cycles of night and day, or the diversity of species, it is all the creation of God resulting from His will and power. Some have falsely thought that weather patterns, planetary orbits, and evolution are things independent of Him, whilst in reality He is the designer and maintainer of all these systems and nothing occurs without recourse to His will and power.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. From al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn al-Faḍḍāl, that he asked Imam al-Riḍā (a): ‘Why did God create creatures in different types? Why did he not make them all of one type?’ He replied: ‘So that it would not occur to anyone’s imagination that He is incapable. For no image falls into the imagination of an atheist except that God has created a creation corresponding to that. And no one should say: “Can God create in the form of such-and-such?” except that He finds it in His creation, blessed and exalted is He. Thus, by looking at the various kinds of His creation, one knows that He is capable of everything.’[15]

Note: It is clear that the creation of diverse species does not serve as a direct means to demonstrate God’s power to humankind, as these species existed long before humans. Consequently, it seems more accurate to understand the referenced passage as highlighting the consequences or results of God’s creative act rather than implying that the creation of diverse species was intended to convince people of His power.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Ṭabrisī, Ṭabarī, and some other exegetes have said that water in this verse means seminal fluid,[16] but that is not the best understanding and possibly in contradiction to 21:30. Scientifically speaking as well, it is known that some animals reproduce without seminal fluid,[17] such as those females that reproduce asexually via parthenogenesis,[18] although there is still some fluid involved there.

It is said that animals that have more than four legs are not mentioned because even if they have more legs, when they move they only rely on four of those at a time,[19] or use them in groups not exceeding four.[20] This is true for example in arachnids; even though they have eight legs they move them in groups of four, while two pairs of legs are on the ground, the other two pairs are moving.[21] The same is true of scorpions.[22] However, we do observe other animals, such as centipedes, which walk in a metachronal rhythm, moving their legs in a wave like motion. Thaʿlabī offers a different solution, saying that more than four is not mentioned because the eye cannot differentiate the movement of more than four legs.[23] What is more accurate is what we mentioned earlier, about the list not being an exhaustive one.

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (…) And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.[24]
2. How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small (…) When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.[25]

[1] Raghib, p. 306, d-b-b; Lisan, 1/369, d-b-b.
[2] Maqayis, 2/263, d-b-b.
[3] Raghib, p. 306, d-b-b. See also Lisan, 1/369, d-b-b.
[4] Raghib, p. 306, d-b-b; Misbah, 2/188, d-b-b.
[5] Tabrisi, 7/233.
[6] Tabari, 18/119; Zamakhshari, 3/246; Lisan, 1/369-370, d-b-b; Misbah, 2/188, d-b-b. Rāzī also points out that man is also used for rational beings (Razi, 24/407).
[7] Tahqiq, 11/126, m-sh-y.
[8] Raghib, p. 769, m-sh-y.
[9] Zamakhshari, 3/427; Razi, 24/407.
[10] Tibyan, 7/448. See also Zamakhshari, 3/246; Qurtubi, 12/291; Andulusi, 4/190.
[11] See also Zamakhshari, 7/246-247. He argues that according to 24:45 each animal was created from a water specific to it, and that 21:30 should be understood as all living things being created from water as a genus (jins).
[12] Related in Qurtubi, 12/292.
[13] See for example the theories resulting from the experiments of the Large Hadron Collider regarding the early liquid state of the quark-gluon plasma from which it is said that all matter was derived in the moments after the Big Bang: S Acharya et al, ‘Measurements of mixed harmonic cumulants in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV’, in Physics Letters B (July, 2021), Vol. 818. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136354. Interestingly, some have also considered the beginning portion of 21:30 to be possibly referring to the Big Bang, Have the faithless not regarded that the heavens and the earth were interwoven and We unravelled them, and We made every living thing out of water (21:30).
[14] See also Alusi, 9/385.
[15] Ilal, 1/14; Uyun, 2/81.
[16] Tabrisi, 7/233; Tabari, 18/119; Baghawi, 3/423; Munyah, 19/126. This opinion is also attributed to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd (Suyuti, 5/54). Seminal fluid is also referred to as water (māʾ) in the Quran in some verses such as Have We not created you from a base fluid (māʾ), [and] then lodged it in a secure abode until a known span [of time]? (77:20-22).
[17] See also Nemuneh, 14/508.
[18] Single-celled organisms of course also reproduce without any seminal fluid, but it is not clear if such organisms are meant by the verse, so we have refrained from mentioning them as an example.
[19] Tabrisi, 7/234; Baydawi, 4/111.
[20] Razi, 24/407.
[21] Joseph C Spagna & Anne M Peattie, ‘Terrestrial Locomotion in Arachnids’ in Journal of Insect Physiology (May 2012), Vol. 58, Issue 5, pp. 599-606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinsphys.2012.01.019.
[22] R F Bowerman, ‘The Control of Walking in the Scorpion’ in Journal of Comparative Physiology (1975), Issue 100, pp. 183-196. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00614529.
[23] Thalabi, 7/113.
[24] Genesis 1:20-25.
[25] Psalms 104:24-30.