Tafsir of An-Nahl 16:6

"And in them" — alongside the aforementioned essential benefits — "there is beauty," meaning an adornment in the eyes of people, and majesty and prestige in their sight. It is well-known that this term is applied to significant excellence. It may manifest in physical appearance through the elegance of composition, the harmony of limbs, and their proportionality; in character, by encompassing praiseworthy traits; and in actions, by being congruent with benefit—warding off harm and securing advantage. Originally, it is the verbal noun (maṣdar) of jamula (to be beautiful), with a ḍammah on the mīm. One says of a man: jamīl (beautiful), jamāl (beauty), and jamāl (in the sense of abundance). For a woman, it is jamīlah, and according to al-Kisā’ī, jamlā’; he recited: She is beautiful, like a rising full moon, surpassing all of creation in beauty.

Some hold the view that it is used in the sense of "adornment" (tajammul), assuming it is a verbal noun with the extra letters omitted.

"When you bring them home" — that is, when you return them in the evening from the pasture to their enclosure (marāḥ). It is said: "He brought the livestock home (arāḥa)" when he returned them to the enclosure at that time.

"And when you drive them out" — that is, when you take them out in the morning from their folds and resting places to their grazing grounds and pastures. It is said: "He drove them out (saraḥahā), they went out (yasraḥu), a driving out (sarḥan) and a going out (surūḥan), and they went out (saraḥat herself)." The verb can be transitive or intransitive. The first verb, as well as the second, is transitive, but the object is omitted to observe the rhythm of the verses and to specify the two times. For that which constitutes the matter of beauty—the decorating of the courtyards and the response of their bleating and lowing—is precisely during the going and coming at those two times. As for when they are in the pastures, their sensory attachment to their owners is severed; and when they are in the folds, no viewer sees them, and no onlooker gazes upon them.

The precedence of "bringing home" (arāḥah) over "driving out" (sarḥ), even though it occurs later in time, is because it is more evident in its manifestation of the aforementioned beauty, and more complete in bringing about comfort and delight; for it involves presence after absence and arrival after departure in the best state—with full bellies and laden udders.

‘Ikrimah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, and al-Jaḥdarī recited it as ḥīnan (indefinite, with tanwīn) in both instances, breaking the genitive construction, on the premise that both clauses are adjectives for a ḥīn (time) preceding them, with the resumptive pronoun omitted, as in the words of the Exalted: "And fear a day [when] no soul shall avail another..."—meaning, a time in which you bring them home, and a time in which you drive them out. The governing agent of ḥīn is either the subject (mubtada’), as it carries the meaning of "adornment" (as has been said), or its predicate, due to the meaning of "observation" it contains.

It is also permissible that it be connected to an omitted element acting as an adjective for "beauty."