Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:54

"Eat and pasture your livestock..."

His saying—the Exalted—"Eat and pasture your livestock" is an object of an implied verb, serving as a circumstantial qualifier (hal) for the pronoun in "We brought forth" (fa-akhrajna). That is: We brought forth the various types of vegetation, saying, "Eat," meaning: preparing them for your benefit, directly and indirectly, permitting that. It has also been permitted that the statement be a circumstantial qualifier for the object—that is, We brought forth different pairs, with this said about them. The first is more appropriate and preferred.

"Pasture" (ra'a), as Al-Zajjaj said, is used both intransitively and transitively. It is said: "The animal grazed" (ra'at ad-dabbatu ra'yan), and "Its owner pastured it" (ra'aha sahibuha ra'ayan) when he lets it loose to graze, turns it out, and brings it back to rest.

"Indeed, in that..." is a reference to what has been mentioned of His—the Exalted—affairs and actions. The sense of remoteness implied by the demonstrative pronoun (dhalika) is to indicate the loftiness of His rank and the distance of His station in perfection. It is also said: it is due to the non-presence of that which is indicated by the word.

The use of the indefinite in His saying—the Glorified—"are signs" (la-ayat) is for glorification, both in quantity and quality; that is, signs that are many, majestic, and clear in their indication of the affairs of Allah—the Exalted—regarding His Essence and His attributes.

"For those of nuha"—the plural of nuhyah, with the nun being dammah. The intellect is named such because it forbids (yanha) one from following falsehood and committing the ugly, just as it is named ‘aql (restraint) and hijr (confinement) because it restrains and confines one from that. Nuha also comes as a singular noun meaning intellect, as stated in Al-Qamus, and this is apparent in what has been narrated from Ibn Abbas here, for he said: "That is, for those of intellect." In another narration from him, he said: "For those of piety," and perhaps that is an interpretation by way of necessary consequence.

Abu Ali permitted that it be an infinitive (verbal noun) like huda (guidance). Most scholars hold that it is a plural, meaning: for those possessing intellects that forbid falsehoods. The restriction of these being signs for them is because the aspects of their indication of the affairs of Allah—the Exalted—are known only by those of intellect; for this reason, their benefit was deemed to return to them in reality, hence He—the Glorified—said: "Eat and pasture," rather than "Eat you and your livestock."