Al-A'raf: (10) And We have certainly established you...

Issues in the Verse:

Know that when the Almighty commanded creation to follow the Prophets (peace be upon them), and to accept their call, He then warned them of worldly punishment, as in His saying: {And how many a town We destroyed} (Al-A'raf: 4). Then He warned them of the punishment of the Hereafter in two ways:

1. Accountability: As stated in His saying: {Then We will surely question those to whom messengers were sent} (Al-A'raf: 6).
2. Weighing of Deeds: As stated in His saying: {And the weighing on that Day will be the truth} (Al-A'raf: 8).

In this verse, He encourages them to accept the call of the Prophets (peace be upon them) through another means: by enumerating the abundance of His favors upon them. The abundance of favors necessitates obedience.

He said: {And We have certainly established you in the land and made for you therein livelihoods} (Al-A'raf: 10).

• {We have certainly established you in the land}: Meaning, We gave you a place and a settlement therein, and We empowered you to act within it.
• {and made for you therein livelihoods}: The intended meaning of ma'āyish (livelihoods) refers to the means of benefit. These are of two types:
  1. Those obtained directly through God's initial creation, such as the creation of water, etc.
  2. Those obtained through acquisition/effort.

In reality, both types are achieved only through God's grace, His enabling power, and His establishment. Thus, all of it is a favor from God Almighty. The abundance of favors undoubtedly necessitates obedience and submission.

Then, the Almighty clarified that despite this great bounty and favor, He knows that they will not adequately fulfill the duty of thanking Him: {little do you give thanks}.

This indicates that they do give thanks sometimes. This is because acknowledging the existence of the Creator is like a necessary, self-evident matter inherent in the nature of every rational person. God's favors upon humanity are numerous, so there is no human being who does not thank God at some time for His blessings. The difference lies only in that some may be frequent in gratitude, while others are infrequent in their thanks.

It is narrated from Khārijah, on the authority of Nāfi', that he pronounced the word {معائش} (ma'āyish) with a hamza (glottal stop) on the yā' (making it ma'ā'ish).

Al-Zajjāj said: All the Basran grammarians assert that pronouncing ma'āyish with a hamza is incorrect. They state that the yā' is only changed to a hamza if it is an extra letter, such as in ṣaḥīfah (singular) becoming ṣaḥā'if (plural). However, in {فيها معايش} (fīhā ma'āyish), the yā' is original, derived from the root ‘aysh (life). Nāfi's recitation has no basis known to me, except perhaps that the sound of this yā', which is part of the word's structure, was made quiescent in the singular form ma'īshah, causing this word to resemble the structure of ṣaḥīfah. Therefore, they made ma'āyish similar to ṣaḥā'if, and just as they inserted a hamza in ṣaḥā'if, they did so in ma'āyish by way of analogy. However, the difference, as mentioned, is that the yā' in ma'īshah is original, whereas the yā' in ṣaḥīfah is superfluous.

7 < { And We have certainly created you, then We formed you, then We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam," and they prostrated, except for Iblīs; he was not of those who prostrated. } > 7 !