Fourth Point
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And We sent down iron, in which is [material for] mighty war, as well as many benefits for mankind. A brief reply to a question about the above verse, which has come to have great importance, for with it a prominent person with knowledge of modern science silenced a number of hojas.
Question: It is normally said that iron is mined from the earth, so why is it said in this verse We sent down or revealed rather than We excavated or extracted; this appears to be inappropriate?
The Answer: With the phrase We sent down, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition recalls the vast and important bounty of iron. For it does not consider iron only for itself so that it should say extracted, but recalls the tremendous divine bounty in iron and how needy mankind is for it. Its aspect of being a bounty does not come upwards from below, but down from the treasury of mercy. The treasury of mercy is certainly elevated, above, and at a high level, so the bounty descends from above; and needy mankind’s level is surely below. The bestowal of bounty is superior to need, so the correct way to express the fact that bounty comes from the treasury of mercy to meet mankind’s need is We sent down; it is not We extracted.
Also, since the gradual extraction of iron is at man’s hand, the word extract does not alert the heedless person to its aspects of bounty. If what is meant is iron’s material substance, it is extracted in respect of its physical situation. But iron’s quality of being a bounty, which is the intended meaning here, is immaterial. This meaning looks not to physical situation, but to immaterial degree or level. Bounties proceeding from the treasury of mercy, which is a manifestation of the infinitely exalted degree of the Most Merciful, are certainly sent down from the highest level to the lowest. Thus, the correct expression is We sent down:
It recalls to mankind that iron is one of the greatest divine bounties.
Yes, iron is the source of all mankind’s industries, and of its advancement and progress, and the means of its power and strength. So, in order to call to mind this tremendous bounty and bestowal of favour, in lofty style the Qur’an states: And We sent down iron, in which is [material for] mighty war, as well as many benefits for mankind. In a similar way it declares about David’s (UWP) important miracle: And We made the iron soft for him. That is to say, it points out the softening of iron, a great miracle and great bounty for a great prophet.
Secondly: Above and below are relative. They are above and below in relation to the earth’s centre. In fact, something which is below in relation to us is above from the point of view of the American continent. This means the situation of substances coming from the earth’s centre to its surface changes according to the position of people on the surface.
With the tongue of miraculousness, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition states that iron contains so many benefits and has such extensive uses that it is not some common substance to be extracted from the store of the globe, and that it is not some natural substance to be used for any chance need. Rather, in order to express iron’s general uses it states that it is a bounty stored up by the Creator of the Universe in the treasury of mercy and huge workshop of the universe which He sent down through His majestic title of Sustainer of the Heavens and Earth to meet the needs of the earth’s inhabitants. It is as if, like rain, heat, and light, which descend from the skies, it contains such all‑embracing advantages that it was sent from the workshop of the universe, not from the narrow store of the earth. It was sent having been prepared in the great treasury of mercy in the palace of the universe, and situated in the store of the globe, from which it is extracted little by little over the centuries in proportion to need.
The Qur’an of Mighty Stature does not want to express the iron which is extracted bit by bit from this small store only as being utilized, but as being sent down together with the globe of the earth from the supreme treasury, as a tremendous bounty. That is to say, the thing most necessary for the house of the earth is iron, for when the All‑Glorious Creator separated the earth from the sun and sent it down for mankind, He sent down iron together with it, and met most of mankind’s needs with it. The All-Wise Qur’an decrees in miraculous fashion: “Use this iron in your works and try to excavate it and take advantage of it.”
The verse describes two bounties; both the repulsion of enemies and the attraction of benefits. Iron was put to important human uses before the revelation of the Qur’an, but with the phrase, in which is [material for] mighty war it points out that in the future, it would be used for travelling through the sea, air, and land, and would subjugate the globe wondrously and astonishingly, and demonstrate a wondrous death‑tainted strength. Thus, of its various sorts of miraculousness, it displays a flash of miraculousness in its predicting the future.