Another Oath in the Quran

Surah adiyat starts with:

وَالْعَادِيَاتِ ضَبْحًا
فَالْمُورِيَاتِ قَدْحًا
فَالْمُغِيرَاتِ صُبْحًا
فَأَثَرْنَ بِهِ نَقْعًا
فَوَسَطْنَ بِهِ جَمْعًا

1. By the charging steeds that pant
2 and strike sparks with their hooves,
3 who make dawn raids,
4 raising a cloud of dust,
5 and plunging into the midst of the enemy, (Surah 100:1-5)


The response to this oath is

إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لِرَبِّهِ لَكَنُودٌ
وَإِنَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَ‌ٰلِكَ لَشَهِيدٌ

6. Indeed man is not loyal to his Rabb! (100:6)
7. And to that fact he bears witness (100:7)

The Oath

1. By the charging steeds that pant
2 and strike sparks with their hooves,
3 who make dawn raids,
4 raising a cloud of dust,
5 and plunging into the midst of the enemy,

The Quran uses amazing imagery and scenes are drawn in the head of the reciter and the listener... Here, the qurans draws the image of a horses in battle..... The horses described in the ayah are female horses الْعَادِيَاتِ because the arabs preferred female horses for battle .they were faster.

Now imagine horses at the break of dawn, when there is still moisture in the air... the dust at this time of the day is settled because of the moisture in the air. These horses are moving at a very fast pace such that they raise a cloud of dust, sparks are flying when they hit the rocks. They do not necessarily see infront because of the dust raised, they plunge straight into the midst of the enemy without necessarily seeing what is in front of them.

An ancient arab can relate to a morning raid on a perceived enemy, they were made up of warrior tribes.... They are processing this as it is recited...

Then Allah says:

إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لِرَبِّهِ لَكَنُودٌ

Indeed man is not loyal to his Rabb! (Surah 100:6)

A horse submits to its master by going into the enemy territory without even knowing what is there, completely loyal to the Master… Allah ta’ala reminds them: man is not loyal to his Rabb.

SubhanAllah... Allah compares a horse loyalty to its master in the time of battle to humans disloyalty to Allah. The master feeds the horse and takes care of the Horse, the horse submits to its master in battle.... Allah has given us everything and has subjected the horse for our use, yet we are disloyal to our rabb...

Then Allah says

وَإِنَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَ‌ٰلِكَ لَشَهِيدٌ

And to that fact he bears witness (surah 100:7)

Man bears witness to the fact that he is not loyal! He knows! How? Allah azza wa jal just reminded them of the loyalty of the steeds to their owner in the previous verses; if your horse submits to you, then why do you not submit to your Owner?

The human knows because he knows his horse. The loyalty of his animal is a constant reminder of his disloyalty.

SubhanAllah!