Logic For Islamic Rules

Does This Verse Point Towards the Artificial Means of the Present World?

Question: In Surah Nahl the Almighty Allah, while pointing towards the creation of quadrupeds whom humans are using for transport and riding, states in this way:

And (He made) horses and mules and asses that you might ride upon them and as an ornament; and He creates what you do not know. [Surah Nahl 16:8]

He creates what you do not know are the means of transport and commutation of the present day?

Answer: Our writers of Quranic exegesis in giving tafseer of this verse have expressed possibilities about two things. One is the things, which we do not know by creation of these it is meant to be the vehicles of travel of the present world and those other artificial means about which the people of those days had no knowledge. The corroboration of this possibility is also done by that you might ride upon them.

The second possibility is that this verse means those living and existing creatures, which are created in jungles and in the deep seas and other far-flung areas, they were hidden from the sights of men in those days.

On the basis of each of the two possibilities this verse is having miraculous aspect because it informs about those existing things, which were hidden from the eyes of man of that period. With the progress of science they came to be known afterwards.