54 Preface وَهُوَ الَّذي خَلَقَ مِنَ الماءِ بَشَرًا فَجَعَلَهُ نَسَبًا وَصِهرًا ۗ وَكانَ رَبُّكَ قَديرًاYusuf AliIt is He Who has created man from water:1 then has He established relationships of lineage2 and marriage: for thy Lord has power (over all things).The basis of all living matter in the physical world, protoplasm, is water: Cf. 24:45 and 21:30, and notes thereon.Water is a fluid, unstable thing: yet from it arises the highest form of life known to us in this world-man. And man has not only the functions and characteristics of the noblest animals, but his abstract relationships are also typical of his highest nature. He can trace lineage and pedigree, and thus remember and commemorate a long line of ancestors, to whom he is bound by ties of piety, which no mere animal can do. Further, there is the mystic union in marriage: it is not only like the physical union of animals, but it gives rise to relationships arising out of the sexes of individuals who were not otherwise related to each other. These are physical and social facts. But behind them, again, is the symbolic lesson of spiritual contrasts: as there is a long way to go between water and man, so there is a long way to go between an ordinary man and him who is lifted up to divine Light. As opposite sexes, though different in function, are one and contribute to each other’s happiness, so persons of diverse talents may unite in the spiritual world for their own highest good and in the service of God.