The Quran

Preface

خَلَقَكُم مِن نَفسٍ واحِدَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنها زَوجَها وَأَنزَلَ لَكُم مِنَ الأَنعامِ ثَمانِيَةَ أَزواجٍ ۚ يَخلُقُكُم في بُطونِ أُمَّهاتِكُم خَلقًا مِن بَعدِ خَلقٍ في ظُلُماتٍ ثَلاثٍ ۚ ذٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُم لَهُ المُلكُ ۖ لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا هُوَ ۖ فَأَنّىٰ تُصرَفونَ

Yusuf Ali

He created you (all) from a single Person:¹ then created, of like nature, his mate; and he sent down for you eight head² of cattle in pairs: He makes you, in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another,³ in three veils of darkness.⁴ such is God, your Lord and Cherisher: to Him belongs (all) dominion. There is no god but He: then how are ye turned away⁵ (from your true Centre)?

Cf. 4:1, and n. 504.
See 6:143-144, where four kinds of cattle are mentioned in pairs in connection with certain Arab superstitions which are there condemned. Here the same four kinds are mentioned as representative of domesticated cattle given by God as useful to man. These are sheep, goats, camels, and oxen. In Arab idiom the horse is not included among “cattle”.
For the wisdom and goodness of God in granting man dominion over cattle, see 36:71-73.
See 22:5, where the gradual physical growth of man in several successive stages is mentioned as one of the Signs of God’s creative Power and cherishing care.
The three veils of darkness which cover the unborn child are: the caul or membrane, the womb, and the hollow in which the womb is enclosed. But we might understand “three” in a cumulative rather than a numerical sense.
It is clear that you owe your very existence and your maintenance, growth, and preservation, to God; how is it that you are turned away by chance things from Him? (R).