Did We not give you two eyes? A tongue and two lips? (Quran 90:8-9)

Where does my sight come from? Did some object generate the quality of sight from nothing? Did some creature take it from another creature and put it in my account? If other creatures in this world have sight, do they each have their own unique supplier of sight? These two verses in the Quran tell me about me, but they tell me in a way that leads me to consider how I got this way. “We gave you sight”.

The One who gave me sight, must necessarily be the owner of sight.

The One who gave me speech, must necessarily be the owner of speech.

 This approach is important. It teaches me how to use my self and the world around me to learn about the One who must necessarily be the owner of sight and speech. It also tells me about the nature of my relationship with the owner of sight and speech. This method of demonstrating to me is remarkably subtle, but undeniably powerful in its explanatory adequacy. It demonstrates how to apply this method of inquiry beyond the particulars of sight and speech.

The text could have just stated plainly “God has sight and speech. So do you”. But this only draws a comparison between my observable attributes and God’s alleged non-observable attributes. Even if we accept it as fact, the statement would simply imply correlation and not causation. Instead, the Revelation here says “Observe. Your sight was given to you, was it not? You didn’t develop that quality on your own. Something gave it to you. You are looking for the One who put you here, are you not? Start there. Start from yourself and observe how the attributes of sight and speech that appear on you are also shared by countless other creatures. They are not unique to you. In fact, sight and speech are distributed all across the world, across species, in a multitude of arrangements, and must therefore be dispensed from a single provider of sight and speech. A master arranger, not some random accident-prone disorganizer.”

Do you see the answers to your burning questions? “Who am I? Who put me here? What is my purpose?” The verses themselves provide an approach for me to learn from the world, to extrapolate from the observable world some knowledge about its Owner – my Owner – and the nature of my relationship to Him. As the recipient and beneficiary of such extraordinary attributes, I am consequently filled with gratitude. Yet another quality that I cannot claim to own in my account on similar grounds. This quality of gratitude I observe in me is also ubiquitous, appearing on the face of countless other creatures. Do they each have their own private dispensary of this attribute? It must be then, necessarily so, that the owner of gratitude, sight, and speech is displaying signs of His attributes so that I may never forget He is always here. So I may never conceal His signs by expropriating or attributing His property – His qualities – to myself or His creation.

Yet man doesn’t attempt the high road. And how to explain to you the high road? To relinquish ownership of a slave. (Quran 90:13)

Like me, everything in the creation is dignified with rights from their Owner. A purpose. When I lay claim to anything – material objects, qualities, living creatures – when I exploit it and use it for my own gain, haven’t I made it serve me? I cannot justly take ownership of the property owned by another. To expropriate them and make them serve for me, relying on them to serve me, all while denying their rightful belonging to another, is a heedless, mindless act, isn’t it? Thus, sight and speech must be given to me to observe and proclaim gratitude to their necessary Owner in the way that they I perform them.

Whoever returns them to their proper Owner, whoever attributes and acknowledges their rightful Owner:

Then he has become one of those who attains faith, encourages patient restraint, and encourages compassion. Those are the ones on the right side. (Quran 90: 18)

But to deny all of these signs, and to reject all of these appeals to my senses and sensibilities, will leave me alone in this world, without a compassionate and sympathetic benefactor always looking over me, showing me the answers to my primordial questions. Without the dignity of meaning and purpose. I’d become enraged in my eternal loneliness and frustration over my imperfect and limited qualities.

But as for those who conceal Our observable signs, they are the ones on the wrong side. A vaulted fire sits over them. (Quran 90: 19)