S28
Livestock and their benefits
16:5–7 and 36:71–73 list what grazing animals give — warmth, food, beauty, the carrying of loads — and end with a question: "so will they not be grateful?"
وَٱلْأَنْعَٰمَ خَلَقَهَا ۗ لَكُمْ فِيهَا دِفْءٌ وَمَنَٰفِعُ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ٥ وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا جَمَالٌ حِينَ تُرِيحُونَ وَحِينَ تَسْرَحُونَ٦ وَتَحْمِلُ أَثْقَالَكُمْ إِلَىٰ بَلَدٍ لَّمْ تَكُونُوا۟ بَٰلِغِيهِ إِلَّا بِشِقِّ ٱلْأَنفُسِ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ لَرَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ٧
Transliteration: wal-anʿāma khalaqahā lakum fīhā dif'on wamanāfiʿu wamin'hā takulūna · walakum fīhā jamālun ḥīna turīḥūna waḥīna tasraḥūna · wataḥmilu athqālakum ilā baladin lam takūnū bālighīhi illā bishiqqi l-anfusi inna rabbakum laraūfun raḥīmun
And the grazing livestock He has created for you; in them is warmth and [numerous] benefits, and from them you eat. And for you in them is [the enjoyment of] beauty when you bring them in [for the evening] and when you send them out [to pasture]. And they carry your loads to a land you could not have reached except with difficulty to yourselves. Indeed, your Lord is Kind and Merciful.
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ أَنَّا خَلَقْنَا لَهُم مِّمَّا عَمِلَتْ أَيْدِينَآ أَنْعَٰمًا فَهُمْ لَهَا مَٰلِكُونَ٧١ وَذَلَّلْنَٰهَا لَهُمْ فَمِنْهَا رَكُوبُهُمْ وَمِنْهَا يَأْكُلُونَ٧٢ وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا مَنَٰفِعُ وَمَشَارِبُ ۖ أَفَلَا يَشْكُرُونَ٧٣
Transliteration: awalam yaraw annā khalaqnā lahum mimmā ʿamilat aydīnā anʿāman fahum lahā mālikūna · wadhallalnāhā lahum famin'hā rakūbuhum wamin'hā yakulūna · walahum fīhā manāfiʿu wamashāribu afalā yashkurūna
Do they not see that We have created for them from what Our hands have made, grazing livestock, and [then] they are their owners? And We have tamed them for them, so some of them they ride, and some of them they eat. And for them therein are [other] benefits and drinks, so will they not be grateful?
Translation: Saheeh International
Meccan, at the start of a long list of blessings in Sura al-Naḥl ("The Bee").
"Do they not see that We have created for them from what Our hands have made, grazing livestock, and [then] they are their owners? And We have tamed them for them, so some of them they ride, and some of them they eat. And for them therein are [other] benefits and drinks, so will they not be grateful?" (36:71–73), Meccan, near the end of Sura Yā Sīn, in a passage answering those who doubt the resurrection.
Key words
Al-anʿām ("grazing livestock"): camels, cattle, sheep and goats. Difʾ ("warmth"). Jamāl ("beauty"). Dhallalnāhā (36:72, "We have tamed them"): made them manageable, submissive.
Whom they address
People in general ("for you"), and in 36 those who "do not see" — an invitation to look at a familiar sight.
See also: 16:8 , 6:142
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir on 16:5–7. "The blessings include the benefits derived from their wool and hair, from which clothes and furnishings are made"; Ibn ʿAbbas said the warmth "refers to clothing". The food is "from their milk which is drunk, and their young which are eaten." On 16:6: "Their beauty is a kind of adornment", seen "when they are brought back from the pasture in the evening" and "when you send them out to the pasture in the morning." On 16:7, the loads are "the heavy burdens that you cannot move or carry by yourselves".
Ibn Kathir on 36:71–73. "Allah mentions the blessing that He has bestowed upon His creation by subjugating these cattle for their use." On "they are their owners", he cites Qatada: "They are their masters." On "We have tamed them": "even if a young child comes to a camel he can make it kneel down", and "Even if the train consists of a hundred or more camels, they could all be led by a young child." On riding: "some of them they ride on their journeys, and use them to carry their burdens to all regions." The other benefits include "wool, fur, and hair, furnishings and articles of convenience"; the "drinks" are "their milk" (he also mentions the use of their urine as medicine).
Al-Jalālayn on 16:5: "In them there is warmth that by which you keep warm in the way of clothes and garments taken from their hairs and wools". On 36:71, the livestock are "camels cows and sheep", and the people are "masters controlling them."
Tanwīr al-Miqbās on 16:5 reads the livestock as "i.e. the camels", giving "warm clothing" "made of their skin."
Where they differ. Mostly they agree. They differ in detail: the warmth comes from wool and hair (Ibn Kathir; al-Jalālayn) or from skins (Tanwīr); the animals are camels alone (Tanwīr on 16:5) or camels, cattle and sheep (al-Jalālayn on 36:71). Ibn Kathir alone dwells on the beauty of the evening return and on the image of a child leading a hundred camels.
How it works
Each point is tied to "We have tamed them for them" (36:72) and to the benefits named.
- When sheep and goats were tamed. Established (date approximate) Comparing the genes of domestic sheep and goats with their wild ancestors (the Asiatic mouflon and the Bezoar ibex), Cardiff researchers (Pablo Orozco-terWengel and Mike Bruford) place their domestication "approximately 10,500 years ago" "near the fertile crescent" (Cardiff University news; the journal paper has not yet been consulted).
- When camels were tamed. Established (date approximate) Using DNA from 1,083 modern dromedaries from 21 countries, plus ancient specimens, Almathen et al. (2016) conclude that "The domestication of the dromedary likely happened in the late second millennium BCE" — roughly 3,000 years ago — with a reduction in bone size dated to "ca. 1,100–800 BCE", and identify "the Southeast Arabian Peninsula as the region of first domestication" (phys.org report). Unusually, dromedaries kept high genetic diversity, because wild animals kept breeding into domestic herds.
- What "tamed" involved. Established Domestication was a long human process of selecting and breeding animals that were calm enough to handle. The verse speaks of God taming them; the historical process is described here separately and is not the verse's meaning.
Points of awe
A camel can weigh many times a child's weight, yet Ibn Kathir's picture is a child leading a hundred of them.
Reflection
These verses take the most ordinary thing in a herder's life and ask him to look at it again. Animals that are larger and stronger than us let us milk them, shear them, ride them and load them. A child, says Ibn Kathir, can make a camel kneel.
Then the Quran adds something unexpected: beauty. "For you in them is [the enjoyment of] beauty when you bring them in [for the evening] and when you send them out [to pasture]." Ibn Kathir sees the scene: the herd coming home full in the evening, going out in the morning. The verse does not stop at usefulness; it invites the pleasure of looking.
The question in 36:73 is the centre: "so will they not be grateful?" Gratitude here is not only a feeling. The verses link it to seeing — "Do they not see" — and to remembering where the gift comes from: "We have created for them". Owning the animals ("they are their owners") is itself a trust, not an achievement.
A modern reader knows that domestication took thousands of years of human work. The reflection does not deny that. It asks why there were animals at all that could be shaped this way, and why they were placed within reach. For many people today, livestock are something seen only on a plate. The verses ask us to see the animal before the meal, and to be grateful for both.
Questions readers ask next
Why does the Quran mention the beauty of cattle?
16:6 names it directly. Ibn Kathir: "Their beauty is a kind of adornment", seen as the herd goes out in the morning and comes home in the evening.
Does "tamed" mean they were domesticated?
The commentators read it as God making them manageable — "even if a young child comes to a camel he can make it kneel down" (Ibn Kathir). The history of domestication (about 10,500 years for sheep and goats; about 3,000 for camels) is a separate, scientific account.
What is the "warmth" in 16:5?
Clothing, said Ibn ʿAbbas (via Ibn Kathir); al-Jalālayn: garments from their hair and wool; Tanwīr: clothing made from their skins.
Which animals are meant?
Al-anʿām: al-Jalālayn names camels, cattle and sheep; Tanwīr reads 16:5 as camels.
Sources
- Saheeh International — 16:5–7, 36:71–73.
- Ibn Kathir (abridged English), al-Jalālayn and Tanwīr al-Miqbās, on 16:5, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-5-sora-16.html, and on 36:71, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-71-sora-36.html.
- Cardiff University news, "New light shed on the domestication history of sheep and goats", https://cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/1128739-new-light-shed-on-the-domestication-history-of-sheep-and-goats.
- Almathen et al., "Ancient and modern DNA reveal dynamics of domestication and cross-continental dispersal of the dromedary", PNAS 113(24):6707–6712 (2016), https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/90782/1/Almaten_Charruau_Mohandesan_etal_2016.pdf; and the phys.org report, https://phys.org/news/2016-05-dromedary-domestication.html.
- Cardiff University, "New light shed on the domestication history of sheep and goats"
- Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, chapter on domestication (on why so few species were domesticated)
- Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī on 16:5–8 and 36:71–73