Verse. 2099

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (verily we have honoured the children of adam) by giving them hands and feet. (we carry them on the land) on the backs of beasts (and the sea) aboard ships, (and have made provision of good things for them) we made their provision better and finer than the provision of beasts, (and have preferred them above many of those whom we created) of animals (with a marked preferment) in forms, feet and hands.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and verily we have honoured, we have preferred, the children of adam, [above other creation], by [giving them] knowledge, speech and [their being] a creation of even proportions amongst other things, including their [means of] purification after death, and carried them over land, on animal-back, and sea, in ships, and provided them with good things and we have preferred them above many of those whom we created, such as livestock and wild animals, with a marked preferment (the min [of mimman, ‘of those whom’] has the sense of mā, ‘of what’, or something close to it, and includes the angels, the purpose being to give preference to the [angelic] genus; there is no requirement to give [explicit] preference to the individuals [of this category of being], since they [angels] are superior to mankind, excepting the prophets).