And He made for you hearing and vision and hearts, that perhaps you would be grateful.
“And He made for you hearing and vision and hearts, that perhaps you would be grateful.”
Allah brought you - O people - out of your mothers’ wombs after the completion of the term of pregnancy, as babies not realising anything; and He gave you hearing to hear with, eyesight to see with, and hearts to reason; in the hope that you may give thanks to Him for these favours that He has given you.
The plain meaning, from Al-Mukhtasar fi at-Tafsir
وَٱللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُم مِّنۢ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَٰتِكُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْـًٔا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْأَبْصَٰرَ وَٱلْأَفْـِٔدَةَ ۙ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and hearts i.e., intellect that perhaps you would be grateful.
What does Quran 16:78 mean?
The verse begins earlier than the quoted line: Allah brought you out of your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing. Hearing, sight and understanding are listed as things that were given to someone who arrived with none of them. The commentators note the order — the senses first, then the heart that makes sense of them — and the purpose stated at the end, which is not knowledge but thanks.
Written from Al-Mukhtasar fi at-Tafsir