Translation of Maulana Maudoodi’s Tafseer — Surah At-Teen (Verses 4-5)

The Verses
“We have certainly created man in the best of stature, then We returned him to the lowest of the low.”
(At-Teen 95:4-5)

Urdu Text Translation
We created man upon the finest constitution, then We turned him back to make him the lowest of the low.

Tafseer Translation
The Theme: Establishing the Reality of Recompense
The subject of this Surah is the affirmation of reward and punishment. For this purpose, oaths are first sworn by the places of manifestation of the most eminent Prophets, and it is declared that Allah has created man upon the finest constitution.
Although this truth has been expressed in various ways elsewhere in the Quran — for instance, in one place it is said that God appointed man as His vicegerent on earth and commanded the angels to prostrate before him; in another place it is said that man became the bearer of that Divine Trust which the heavens, the earth, and the mountains were unable to carry; and elsewhere it is said that We have honored the children of Adam and granted them distinction over many of Our creatures — yet here, specifically by swearing oaths upon the places where Prophets appeared, the statement that man was created upon the finest constitution carries a particular significance: it means that the human species was endowed with such an excellent nature that from within it emerged individuals capable of bearing the highest office of prophethood — an office granted to no other creature of God.

Two Categories of Human Beings
After this, it is explained that humanity divides into two types:
The first — those who, after being created upon this finest constitution, incline toward evil and, sinking deeper and deeper into moral degradation, reach a point where no other creature is lower than them.
The second — those who, by choosing the path of faith and righteous deeds, are saved from this fall and remain established upon that elevated station which is the natural and necessary demand of having been created upon the finest constitution.
The existence of these two distinct and completely different categories within humanity is an undeniable observable reality — witnessed everywhere, at all times, within human society.

The Logical Argument for Recompense
Finally, from this observable reality, the argument is made: when these two entirely different and opposite categories exist among human beings, how can the recompense of deeds be denied? If those who sink into degradation receive no punishment, and those who rise to heights receive no reward, and if the ultimate end of both is the same — then this would mean there is no justice in God’s dominion. Yet human nature and common human reason demand that whoever holds authority must exercise justice. How then can it be imagined that Allah — Who is the greatest of all sovereigns — will not dispense justice?

The Mechanism of Moral Descent
The correct meaning of the verse, in Maudoodi’s view, is this:
After being created upon the finest constitution, when man employs the powers of his body and mind in the path of evil, Allah then enables him further in that very evil — and brings him, through a continuous downward spiral, to such an extreme of degradation that no other creature reaches that depth.
This is a reality abundantly witnessed within human society. Those who drown in greed, covetousness, selfishness, lust, addiction, baseness, rage and wrath, and similar vices, become — in moral terms — truly the lowest of the low.

Human Savagery vs. Animal Instinct
Take just this one example: when one nation becomes blinded by enmity toward another, how completely it surpasses even the most ferocious beasts in brutality.
A wild beast hunts another animal only for food — it does not carry out mass slaughter. But this human being, created upon the finest constitution, uses his intellect to invent cannons, rifles, tanks, aircraft, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, and countless other weapons — so that he may obliterate entire settlements in an instant.
A beast merely wounds or kills. But man devises methods of torture against his fellow human beings that no beast’s mind could ever conceive.
Then, to satisfy his fires of enmity and revenge, man descends to the ultimate depths of baseness:
∙ He parades women naked through the streets
∙ Gangs of ten and twenty men assault a single woman to satisfy their lust
∙ Women’s honor is violated before the eyes of their fathers, brothers, and husbands
∙ Children are slaughtered before their parents
∙ Mothers are forced to drink the blood of their own children
∙ Human beings are burned alive and buried alive
There is not a single species among the wildest animals on earth that can match even a fraction of this human savagery.

The Degradation of Religion Itself
The same holds true for every other evil quality — in whichever direction man turns, he proves himself to be the vilest of all creatures.
Even religion — the most sacred thing for man — he degrades to such an extent that, progressing from the worship of trees, animals, and stones, he ultimately descends to worshipping the sexual organs of men and women. He keeps temple prostitutes (devadasis) in places of worship for the pleasure of his deities — and the act of fornication with them is considered an act of religious merit.
The deities he elevates to the status of gods and objects of worship are attributed, in mythological lore, with such filthy stories and acts that even the most debased human being would be ashamed of them.

This is Maudoodi’s comprehensive commentary establishing that man’s potential for both the highest nobility and the deepest depravity is the very foundation of the Quranic argument for Divine justice and the Day of Recompense.

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Ayat Themes of Surah 95. At-Tin

1-8 Man is made the best creatures of all except the disbelievers