Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

Bismillahir- Rahmanir-Rahim

1. Preface

Have you ever noticed that in the Qur’an, the word “Hearing” is almost always mentioned before “Seeing”? Scientifically, this secret is truly amazing. The ear is the first sense to function perfectly while we are still a fetus. At week 26 in the mother’s womb, the baby can already record the mother’s heartbeat, while the eyes only begin to see color clearly after the fourth month post-birth.The ear is our guardian that never sleeps. The eyes see only forward, but the ears capture sound from six directions: above, below, front, back, right, and left. In the pitch darkness of night, our eyes are paralyzed, yet the ears continue working as a faithful radar. This is the sophistication of the Creator’s design—placing the instrument for “receiving truth” (the ear) before the instrument for “enjoying beauty” (the eye).

2. Explanation

Qur’anic Evidence and Hadith

Allah SWT affirms this order of creation in His words:

إِ نَّا خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ أَمْشَاجٍ نَبْتَلِيهِ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا

“Indeed, We created man from a drop of mixed sperm, in order to try him, so We made him hearing and seeing.” (QS. Al-Insan: 2)

قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ سَمْعَكُمْ وَأَبْصَارَكُمْ

“Say, [O Muhammad], ‘Have you considered: if Allah should take away your hearing and your sight...’” (QS. Al-An‘am: 46)

The Messenger of Allah SAW also often prayed for goodness in both senses:

اللَّهُمَّ مَتِّعْنِي بِسَمْعِي وَبَصَرِي ، وَاجْعَلْهُمَا الْوَارِثَ مِنِّي

“O Allah, let me enjoy my hearing and my sight, and make them remain with me until I die.” (HR. Tirmidhi)

3. Lessons and Message

The order “Hearing before Seeing” teaches us humility in seeking knowledge. To understand reality and truth, we must be willing to listen more than merely look at the surface. Many who lose their sight become great scholars and masterful writers, yet those who lose their hearing from birth struggle to speak and grasp the concepts of the world. The moral message is clear: Be a good listener to the truth, for with our ears we grasp meaning, while with our eyes we only see form.Scientists have recorded the sound of a mother’s heartbeat and the swishing of the placenta heard by a baby in the womb. When that recording is played to a newborn crying uncontrollably, a miracle happens. The baby instantly calms, the crying stops, and he feels safe. That sound is the first memory of protection. It is as if God wants to whisper to the baby, “You are not alone; I am guarding you through this pulse of life even before your eyes can behold the world.”Imagine you are driving a car on a dark night. Your eyes can only see as far as the headlights illuminate the road. But if there is a small malfunction in the engine underneath or the rear wheel, your eyes will not know. Your ears are the first to catch that “foreign” sound and warn you to stop before a greater danger occurs. Hearing is life’s “early warning system” that covers areas beyond the reach of sight.Allah created us with two ears and only one mouth. This should be a hard code that we must listen more than we comment! Imagine if it were reversed: two mouths and one ear. Perhaps the world would be full of people scrambling to speak until there was no space left to absorb knowledge. We were given “two openings” for information to enter and “one opening” for words to exit, so that we filter what we hear before we speak it.

4. Conclusion

The word order in the Qur’an is not coincidence. Hearing is mentioned first because it is the primary gateway to intelligence and faith. There is only one verse where sight is mentioned first (QS. As-Sajdah: 12), and that is in the Hereafter, when humans witness the overwhelming horrors of the Day of Reckoning whose speed surpasses sound.Let us use our ears to hear His verses and our eyes to be grateful for His creation. Let us not be among those who regret in the Hereafter, saying, “If only we had listened or reasoned, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze.”

والله أعلم بالصواب

الحمد لله رب العالمين

Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie