50 Preface وَلَقَد صَرَّفناهُ بَينَهُم لِيَذَّكَّروا فَأَبىٰ أَكثَرُ النّاسِ إِلّا كُفورًاYusuf AliAnd We have distributed the (water) amongst them, in order1 that they may celebrate (our) praises, but2 most men are averse (to aught) but (rank) ingratitude.The water is distributed all over the world, in order that all life may receive its support, according to its needs. In 25:48-50, we have the argument of contrasts stated in another way. Water is life, and is made available to sustain life all over the world: this is a physical fact which all can see. But water is also the symbol of spiritual life, whose sustaining principle is the Will of God as made known to us through Revelation. It sometimes comes to us in our inward or spiritual storms. Many violent unsettlements of the spirit are but heralds of the refreshing showers of spiritual understanding mat come in their wake. They purify our souls, and produce spiritual Life even where there was a parched spiritual desert before. They continue to sustain us in our normal spiritual Life out of the reservoirs of God’s Revelation, which are open to all, and well-distributed in time and space. The universality of distribution is again referred to in the following verse.In contrast to God’s abounding Mercy is man’s base ingratitude: another symbolic contrast between Light and Darkness, or Water and Drought