The Bee
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[16:81]
And among the many objects of His creation, God has appointed for you [various] means of protection: thus, He has given you in the mountains places of shelter, and has endowed you with [the ability to make] garments to protect you from heat [and cold], as well as such garments as might protect you from your [mutual] violence.
In this way does He bestow the full measure of His blessings on you, so that you might surrender yourselves unto Him.

---

* v.81 : Lit., “out of that which He has created.”
* Lit., “shades” (zilāl, sing. zill). Metonymically, this term is occasionally used to describe anything that “shades” one in the sense of protecting him; and since the sequence clearly refers to means of protection, I believe that this derivative meaning of zilāl is here preferable to the literal.
* According to almost all the classical commentators, the mention of “heat” implies here its opposite as well, namely “cold”; hence my interpolation.
* According to most of the commentators, the second incidence of the term “garments” (sarābīl) in this verse is to be understood as “coats of mail” or “armour,” in which case it would allude to wars and other instances of mutual violence. But although this interpretation cannot be ruled out, it seems to me that the second mention of “garments” can be understood in a much wider sense, perhaps metonymically denoting all manner of “coverings” (i.e., devices meant to protect the body) which man may be constrained to use in dangerous situations of his own making: hence the stress on “your violence” (ba’sakum).