“Do you think that most of them hear or understand? For they are merely like cattle; nay, even worse than them. Have you not seen how your Lord spreads the shade? If He will, He could have made it stationary; instead We have made the sun its pilot. So (as the sun rises), We gradually roll up that shade unto Us.”
(Al-Quran 25:44-46)
Cattle do not know whether they are being driven towards a pasture or a slaughter house. The same is true of most people: they continue moving ahead under the influence of the satan within them – the satan of desire – and under the influence of their leaders who are wont to misguide them so that they do not know whether they are being driven towards their success or destruction. Woe to such people, for unlike the cattle, they have been endowed with reason and the ability to think and judge for themselves. Hence, their state is worse than that of cattle.
This ayat is not meant for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), for if it were, it would mean that the Blessed Prophet was being asked to desist in his efforts to convey his Message to the unbelievers. Rather, the ayat is meant for the unbelievers. It asks the unbelievers to wake from their state of negligence and heedlessness and to change their ways which are like those of dumb driven cattle. This they should do for they have been endowed with the ability to think and to reason.