Signs in the Oceans, Mountains, Rivers, Roads and Stars

Allah tells us how He has subjected the seas, with their waves lapping the shores, and how He blesses His servants by subjecting the seas for them so that they may travel on them, and by putting fish and whales in them, by making their flesh permissible to eat - whether they are caught alive or dead - at all times, including when people are in a state of Ihram. He has created pearls and precious jewels in the oceans, and made it easy for His servants to recover ornaments that they can wear from the ocean floor. He made the sea such that it carries the ships which plow through it. He is the One Who taught mankind to make ships, which is the inheritance of their forefather Nuh. He was the first one to travel by ship, he was taught how to make them, then people took this knowledge from him and passed it down from generation to generation through the centuries, so that they could travel from country to country and from place to place, bringing goods from here to there and from there to here. Thus Allah says:

وَلِتَبْتَغُواْ مِن فَضْلِهِ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

After the description of things created in the heavens and the earth, and the benefits human beings derive from them, the text now turns to the high seas wherein Divine wisdom has placed many more benefits for them. Verse 14 which begins with the words: هُوَ الَّذِي سَخَّرَ‌ الْبَحْرَ‌ لِتَأْكُلُوا (And He is the One who has subjugated the sea so that you may eat) which points out to the excellent arrangement whereby they get their supply of sea food, fresh white meat from the fish.

By calling the fish, fresh meat, in the sentence which follows immediately, that is: لِتَأْكُلُوا مِنْهُ لَحْمًا طَرِ‌يًّا (so that you may eat fresh meat there from - 14), a hint has also been placed within the statement that it is free of any condition of slaughtering necessary with other animals. That is, as if, meat made ready, without having to do so. This was the first benefit.