Human-Animal Demarcation: Reconciling the Verses of Human Dignity with Controversial Verses of the Nation of Animals, Speech of Ants and Hoopoes, and Resurrection of the Beasts in Prominent Shiite and Sunni Exegeses

In Quranic verses, reason is characterized as the main distinctive feature of humans versus animals. However, the Quran does not clarify the definition and implications of reason. In their interpretation of verse 70 of Surah al-Israʾ pertaining to the dignity and superiority of humans, exegetes of the Quran state that reason is the criterion for the human superiority, and then provide implications and characteristics for reason, including speech, perception of universal concepts, resurrection, and belonging to a nation. Nevertheless, all these characteristics are apparently imputed to animals in verse 38 of Surah al-Anʿam, 15-26 of Surah al-Nam, and verse 5 of Surah al-Takwir. This has raised debates over the apparent inconsistency of these verses, presenting the exegetes with the question of how humans may be superior to animals, and yet animals have all the distinctive features of humans, such as reason, speech, community, and resurrection. Exegetes of various philosophical, theological, and mystical folds have addressed the inconsistency by constructing theories to interpret the apparent meanings of verses concerning the human superiority over animals, but they failed to provide a consistent account of the distinction. In fact, the definition and implications of reason, as offered by exegetes, have resulted in this confusion.