Another thing I've happed upon and would like the Arabic-speaking people here to elucidate:
And verily! In the cattle, there is a lesson for you. We give you to drink of that which is in their bellies. [16:66]
Someone brought to my attention that the word 'butunihi' (translated as their bellies) comes in two forms and depends on its place in a sentence. In this case it should actually read 'butuniha'. Is this true? I ask because those same words occur again in 23:21 with the same order and grammar... but this time using the word 'butuniha'.
And Verily! In the cattle there is a lesson for you. We give you to drink of that which is in their bellies. [23:21]
Batni means abdomen, but not exclusively the digestive tract:
"...إن أحدكم يجمع خلقه في بطن أمه أربعين يوما ثم يكون في ذلك علقة مثل ذلك ثم يكون في ذلك مضغة"
Inna ahada kum yuhma'u khalquhu fee batni ummahi arba'eena yawman, Thumma yakoonu 'alaqatan mithla dhalika, Thumma yakoonu mudhghatan...
"A human being is created in the womb of his mother for forty days, then he becomes an alaqa for an equivalent period, then he becomes a mudgha "
-Sahih Bukhari book 55, number 549
In 23:21 the word
butooniha was only used once. It is written as "
بطونها ", but this is the same word as
batni, just written differently as a plural.
Actually in 23:21 the singular feminine ها- is used, but that is how you form a plural for a group of non-human creatures.