۞ وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ وَحَمَلْنَـٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَـٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتِ وَفَضَّلْنَـٰهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا
Wa laqad karramnaa Baneee aadama wa hamalnaahum fil barri walbahri wa razaqnaahum minat taiyibaati wa faddalnaahum 'alaa kaseerim mimman khalaqnaa tafdeelaa
اور ہم نے بنی آدم کو عزت بخشی اور ان کو جنگل اور دریا میں سواری دی اور پاکیزہ روزی عطا کی اور اپنی بہت سی مخلوقات پر فضیلت دی
Indeed, we have honored the children of Adam, carried them on land and sea, provided for them from the good things, and favored them far above much of what we have created.
Honor is conferred here, from karam, generosity, so it arrives as a gift rather than an achievement. Placement is deliberate: the verses just before had people at sea calling out in terror and forgetting once they were safe, and now the sea is named as a place across which they are carried. Commentators noticed the comparison stops at much of creation instead of all of it, and argued for centuries over whether angels fall inside that word.