The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Nūr – Verse 44

يُقَلِّبُ اللَّهُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِّأُوْلِي الْأَبْصَارِ

Allah alternates the night and the day. There is indeed a moral in that for those who have insight.

EXEGESIS

Yuqallibu (alternates) from qalb, which means to turn something from one side to another.[1] Here it means that He causes the day to come after the night, and the night after the day.[2] Some have suggested that it means He causes them to have alternating lengths,[3] sometimes a day is longer, sometimes it is shorter, they alternate in how much they take of the twenty-four-hour period. However, turning them from one side to another is actually a very accurate choice when describing night and day, since that is caused by the rotation of the earth, spinning from one face to another.

ʿIbrah (moral) comes from the verb ʿabara, meaning to pass from one place to another. ʿIbrah means to draw a lesson from something, because one is passing from one concept to another.[4]

Abṣār (insight), is the plural of baṣar which literally means sight. However, due to being mentioned in the context of gaining ʿibrah, it may have been used with the meaning of baṣīrah, which means insight and seeing with the heart.[5]

EXPOSITION

Another example is given of the harmonious order in the creation of God and how His ‘clear command’ has resulted in such an organised existence. God calls on the reader to ponder the alternation of night and day. This beautiful example can perhaps be even more appreciated with today’s scientific understanding of how our solar system functions: the rotation of the earth around itself, causing day and night, its tilted axis and orbit around the sun causing the various seasons and the alternating length of days. The orbits of the planets and stars and moons and the movements of solar systems and galaxies is truly a dizzyingly complex and intricate system, one which we are slowly beginning to unfold and somewhat understand.

Allah alternates the night and the day: the issue of alternating day and night and how God has measured and exactly decreed the movements of planets, moons, and stars, has been described in the Quran with various different terms, each of which explain one aspect of this spectacular phenomenon:

  1. To come one after another (khilfah/ikhtilāf): and the alternation (ikhtilāf) of night and day (2:164);[6] It is He who made the night and the day alternate [after each other] (khilfatan) (25:62).
  2. To make one pass into the other (wulūj): Have you not regarded that Allah makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night; and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each moving for a specified term (31:29).[7]
  3. To make one cover the other (ghashyah): He draws (yughshī) the night’s cover over the day, which pursues it swiftly, and [He created] the sun, the moon, and the stars, [all of them] disposed by His command (7:54).[8]
  4. To strip away light from the day (salkh): And a sign for them is the night, which We strip (naslakhu) of daylight, and, behold, they find themselves in the dark (36:37).
  5. To wind one into the other (takwīr): He winds (yukawwiru) the night over the day, and winds the day over the night, and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each moving for a specified term (39:5).
  6. To measure them out (taqdīr): Allah measures (yuqaddiru) the night and the day (73:20).

In this verse qalb is chosen, because the context of the verses relates to the rotation of the earth, as we shall discuss.

We know today that the earth moves in different ways. We know of its rotation around itself, its orbit around the sun, the slight changes during the eons in this ever so slightly elliptical orbit, its axis which is tilted at an angle which allows for alternating lengths of days and seasons, the slight shifts in that axial tilt during the eons, and the movement of the moon and other planets all exerting forces on earth. The very fact that almost all the planets in our solar system have a near circular orbit is quite a unique phenomenon. There are so many different factors at work that are required for life to prevail on earth, and it is primarily based on earth having this specific orbit and rotation and moon and neighbouring planets and type of star, and … We also know that the earth’s rotation (combined with its liquid metal core) is what creates the magnetic field around it, which protects it from harmful solar and cosmic radiation. This all ties into the next verse, which goes on to speak about the origin of all life on earth.

There is indeed a moral in that for those who have insight: the moral (ʿibrah, lit. passing through) in all this is to pass from the effect to the cause, from what is physical to its metaphysical source, from the harmony to the wisdom behind the harmony, from the colossal phenomenon to the power which controls it. By pondering this, one who has insight may realise that there is a Creator who has organised and arranged such a system.[9] Furthermore, by observing nature and natural phenomenon and pondering them, humans may discover important scientific principles and advance their knowledge.[10]

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Ṭūsī considers the ending of the verse, There is indeed a moral in that for those who have insight, to be one of the Quranic evidences for the necessity of using reason and avoiding emulation (taqlīd), because God praises those who exercise their intellect and insight.[11]

Ālūsī mentions the opinion of some mystics who have said this verse is referring to God changing the ‘night of sin’ to the ‘day of obedience’.[12]

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

  1. The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.[13]
[1] Raghib, p. 681, q-l-b.
[2] Tibyan, 7/447; Tabari, 18/119.
[3] Related in Tibyan, 7/447. Ṭabrisī considers both meanings to be entailed in the expression (Tabrisi, 7/234; as does Tantawi, 8/330), as does Rāzī, who also adds the meaning of one their alternation in heat, cold, and other qualities (Razi, 24/406; as does Nemuneh, 14/507).
[4] Sharawi, p. 10298.
[5] Tibyan, 7/447.
[6] Also 3:190 and 10:6.
[7] Also 22:61, 3:27, 35:13, and 57:6.
[8] Also 13:3, 91:4, and 92:1.
[9] Tabari, 18/119.
[10] Sharawi, p. 10299.
[11] Tibyan, 7/447. See also Razi, 24/406.
[12] Alusi, 9/419.
[13] Psalms 74:16-17.