وَآيَةٌ لَهُمُ اللَّيلُ نَسلَخُ مِنهُ النَّهارَ فَإِذا هُم مُظلِمونَ
And a sign for them is the night, which We strip of daylight, and behold, they find themselves in the dark!
EXEGESIS
Naslakhu (we strip off) is a conjugate of salakha, used for peeling off the skin of an animal, stripping off the hide, skin, or garment. It is a beautiful expression as if the light of the day is a bright garment covering the night’s body, and after sunset this garment is taken off from its body, as if the skin is peeled off, so uncovering what is concealed under it.
EXPOSITION
This verse and the upcoming three verses introduce one more sign from the signs of the lordship of God and His management of the affairs of the human world, through the movements of the celestial bodies. They bring to our attention another phenomenal harmony on which our lives depend and we take for granted.
And a sign for them is the night. Whether the sign is the night itself, or it is the pulling off the day out of the night, is a point for reflection. The night itself could be taken as a sign because of its darkness; it is a sign in the sense that it reminds us of the bounties of God in terms of daylight and all that it brings for our lives. It makes us ponder how dependent we are on our small star, the sun.
The night, which We strip of daylight is a beautiful expression used only in this verse. Nowhere else in the Quran is this expression used. The night is stripped of daylight gradually and continuously. Someone who is standing still at a certain place could not sense this process of pulling the day out of the night, but for someone who sees the overall movement of the night and day will see it in this manner. From the viewpoint of someone in space, it is as if the day is consistently being pulled out of the night.
This expression shows how beautifully the Quran has considered the movement of the earth and the global continuum of day and night, a continuum which is shown in other verses with various scenic expressions. One such picturesque expression is used in āyat al-sukhrah, He draws the night’s cover over the day, which pursues it incessantly (7:54). The night eagerly and without respite follows the day and covers it with its veil. It is not something that suddenly falls upon the hemisphere, rather it is a continuous process and an unceasing movement. Another amazing expression is, He created the heavens and the earth with reason. He wraps the night over the day, and wraps the day over the night, and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each moving for a specified term. Look! He is the all-mighty, the all-forgiver (39:5). Here, the two-way process is emphasised; as the night is following the day in one hemisphere, the day is following the night in another hemisphere.
Some people have opined that the whole idea of day and night and the movement of sun and earth in the Quran is expressed according to Ptolemaic astronomy and the old understanding of the movement of the sun around the earth. This is absolutely untrue. If one considers the verses of the Quran, they would see that it is not conforming with the old astronomical system, and one of the most outstanding examples of that is the way the Quran talks about the day and the night. Another example in this regard is the oft-repeated concept of the day passing into the night and vice versa: 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).
From another aspect, We strip of daylight is a beautiful indication that the nature of night is the origin of the earth, and the light is accidental and encounters the earth due to the existence of an external light source. Thus, the daylight is a cover to the original body; once removed or taken off, the night appears dark, as its original form.
One can also say that here God is comparing the life of a human with the bright daylight and his death with the non-existence of the darkness of the night because the non-existence of humans resembles the darkness. Their life and existence is an accidental thing that happens, which resembles the accidental light spreading on the earth. Hence, death would remove the light of existence, leaving the darkness of death. It is also a reminder of the resurrection, which was also indicated in the previous verse by resembling a dead land that God revives.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said: ‘Ponder, O Mufaḍḍal, in the amount of the hours of the day and night, and how it is made to be beneficial for the creation. So, it became limited so that the days or the nights do not exceed fifteen hours [on average]. Have you thought about the day and the night? If it had extended to a hundred or two hundred hours, everything on the earth would have perished. Such a long interval without any rest and comfort for the animals would have killed them, while quadrupeds would have continued grazing as long as the daylight would be available. Even humans would have continued to move and work without stopping, resulting in peril to life. The plant life would have withered away under the prolonged effect of the daytime heat and sun rays until it would dry out or get burnt. Similarly, if the night had been prolonged, all living species would have been impeded from moving about and finding sustenance, resulting in starvation. The plants would have lost their vital heat, decayed, and spoiled, just as you see those plants placed where the sun shines over them.’
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” … Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. God made two great lights – the larger one to govern the day and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night and separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
[1] Lane, p. 404.
[2] Amthal, 14/176-177.
[3] Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar, Tawḥīd Mufaḍḍal, (Najaf: Ḥaydariyyah Printing, 1955), p. 87.
[4] Genesis 1:3-5, 14-18.