Translation
It is He [God] who established the night to find rest and comfort therein and the day to enable you to see. Surely these have meanings for those who wish to listen. 478
Some people say: God has a son! What! God has all the glory by Himself and He is totally Self-Sufficient. All that is in the universe and on earth belongs to Him. You have no authority to make such assertions. Are you saying things about God that you have no knowledge or certainty of? Say: Those who attribute such lies to God will not succeed. A brief period of existence [mata’un] in this worldly life and then you will return to Us [God]. We will then make you face the severe consequences of your denials.479
Interpretation
478 The cycle of day and night has been repeated throughout the Qur’an as evidence of God’s existence and His thoughtful construct for this world and our life to evolve and develop on this planet. Our daily cycles of sleep and activities are intimately connected and regulated by such alterations of light and darkness. The positioning of the sun and the revolution of Earth around the sun and on its own axis makes such repeated cycles of day and night possible. An exception is the moon that orbits Earth each month but does not rotate on itself. A simple question might be why Earth rotates on its axis, but the moon does not. There is of course physical reasoning based on physics and related science, but the purpose precedes such positioning and behavior.
The daylight is more than for our purpose to see and do our daily work. The daylight is the source of energy that support all lives on this planet, apart from energy already stored in the core of the planet—animals, birds, fish, and plants alike. The quality and survivability of life, as we know it, diminish as we move away from sunlight, as seen on the North Pole and South Pole. Apart from Earth’s rotation on its axis, if Earth were fifty thousand miles closer to sun or fifty thousand miles farther from sun, life as we know it would have been impossible for too much sunlight or too little sunlight. With the sun being 3.5 million miles from Earth, this positioning of Earth requires a precision of the order of .0017 percent of our vast universes of stars and planets. Verses 41:11–12 in the Qur’an also corroborate such purpose and creative process: “He [God] then directed Himself to the heaven and it was in the form of vapor. So He said to heaven and to earth, “come both (to your formation), willingly or unwillingly. They both said, “We come willingly.” He then ordained the seven heavens in two periods and revealed in each heaven its affair.”
479 The notion of polytheism in the form of God having children, such as the Christian concept of Jesus being the son of God, or the prehistoric and even contemporary notion of angels being female and daughters of God by the ancient Arabs, is constantly being refuted in the Qur’an. Aside from such a divine relationship with God, any form of power sharing or intermediary with God are all refuted in the Qur’an and in the Islamic belief system. Pure monotheism is the essence of the Islamic faith, and any beliefs and practices that contradict and cast doubt on pure monotheism is considered unacceptable, unreasonable, and unjust.
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REFLECTION
Understanding the universe and its constructs to enable our daily experience of night and day is something profoundly important beyond its scientific wonder.
ACTION
Failing to acknowledge the realities of life, its purposefulness, and God’s grace in giving us the experience and trials of life is problematic, as it is problematic to claim Jesus as the Son of God. We need to allocate time and effort in our daily existence to better understand our world and its purpose and avoid falsehood in all of our activities and conduct.
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Key Arabic Term
145. mata’un—temporary existence, brief enjoyment of life (10:70)