In the name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful
Had God wished to take to Himself a son, He could have chosen anyone He wanted from whatever He creates. Limitless is He in His glory: the One God who conquers all. He has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with the truth. He causes the night to flow into the day, and the day to flow into the night; and He has made the sun and the moon subservient (to His laws): each running its course for a set term. He is indeed the Almighty, the All-Forgiving.
He has created you all from a single soul, and from it He fashioned its mate; and He has bestowed on you four kinds of cattle in pairs; and He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, one act of creation after another, in threefold depths of darkness. Such is God, your Lord: to Him belongs all dominion. There is no deity other than Him. How, then, can you lose sight of the truth? (The Throngs, Al-Zumar, 39: 4-6)
He has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with the truth.” Likewise, He bestowed His book from on high to state the truth. It is the same truth in the universe and in this book, the Qur’an. Both originate from the same source, and both are evidence of the oneness of their Maker, the Almighty, the Wise.
“He causes the night to flow into the day, and the day to flow into the night.” This is indeed an amazing statement that forces anyone who carefully looks at it to consider what has now been established of the earth’s nature and its circular shape. Throughout this commentary on the Qur’an, I have been keen not to look at its verses and statements from the angle of any theory science advances, because such theories may be right or they may be wrong. They may be proven today to be true but something may be discovered tomorrow to render them false. By contrast, the Qur’an is the word of truth, and it carries its own proof. It needs no supporting evidence from what human beings may or may not discover. Yet the statement included in this verse forces me to relate it to the fact that the earth is circular, because it describes a fact we all notice. As the earth rotates, the part of it facing the sun receives its light and this is daytime. However, this part is not stationary because the earth continues to rotate. As it does, the night begins to spread over the part that had the day. This part is in a rounded shape, and the day spreads over it in a flowing movement, followed by the night also in a flowing movement. After a while the day begins to flow again over the night from the other side, in never-ceasing motion: “He causes the night to flow into the day, and the day to flow into the night.” The statement draws the design, defines the position and specifies the nature of the earth and its movement. Its circular shape and rotation give this statement its most accurate interpretation.
“He has made the sun and the moon subservient (to His laws): Each running its course for a set term.” The sun and the moon run in their respective orbits. They are under God’s control. No one claims to set them in motion. By natural logic, they cannot run without someone setting them to do so, controlling them by a system that does not deviate by a hair’s breadth across countless centuries. Yet both the sun and the moon continue to run their courses “for a set term,” which is known only to God.
“He is indeed the Almighty, the All-Forgiving.” His might and power are coupled with His forgiveness of anyone who turns to Him. Thus, those who lie to Him, disbelieve in His oneness, attribute partners to Him or allege that He has a son are made aware that the way is open to them to return to the right way and to believe in the One who is Almighty, Much-Forgiving.
The surah then seeks to touch people’s hearts. It refers them to the evidence of life close by them, and in fact derived from their own creation and from the animals made subservient to them: “He has created you all from a single soul, and from it He fashioned its mate; and He has bestowed on you four kinds of cattle in pairs; and He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, one act of creation after another, in threefold depths of darkness. Such is God, your Lord: to Him belongs all dominion. There is no deity other than Him. How, then, can you lose sight of the truth?”
Let man look at his own self. He has not created himself, nor does he know who created the human entity except for what God has told him. Yet we all originate from one soul, with one nature and the same characteristics that distinguish us from the rest of creation. Moreover, every human individual shares in these characteristics, because the human soul is one in the countless millions of humans across all generations and all communities. Moreover, its mate or spouse is also made from the same essence. Thus, despite all differences of detail between men and women, they share all these characteristics. This again confirms the unity of the original design for mankind, male and female, and the unity of the Will that created this single soul with its two manifestations.