Overview (Verses 13 - 14)

This part concludes on another universal beat that mentions the alternation of day and night, arid the subjection of the sun and the moon to the divine system until their appointed time: “He causes the night to pass into the day, and the day to pass into the night; and He has made the sun and the moon subservient [to His laws], each running its course in an appointed term.” (Verse 13) The passing of the day and the night into each other may be a reference to the two spectacular scenes when the night creeps into the day, with its light gradually diminishing and the darkness increasing until the sun has disappeared followed by the darkness moving in and slowly spreading its wings. The other scene witnesses the start of the day creeping into the night, with the first breath of dawn. The light then begins to gradually spread while the darkness bit by bit disappears. Then the sun rises and the day is resplendent with brightness. Alternatively, the Qur’ānic expression may refer to the night as it takes a bite out of the day, as if it is going into the day, and also the day getting longer as it takes one bite after another off the night. It could also mean both situations at the same time, describing them together. All these scenes have a profound effect on our hearts, spreading a feeling of awe and even fear as we see God’s hand pulling one line here and relaxing one there in a fine, accurate and balanced system that does not miss a tick day after day, century after century.
 
Again making the sun and the moon subservient to God’s law and setting them on their courses until the appointed term, known only to God, is another phenomenon that everyone of us sees. They appear and disappear, rise and set before everyone. Their unfailing movements do not require any knowledge or calculation to contemplate. They serve as signs for all generations to contemplate. We may know about them more than what the first people addressed by the Qur’ān knew, but this is not the point. What is important is that these phenomena give us the same inspiration as they gave them. They certainly motivate us to contemplate the work of God’s hand in the universe.
 
Thus is God
 
Concluding these inspiring scenes, the sūrah states the truth of God’s Lordship over the universe. It also states the falsehood of every claim of partnership with God, and its ultimate and miserable result on the Day of Judgement:
 
Thus is God, your Lord: to Him belongs all dominion, while those whom you invoke instead of Him do not own even the skin of a date-stone. If you invoke them they cannot hear your call. Even if they could hear, they would not respond to you. On the Day of Resurrection they will utterly disown your having associated them with God. None can give you information like the One who is all- aware. (Verses 13-14)
 
The One who sends the wind driving the clouds, makes the dead land quicken, creates you out of dust, makes you in pairs, knows what each female bears and gives birth to, what gets a long life or a short one, has created the two great bodies of water, causes the day and night to pass into each other and makes the sun and the moon subservient to His law: that One is “your Lord: to Him belongs all dominion, while those whom you invoke instead of Him do not own even the skin of a date-stone.” (Verse 13) They do not even own such a trifling thing as a date-stone.
 
The sūrah goes further in drawing a true image of them: “If you invoke them they cannot hear your call.” (Verse 14) They are statues, idols, trees, stars, angels or jinn; and none of them actually owns the skin of a date-stone. None of them can respond to those who worship them, but, “Even if they could hear, they would not respond to you.” (Verse 14) This applies, for example, to the jinn and the angels. The jinn cannot respond, while the angels do not respond to those who have gone astray. All this is relevant to this present life, but on the Day of Judgement they disassociate themselves from error and those who follow it: “On the Day of Resurrection they will utterly disown your having associated them with God.” (Verse 14) This is stated by the One who knows everything in this life and beyond it, who overlooks nothing in the universe now or in the life to come: “None can give you information like the One who is all-aware.” (Verse 14)
 
So does this passage conclude. It only remains to be said that it gives any human mind enough to last a lifetime. Indeed, it is sufficient for any human heart to listen carefully to a single passage of any sūrah if he is seeking proof and searching for guidance.