Surah Al-Qasas (28) — Ayah 71

(Ayah 72,71) ➊ The literal meaning of {قُلْ اَرَءَيْتُمْ اِنْ جَعَلَ اللّٰهُ عَلَيْكُمُ الَّيْلَ …:’’ اَرَءَيْتُمْ ‘‘} is "Have you seen." The Arabs use it in the sense of {’’أَخْبِرُوْنِيْ‘‘} (Tell me), meaning, if you have seen, then tell. Another proof of Allah's oneness and another blessing among His blessings, for which He deserves praise, is the alternation of night and day, as He said: «{ اِنَّ فِيْ خَلْقِ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الْاَرْضِ وَ اخْتِلَافِ الَّيْلِ وَ النَّهَارِ لَاٰيٰتٍ لِّاُولِي الْاَلْبَابِ }» [ آل عمران : ۱۹۰ ] "Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are surely many signs for those of understanding." He said: "Tell me, if Allah were to make the night continuous over you until the Day of Resurrection, who is the god besides Allah who could bring you any light, of any kind or even the slightest?" (The tanween in {بِضِيَآءٍ} is for indefiniteness and smallness.) Here Allah mentioned {’’ اَفَلَا تَسْمَعُوْنَ ‘‘} (So do you not hear), while in the next verse He said {’’ اَفَلَا تُبْصِرُوْنَ ‘‘} (So do you not see). Ibn Hubayrah said: "The wisdom in this is that the dominion of hearing is at night and the dominion of sight is during the day (in the darkness of night the ears hear, the eyes do not see, and in the light of day the eyes see, the ears do not hear)." (Biqā‘ī) That is, in this darkness of night, which is imposed forever until the Day of Resurrection, your ears can hear this: who is the god besides Allah who can bring you even the slightest bit of light in any way? So do you not hear, so that you may understand by hearing and, by understanding, believe in the oneness of Allah. Similarly, if Allah were to make the day continuous over you until the Day of Resurrection, who is the god besides Allah who could bring you any night in which you could find rest and comfort?

➋ In these verses, the mention of night precedes that of day, because the blessing of day coming after night is a very great blessing. The entire system of human livelihood depends on it. Moreover, night is a kind of non-existence and light is existence, and it is evident that non-existence precedes existence.