Tafsir of Ibraheem 14:33

"And subjected for you the sun and the moon, constant" (meaning: perpetual in motion, never ceasing until the end of the world’s duration).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh recorded in al-ʿAẓamah, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with both of them), that he said: "The sun is like a water wheel; it runs by day in the sky in its orbit, and when it sets, it runs by night in its orbit beneath the earth until it rises from its rising point." The same statement regarding their motion beneath the earth when they set is also narrated from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, and this is what sound reason bears witness to, though the scholars of reports (akhbāriyyīn) say otherwise.

The apparent meaning of the verse affirms their movement themselves. Philosophers establish for them two movements: they call one of them the "first movement"—which is the daily motion from east to west, occurring for them by the compulsion of what encompasses their spheres—and the other is the "second movement," which is the motion along the succession of the zodiac signs from west to east, occurring for them by the motion of their spheres as an intrinsic movement. They do not posit for them a movement within the thickness of the sphere—like the movement of a fish in water—due to the solidity of the sphere and its total resistance to perforation according to them.

The Greatest Shaykh (Ibn ʿArabī), may his secret be sanctified, affirmed their movement in that very manner in his Futūḥāt, for the sphere, according to him, is like water and air.

Some reports mention that they, along with the rest of the planets, are suspended by chains of light in the hands of angels who drive them wherever Allah the Exalted wills and wherever He, the Glorified, wills. The spheres are stationary according to this group, and likewise according to the Shaykh, may his secret be sanctified, based on the apparent meaning of his words. The reports on this topic are not such that would gladden the mouth of an opponent, and al-Nasafī mentioned that there is nothing in them to be relied upon. As for the discourse of the philosophers, so long as it does not clash with what has been verified from the Truthful Informer (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), there is no harm in it.

Some interpreted dāʾibayn (constant) as "striving" and "toiling," which is by way of simile and metaphor, for the root of daʾb is a continuous habit. The noun is in the accusative case as a state (ḥāl). The subjection of these two great planets is the act of making them luminous and beneficial, establishing them as sources for the goodness of the constituents of the world that depend upon them. By my life, Allah the Exalted made them more beneficial than the scattering of sticks.

In the book al-Mashāriʿ wa al-Muṭāraḥāt by Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī, the Martyr of Aleppo, it is stated that the influence of the sun and the moon is the most manifest of celestial effects, and the influence of the sun is more manifest than that of the moon. The most manifest of effects after radiation is the heating produced by them. Were it not for that, there would be no creation or corruption, no alteration, no night or day, no seasons, no temperament, no animals, nor anything else. He elaborated at length on explaining this and what relates to it. In my view, there is no harm in believing that they are influential by the permission of Allah, like all other causes according to the pious predecessors.

"And subjected for you the night and the day" (they succeed one another for your rest and your livelihood).

Some researchers prefer the meaning of "subjection" in all four instances to be "disposition" (taṣrīf), the root of which is the driving of a thing toward its specific purpose by force. It is mentioned that expressing this through such terminology contains an indication—which is not hidden—of the difficulty of attaining the object, the rarity of achieving the goal, and a demonstration of great authority and intense power. It is apparent that in the meaning intended here, it is a metaphor in all those instances. Abū Ḥayyān cited from the theologians that it is a metaphor in the last of them, saying: "Because night and day are accidents (aʿrāḍ), and accidents cannot be subjected." This position is deficient.

Highlighting each of these blessings in an independent sentence serves to elevate their status, alert one to their high position, and specify that every magnificent blessing is worthy of gratitude.

The delay in mentioning the subjection of the sun and the moon after the subjection of what preceded them—despite the manifest connection between them and the creation of the heavens—is said to be because their mention follows the mention of the earth, which necessitates the mention of the descent of water onto it, which entails the mention of the production of provision, which includes that which is obtained by means of ships and rivers. Alternatively, it is to avoid the illusion that the entirety—namely the creation of the heavens and the earth and the subjection of the sun and the moon—is a single blessing; a similar instance has preceded just now.

Some have mentioned, regarding the arrangement of these conjunctions, that He began with the creation of the heavens and the earth because they are the two roots from which all else that is mentioned thereafter branches out. He followed this with the descent of water from the sky and the production of fruits by it, because souls are intensely attached to provision, so its precedence is a form of glad tidings. Since the utilization of what grows from the earth is only perfected by the existence of ships traversing the sea—because the Exalted has assigned to each side of the earth a type of this, and by transport, profit increases—He mentioned the subjection of ships, upon which transport occurs, and limited it to them out of concern for their importance.

When He mentioned the matter of fruits and that by which the utilization of them is perfected in terms of transport, He mentioned the subjection of fresh rivers, from which people drink at all times, to complete the matter of provision. He mentioned the subjection of the sun and the moon thereafter because the benefit derived from them is not direct like the benefit derived from ships or the benefit from rivers. He postponed the subjection of the night and the day because they are accidents, whereas what preceded them are substances, and the accident, as such, is after the substances. And that is nothing to be relied upon.