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(And it is He who gives life and causes death) without anything whatsoever participating with Him in that.

(And to Him [His glory is exalted] belongs the alternation of the night and the day) meaning: He, glorified and exalted be He, is the One who brings about their alternation, that is, their succession, derived from the expression: "So-and-so alternates with so-and-so," meaning he visits him repeatedly by coming and going; or [it refers to] their difference in increase and decrease. It has been said: the meaning is that their alternation is by His command and decree—thus, there is an implied possessor in the speech, and the lam (prefix) attached to it may be for the purpose of causality.

(Do you not then use your reason?)

Meaning: Do you not reflect, and therefore fail to use your reason? Or, do you reflect but fail to use your reason by means of observation and contemplation, [so as to realize] that everything originates from Us and that Our power encompasses all possible things, among which is the Resurrection?

Abu 'Amr read, in one narration, "They use their reason" (ya'qilun), shifting to the third person to describe the poor state of those addressed. It has been said that this is because the first address was directed primarily at the believers, though that [view] is not sound.