Tafsir of Al-Furqan 25:46

Then We draw it to Us, a gentle drawing (25:46) — This is a conjunctive clause linked to “extended” (mad-dan), falling under its same ruling. That is, then We removed it after We had created it extended, at the moment the sun’s rays fall upon its location—or by its very falling—and We erased it slowly and gradually, according to the movement of the sun. This is apparent if the intended meaning of "shadow" is the shadow cast by an object, such as a mountain or the like.

As for the view that it refers to the period between the two dawns, it is because, once it becomes universal, it does not disappear all at once upon the sun rising over a horizon, due to the sphericity of the earth and the variation of horizons. It may rise over one horizon, causing the shadow of its people to vanish, while it has not yet risen over another horizon, whose people are still within a part of that shadow. Once it rises above the first horizon until it becomes manifest to them, their shadow disappears. Thus, the disappearance of the shadow after its universality is gradual—so it has been said.

It is also said that there is no need for this, as its disappearance is gradual even relative to a single horizon, based on the fact that some of it remains after the sunrise as long as the sun’s rays—which are obstructed by mountains or the like—have not reached its location. That [remaining shadow] disappears gradually according to the sun’s movement and the falling of its rays upon areas where they had not fallen at the start of the sunrise.

The expression of that removal as a "drawing" (qabd)—as al-Tabarsi stated—is the gathering of the spread-out parts, for the reason that creation has been expressed as "extending" (madd). His saying, Exalted is He, “to Us” is to stipulate that the return of the shadow is to Him, Almighty and Majestic is He; no one truly shares with Him in its removal, just as no one truly shares with Him in its original creation. The thumma (then) may denote temporal delay, or it may denote a rank-based sequence, similar to what has passed.

Based on this, some have interpreted the shadow as what existed on the day God Almighty created the heaven like a dome and spread the earth beneath it, whereby it cast its shadow upon it. Thus, the meaning becomes: “Then We made...” (the shadow), then We created the sun and made it dominant over that shadow, and made it a "guide" (dalilan)—one followed, just as a guide is followed on a path—so it increases, decreases, extends, and retracts. “Then We draw it to Us, a gentle drawing”—a drawing with no difficulty in it.

It is also possible that its "drawing" refers to the time of the Hour, by the indication of “to Us”—and likewise “a gentle [drawing]”—and that is through the withdrawal of its causes, which are the celestial bodies that cast the shadow. Thus, its annihilation is mentioned by the annihilation of its causes, just as its creation was mentioned by the creation of its causes. The use of the past tense is for the certainty of its occurrence and for harmony with what was mentioned alongside it, and thumma is for temporal delay—and in that is what is in it, as We have indicated.