Tafsir of Al Imran 3:190

(Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth) is a confirmation of what preceded it and an establishment of evidence for it. For this reason, it is not connected by a conjunction, and the particle inna is used, out of concern for the realization of the sentence's content; that is, indeed, in their being brought into existence and their origination, in the state they are in, of wonders and marvels.

(And the alternation of the night and the day) meaning their succession and the coming of each of them after the other according to the rising and setting of the sun, which are subject to its "swimming" in the sea of His—the Almighty’s—power, according to His will. The matter of the "two beads" (referring to a specific astronomical model) is outside the thread of acceptance, and by assuming its arrangement within it, it is interpreted; and the hole of interpretation is wide. The notion that this is subject to the movement of the heavens and the stillness of the earth, as stated by our master, Sheikh al-Islam, contradicts what the majority of the Sunnis—from among the scholars of Hadith and others—have gone towards, regarding the stillness of the heavens and the movement of the stars themselves by the estimation of Allah, the All-Knowing. What he (the Sheikh) went towards is the doctrine of the philosophers, which is famous among the people.

Our master, the Great Sheikh—may his secret be sanctified—also mentioned what contradicts this, saying: "Allah the Almighty made these heavens stationary and created in them stars that swim within them, and He assigned for them in their swimming measured movements that neither increase nor decrease. He made them move in the sphere of the heaven, which is its space, so they pierce the air adjacent to them, and through their movement, sounds and melodious tones are produced, because their movement is according to a known meter; so those are the tones of the spheres, originating from the planets traversing the celestial distances."

The scholars of astronomy assigned to the spheres an arrangement possible in the judgment of the intellect, and they placed the planets in the spheres like moles on the surface of a body. Everything they said is confirmed by the measure of their movements, and if Allah the Almighty had done that as they described, it would be movement in its essence; that is why they are correct in the science of eclipses and the like. They said: "The heavens are like spheres, and the earth is in their interior." This is all a positional arrangement, and others are possible in possibility. They are correct in the weights (calculations), but incorrect that the matter is as they arranged it; the matter is nothing but as we have described it through witnessing. End quote.

It supports the claim that others are possible in possibility what the proponents of the New Zij (Astronomical Tables) have gone towards: that the sun is stationary and does not move at all, that it is the center of the world, and that the earth, as well as the other planets and fixed stars, move around it. They have established evidence and proofs for that—according to their claim—and they built upon it the science of solar and lunar eclipses and the like, and nothing of that has failed. This suggests that there is no certainty in what the astronomers have gone towards.

It is possible that the "alternation of the night and day" means their variation by the increase of one and the decrease of the other, or their decrease by the increase of the other, due to the changing state of the sun in relation to us—in nearness or distance—according to the seasons, or in their difference and variation according to locations. Either in length or shortness, for countries close to the North Pole have longer summer days and shorter summer nights than countries far from it; or in themselves, for the sphericity of the earth necessitates that some times in some places be night, and in their opposite be day, and in some be morning, and in some be noon or afternoon, or otherwise. This is a matter about which there is no doubt for many people, and Sheikh al-Islam also mentioned it; it is not far-fetched. In fact, the variation of times in places is something witnessed and sensed, which no two people disagree upon, except that there is a difference regarding the sphericity of the earth.

Our master, the Great Sheikh—may his secret be sanctified—mentioned that Allah the Almighty, after creating the sphere containing the stars within the interior of the Atlas sphere, created the earth as seven layers and made each earth smaller than the other so that above each earth there would be a dome of heaven. When its creation was complete and their provisions were estimated in them, and the air was clothed in the image of vapor—which is smoke—that smoke split into seven layered heavens and transparent bodies. He placed them over the earths like domes, with a heaven over each earth, its edges resting upon it, a half-sphere; and the sphere of the earth is like a carpet, for it is spread out (dahaha); He spread it out for the sake of the heaven that it might be upon it, and He placed in each of these heavens one of the wandering stars according to the known order. End quote.

The heart inclines towards sphericity, and Allah is not ashamed of the truth. What the Great Sheikh—may his secret be sanctified—went towards is a matter of witnessing (shuhudi), and within it is what agrees and disagrees with what the majority of the traditionists and most religious scholars have held. What some investigators have confirmed is that no authentic, marfu' (ascribed to the Prophet) hadith has come that details the matter of the heavens and the earth in perfect detail, as the issue is not among the important matters in the view of the Lawgiver—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—and what is important in his view from it is clear, with no doubt in it.

Exalted is He whose power is not resisted by anything.

Al-layl (the night) is a singular word in the sense of a collective noun, and its singular unit is laylah (a night), like tamrah (a date) and tamr (dates). It has been pluralized as layalin, where they added the ya contrary to the standard rule; its counterpart is ahl (family) and ahalin. It is said: The origin was laylah, then it was deleted because its diminutive is luyaylah. So it is in al-Sihah. Many have verified that it is a singular noun and no plural is memorized for it, and that the saying that it is a plural, and al-layali is a plural of a plural, is not satisfactory. So understand. The discussion has already preceded in detail regarding the night and day, and the reason for the priority of the former over the latter.

(Are signs) meaning indications of the oneness of Allah the Almighty and the perfection of His knowledge and power. It is the noun of inna, and the lam (emphatic prefix) has entered it because it is delayed after its predicate. The tanwin (indefinite marking) in it is for magnification in quantity and quality—that is, many, great signs. The plural of paucity here stands in place of the plural of abundance. It is said: In this is a symbol that the manifest signs, even if they are many in themselves, are few compared to what is hidden of them in the treasuries of knowledge and the repositories of the unseen, and have not yet appeared.

(For those of intellect) meaning for the possessors of minds pure from the impurities of sense and illusion. From this is the hadith: "Indeed, Allah the Almighty prevented me from the children of Mudlij because of their maintaining ties of kinship and their discernment (al-albab) of camels," meaning their pure, choice camels. It is said: labba yalubbu (like adḍa ya‘adḍu) when one becomes intelligent (labib), and this is the dialect of the people of Hijaz. The people of Najd say: labba yalubbu (like kafara yakfiru). It is also said: labiba al-rajulu (with a kasra) yalabbu (with a fatha) when he becomes intelligent. It is narrated as labba (with a damma), and it is rare, having no counterpart in the doubled verbs.

The way the aforementioned things indicate His—the Almighty’s—oneness is that they point to the existence of the Maker due to their change, which necessitates their originated nature and their reliance on an eternal influencer. Whenever they indicate that, oneness necessarily follows from it. The way they indicate what follows is that they are at the height of perfection and the end of precision for one who contemplates them and reflects upon their outward and inward aspects. That necessitates the perfection of knowledge and power, as is not hidden. The theologians have two paths in inferring the existence of the Maker through such mentioned things: the first is the path of change, and the second is the path of possibility. The majority favor the second, and the discussion is detailed in its proper place.

Allah the Almighty confined Himself here to these three after having increased them in Surat al-Baqarah because the signs, despite their abundance, are limited to the celestial, the terrestrial, and the compound of the two. He pointed to the first two by "the creation of the heavens and the earth," and to the third by "the alternation of the night and day," because they are from the rotation of the sun upon the earth, or because they are through an "overflowing" agent, ostensibly, which is the celestial body, and a recipient of the overflowing, which is the terrestrial body, which is receptive to darkness and light. This was said by some. Nasir al-Din said: "Perhaps that is because the basis of the inference is change, and these three encompass the entirety of its types; for change occurs either in the essence of the thing, like the change of night and day, or its part, like the change of the elements by the substitution of their forms, or what is external to it, like the change of the spheres by the substitution of their positions." This was objected to on the grounds that it is based on the doctrine of the philosophers in proving hyle (prime matter), form, and celestial positions, so it is not appropriate to derive the Book of Allah the Almighty upon it.

Perhaps more appropriate than this or that is what Sheikh al-Islam said in not addressing what was mentioned in that Surah (al-Baqarah), which is that the purpose here is to declare His—the Almighty’s—exclusivity in what He mentioned of dominion and power, and the three mentioned are the greatest witnesses indicating that, so He sufficed with them. As for there (in al-Baqarah), the intent, amidst declaring His—the Almighty’s—exclusivity in divinity, was to declare His—the Almighty’s—description of vast mercy; so the proofs of grace and mercy were woven into the thread of the proofs of monotheism, for what was detailed there of the signs of His—the Almighty’s—mercy is also from the signs of His divinity and oneness.

What supports the fact that the aforementioned things are the greatest witnesses indicating monotheism is what al-Tabarani, Ibn Marduyah, and others reported from Ibn Abbas, who said: The Quraysh came to the Jews and said: "What are the signs that Moses brought to you?" They said: "His staff and his hand, white for those who look." They came to the Christians and said: "How was Jesus among you?" They said: "He used to heal the blind and the leper, and raise the dead." So they came to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and said: "Call upon your Lord to make al-Safa gold for us." So he called upon his Lord, and there descended: (Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of intellect).

Ibn Hibban reported in his Sahih, and Ibn ‘Asakir and others, from ‘Ata’, who said: I said to ‘Aisha—may Allah the Almighty be pleased with her: "Tell me about the most wondrous thing you saw from the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace." She said: "And which of his affairs was not wondrous? One night he came to me and entered into my quilt, then said: 'Leave me to worship my Lord.' He stood up, performed ablution, then stood praying and wept until his tears flowed onto his chest. Then he bowed and wept, then prostrated and wept, then raised his head and wept. He remained like that until Bilal came and notified him of the prayer. I said: 'O Messenger of Allah, what makes you weep when Allah the Almighty has forgiven you your past sins and what is yet to come?' He said: 'Should I not be a thankful servant? And why should I not do so when Allah the Almighty has revealed to me this night: (Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth) until His—the Almighty’s—saying: (Protect us from the punishment of the Fire)?' Then he said: 'Woe to him who reads it and does not contemplate it.'"

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was, as it is narrated from Ali—may Allah ennoble his countenance—that when he rose from the night, he would use the siwak, then look at the sky, then say: (Indeed, in the creation of the heavens) the verse.

The two Sheikhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim), Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, and others reported from Ibn Abbas that he said: I stayed the night at my aunt Maymunah’s house, and the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—slept until the middle of the night, or a little before it, or a little after it. Then he woke up and began wiping the sleep from his face with his hands, then he recited the last ten verses of Surah Al ‘Imran until he finished.