Tafsir of Fatir 35:13

"He causes the night to enter into the day, and He causes the day to enter into the night" by increasing one and decreasing the other, through adding parts of each to the other. "And He has subjected the sun and the moon" is a conjunction connected to "causes to enter." The difference in formulation is due to the fact that the insertion of one of the two colors into the other is renewed from time to time, whereas the subjugation of the two luminaries is a matter in which there is no multiplicity; rather, it is their effects that are multiple and renewed. This is indicated by His saying: "Each" — of the sun and the moon — "runs" — meaning according to its movement along the various daily orbits corresponding to the number of days in the year, or according to its two specific movements: the intrinsic one, which is from the west to the east, and the forced one, which is from the east to the west — "for a specified term," which Allah the Almighty has determined for their course, namely the Day of Resurrection, as narrated from al-Hasan.

It is also said that their "running" refers to their two specific movements, and the "specified term" refers to the sum of the duration of their cycles or their end; for the sun, it is a year, and for the moon, a month. This has been discussed in detail previously. "That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs sovereignty" — this is an indication of the Doer of the aforementioned actions. The distance indicated by the demonstrative pronoun is to signal the ultimate greatness. It is a subject, and what follows are synonymous predicates; meaning, that One of Great Magnitude who created these marvelous works is Allah, your Lord, to Him belongs the sovereignty. This contains evidence that His, the Almighty’s, creation of those marvels necessitates that the news [of sovereignty] belongs to Him, the Almighty.

In al-Kashshaf, it is stated that it is permissible in the rules of syntax to treat the name of Allah, the Almighty, as an adjective for the demonstrative pronoun or as an explanatory noun (‘atf bayan), and "your Lord" as a predicate, were it not for the fact that the meaning rejects this. In al-Kashf, it is said: There is a problem with this, because the Majestic Name functions as a proper noun, and it is not permissible for it to function as an adjective for a demonstrative pronoun at all, neither in wording nor in meaning; it is as if [the author of al-Kashshaf] assumed a scenario where it is not a dominant proper noun. As for the rejection of the meaning upon permitting it as an adjective, it has been said: The intended meaning is that He, the Almighty, is the One Unique in divinity, not that "the One Unique in divinity is your Lord," because the polytheists were not acknowledging the Unique One in the absolute sense. As for it being an explanatory noun (‘atf bayan), it is said that it suggests the imagination of partnership; do you not see that if you say, "That man is your master in my view," there is a type of partnership in it because "that" is an ambiguous noun? It is as if he meant that an explanatory noun is appropriate where doubt might go to someone else and partnership is possible, which is not the case in this context.

al-Tayyibi stated that "That" is used to refer to what preceded, to indicate the worthiness of what follows it due to the preceding attributes. If it were an adjective or an explanatory noun, the thing referred to would be what follows, and this is fine in the first instance but not the second. Unless his saying "or an explanatory noun" is an indication of the school of thought that treats the generic noun accompanying the ambiguous noun as something other than an adjective, whereby its ruling becomes like that of an adjective at that point. After it is clarified that the context is to refer to what has passed, the demonstrative pronoun may be brought for other purposes.

Abu Hayyan forbade the validity of it being an adjective due to its being a proper noun, then said: "The rejection of the meaning is not apparent." It is permissible for His saying, the Almighty, "To Him belongs sovereignty" to be an initial sentence occurring in opposition to His saying, the Almighty: "And those whom you call upon other than Him do not possess a qitmir." It serves to confirm what preceded it regarding the uniqueness of divinity and lordship, and as an argument for it, since its essence is that all sovereignty and disposal in the beginning and the end belong to Him, the Almighty, and nothing of it belongs to anyone other than Him, Glorified be He. Thus, it is said that it contains a folded syllogism. It is also permitted that it be a confirmation of His saying, the Almighty: "And Allah created you," etc., and His saying, the Almighty: "He causes to enter," etc. In that case, the sentence "Those whom you call upon," etc., is either an initiation [connected] to the sentence "To Him belongs sovereignty" or an adverbial state for the implied pronoun in the prepositional phrase, i.e., "to Him." According to the first view, it is a conjunction to the sentence "That is Allah," etc., or also an adverbial state.

Qitmir, according to what Ibn Jarir and others brought out from Mujahid, is the wrapping of the date-stone; it is the thin white skin that is between the date and the stone, and this is the well-known meaning. Ibn Jarir and Ibn al-Mundhir brought out that it is the cap that is on the head of the date. ‘Abd bin Humayd brought out from Qatadah that it is the skin on the head of the stone, which is what is between the cap and the stone. al-Raghib said it is the mark on the back of the stone. It is also said that it is the skin of garlic. In any case, it is a parable for something base and trivial. A poet said: "And your father is patching his sandal, sitting cross-legged; the poor man does not possess a qitmir." ‘Isa, Sallam, and Ya‘qub recited "yad‘una" with a ya (third person).