Tafsir of An-Naba' 78:11

Ma'ash is a mim infinitive noun (masdar) meaning al-'aysh (living), which is the specific state of life attributed to animals, according to al-Raghib, as opposed to the general sense (such as the life of angels). Here, it functions as an adverbial of time (zarf), similar to expressions such as "I came to you at the setting of the star" or "at the break of dawn." It has been suggested that it is a noun of time (ism zaman), but this has been critiqued on the grounds that such usage is not established in the language.

The meaning is: "We made the day a time for ma'ash," meaning a [period of] life where you are resurrected from your sleep, which is the brother of death. It is as if, since He (Subhanahu) made sleep a metaphorical death, He (Jalla Sha’nuhu) made wakefulness a metaphorical ma'ash. However, the day was preferred [as the object] to suit the middle state. It is also said that the meaning is: "We made the day a time of livelihood during which you move about to acquire what you live by." This is more appropriate to the interpretation of subat (sleep) mentioned previously as meaning "a cessation of movement."

It is not hidden how excellent the mention of "We made the night a garment" is, following "We made sleep a subat." This points to the wisdom of making sleep occur at night as well, for the sleeper has suspended senses and is in need of a cover from what might harm him. Thus, he is in the greatest need of a mantle and the pitching of the tents of concealment.

In al-Kashf, it is stated that the correspondence between His saying, "And We made the night a garment," and His saying, "And We made the day a ma'ash," is explicit. There is also a conceptual correspondence with His saying, "And We made sleep," in the sense that the day—being the time of wakefulness and livelihood—is in contrast to subat (sleep), because it is the movement of the living. From this, it is known that the saying of the Almighty, "And We made the night a garment," is not a digression (istitrad). The order of the composition is that when He mentioned their creation as pairs, He exhausted their states, both coupled and separated. In this, there is an insinuation directed at al-Tayyibi, who claimed it was a digression if ma'ash is intended to mean wakefulness and subat is intended to mean death.