Al-Najm (The Star): (43) And that it is He who makes [one] laugh and weep.

There are several issues concerning this:

If we hold the view that "To your Lord is the ultimate end" (An-Najm: 42) is meant to establish the Oneness (Tawhid), then these verses serve to affirm matters upon which Islam depends, including the power of God Almighty.

Some philosophers admit that God is the ultimate end and that He is One, but they claim: He is a necessary being (mujib) but not an active agent (qadir).

In response, the Almighty states: He created two opposites—laughter and weeping—in one place, and death and life, and masculinity and femininity, in one substance. This can only come from an active agent (qadir), a fact acknowledged by every rational person.

Furthermore, if we hold our view that His saying, "And that to your Lord is the ultimate end" (An-Najm: 42), is an explanation of the Resurrection (Ma'ad), then it points to the explanation of His decree. Just as a person is sometimes laughing joyfully and at other times weeping sorrowfully in this world, the same will happen to him in the Hereafter.

The verbs "He makes [one] laugh and [one] weep" (aḍḥaka wa abkā) have no direct object specified here because they are presented to demonstrate God's power, not to detail what is being acted upon. Therefore, an object is unnecessary.

A speaker might say: "Because He holds the power of taking and giving, He gives and withholds, and nothing is withheld from Him or given by Him." (This is an analogy to illustrate that the action is solely His, without needing a specified recipient in this context).

He chose these two descriptions (laughter and weeping) for the male and female because they are matters that cannot be explained by natural causes (la yu'allalān). No natural philosopher can present a rationale or cause for the specialization of laughter and weeping in humans. If a phenomenon cannot be explained by a natural cause, it must have a Creator, which is God Almighty.

This is unlike health and sickness, for which they claim the cause is the imbalance of the temperament and its deviation from moderation.

Evidence for this is that when they attempt to explain laughter, they attribute it to the "power of wonder/astonishment" (quwwat al-ta'ajjub), which is utterly baseless, as a person might be stunned upon seeing strange things without laughing. Others say it is the "power of joy" (quwwat al-faraḥ), which is also incorrect, because a person can be very joyful without laughing. Moreover, a deeply sorrowful person can be made to laugh by a comedian.

The same applies to weeping. If they claim that the flowing of tears in response to specific things is due to the knowledge they claim for natural causes, they cannot provide a sound explanation for why.

When dealing with subtle matters, such as magnetism or the alignment of the stars, the natural explanation breaks down. Similarly, the engineer who does not entrust his affairs to the power and will of God Almighty finds his calculations interrupted.

Then the Almighty said:

{ And that it is He who causes death and gives life }