Al-Hajj · Madani · ayah 61 of 78

Al-Hajj 22:61

ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُولِجُ ٱلَّيْلَ فِى ٱلنَّهَارِ وَيُولِجُ ٱلنَّهَارَ فِى ٱلَّيْلِ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَمِيعٌۢ بَصِيرٌ

“That[938] is because Allāh causes the night to enter the day and causes the day to enter the night and because Allāh is Hearing and Seeing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The help promised to the wronged is as sure as evening: the One who pushes night into day hears every word and sees every deed.

A reflection

The sundial that counted only bright hours

The ayah opens with one small word: dhālika, 'that'. It points back to the promise just made. Whoever is wronged and then wronged again, 'Allah will surely help him' (22:60). Now comes the reason. That help is certain because Allah pushes the night into the day and the day into the night.

At first the link seems loose. What has the evening to do with a person being bullied, cheated or driven from home? The commentaries answer plainly. The One who can move the light itself can certainly move a situation. Whoever does the one is able to do the other.

Picture an old sundial in the garden of a grand country house. Around its face runs a carved motto: it counts only the sunny hours. It is a charming line, and a perfect portrait of the ego. Every powerful person is tempted to count only the bright hours of his own power. His position feels like noon, fixed and permanent.

But no one at noon has ever held the sun still. The shadow on the dial moves whether the owner of the garden likes it or not. The evening walks in without asking permission from anyone who lives in the house.

This is where the ego shrinks. The oppressor's afternoon is not his. The victim's long night is not his either. Both belong to the One who moves the line between dark and light every single day, in every country, without effort.

Allah does not tell us this because He wants to be admired for it. He tells it to two people at once. To the arrogant: your noon is borrowed. To the wronged: your night is already being pushed back.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.