Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 47 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:47

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيْلَ لِبَاسًا وَٱلنَّوْمَ سُبَاتًا وَجَعَلَ ٱلنَّهَارَ نُشُورًا

“And it is He who has made the night for you as clothing[1030] and sleep [a means for] rest and has made the day a resurrection.[1031]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah wraps you in night like a garment, cuts the day off with sleep, and raises you each morning: a small resurrection, made for you.

A reflection

The one thing you cannot order

A chief executive can move a thousand people with one email. At one in the morning she lies in a dark hotel room and cannot move herself into sleep. She tells her eyes to close. They close, and the mind keeps running. The harder she orders it, the further sleep goes.

That is a very small humiliation, and nearly everyone knows it. It is also one of the plainest lessons in this ayah. 'He is the One who made sleep a rest for you.' The verb is jaʿala: He made, He appointed. Sleep is not something you produce. It is something given, and it is given on His terms.

The ego dislikes this. We like to think of ourselves as running our own lives, awake, alert and indispensable. Yet every night the strongest person in the city is switched off for hours. The surgeon, the soldier and the billionaire all lie as helpless as infants. Others must watch the roads, the wards and the borders while they sleep.

The ayah opens with wa huwa, 'and He', the same pattern of praise that runs through this whole passage. One commentator says these ayat show the Creator's power while also displaying His favour to His creatures. Power and gift arrive together. The One who could leave you awake for ever lays you down instead.

A reader might ask whether this is a God who needs to be thanked for every yawn. The Quran answers that Allah is free of need, while people are poor towards Him (35:15). Our thanks add nothing to Him. The reminder is for us. A person who knows that sleep is given stops boasting of mastering it. A person who cannot sleep has somewhere to turn: to the One who gives it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.