Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 71 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:71

قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِن جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلَّيْلَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ مَنْ إِلَـٰهٌ غَيْرُ ٱللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِضِيَآءٍ ۖ أَفَلَا تَسْمَعُونَ

“Say, "Have you considered:[1118] if Allāh should make for you the night continuous until the Day of Resurrection, what deity other than Allāh could bring you light? Then will you not hear?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Were the night never to lift, no power but Allah could bring the light back; in the dark, the ear is what still reaches you.

A reflection

All the cities together cannot make one morning

On a classroom wall hangs a poster of the earth at night, seen from space. The continents are dark, but the cities glitter. Coastlines are traced in gold. Motorways run like threads of light between them. Pupils stand in front of it and feel proud of their species. Look how much we have lit.

Now put that poster beside this ayah. Suppose the night simply did not end. Every bulb on the poster could stay on. Every power station could run flat out. And not one of them would make a morning. Not one would warm a field, ripen a fruit or turn the sky blue.

The ayah chooses its word for light with care. It says ḍiyāʾ, not just nūr. Some philologists distinguish the two. Ḍiyāʾ is light that shines from itself, like the sun or a fire. Nūr is light received from another. Hence the Quran calls the sun ḍiyāʾ and the moon nūr (10:5). Humans can borrow and store light. We have never made a source.

That is the quiet blow to human pride here. The ayah asks who: which god other than Allah could bring it? It does not ask about a little lamp. It asks about the light the whole world walks by. The question hangs in the air because no one can name a candidate.

This is not a Lord who needs the admission for His own sake. The question is put for the listener, to wake him up. The commentators describe the aim: that people return from worshipping others to the One who alone does this.

The next time you see a city lit up at night, admire it. It is a real human achievement. Then remember that all of it waits, every evening, for a dawn none of it can cause.

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.