Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 5 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:5

خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ بِٱلْحَقِّ ۖ يُكَوِّرُ ٱلَّيْلَ عَلَى ٱلنَّهَارِ وَيُكَوِّرُ ٱلنَّهَارَ عَلَى ٱلَّيْلِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ ٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ ۖ كُلٌّ يَجْرِى لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى ۗ أَلَا هُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْغَفَّـٰرُ

“He created the heavens and earth in truth. He wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. Unquestionably, He is the Exalted in Might, the Perpetual Forgiver.[1341]”

Saheeh International

Essence

He winds night over day like a turban and runs sun and moon to a named hour, and the One with that power calls Himself the Forgiving.

A reflection

You do not own the hours

We talk about time as if we owned it. I'll find an hour. She took up my morning. Let me make some time for you. Diaries, calendars and alarms all quietly assume that the hours are ours to allot.

This ayah describes who actually owns them. He created the heavens and the earth with the truth. He winds the night over the day and the day over the night. He has made the sun and the moon serve, each running to a named term.

The verbs are His, and they are present tense. Yukawwiru, He winds, is happening now, as you read. One commentary notes that the present form shows renewal: it is done again, freshly, each turn.

Picture a businesswoman flying from London to Singapore. She boards in the evening, sleeps badly, and lands to find a whole day has vanished. Her phone shows a new time and she simply accepts it. For a moment she glimpses how little say she has over the clock she lives by.

That is the ego shrinking, and it is a relief rather than a humiliation. The proud person behaves as if the day bent to his plans. The humble person knows he is a guest inside hours someone else is winding.

A sceptic may ask whether a God who lists His works is boasting. But the list is not addressed to a court of admirers. It is addressed to people who were giving worship to idols that could not wind a single hour. The ayah sits between a demand for pure devotion and a question: so how are you turned away? The aim is not applause. It is to bring the guest to his senses about whose house he is in.

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.