Part 23

The day and the night

Two of the signs of the Almighty are the day and night; they are among the most wondrous and magnificent signs among his handicrafts. That is why He keeps citing them time and again in the Qur’an, as in the following instances:

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“And_ of his portents are the night and the day” (41: 37)

“And He it is Who makes night a covering for you, and sleep a repose, and makes day a resurrection.” (25: 47)

wt. a acon ce Be Bee Ue eae aes Sate [rr Ls] fps oF ah 5 5 SSE A 25 > “And He it is Who created the night and day, and

the sun and the moon. They float, each in an orbit.” (21: 33)

“Allah it is Who has appointed for you day and night that you may rest therein, and day for seeing.” (40: 61)

This is stated in many places in the Qur’an. Think, then, of those two wonders and all the implications and indications pointing to the Lordship of Allah, His mercy and wisdom, how He made the night asa repose and a mantle; covering the world so that movements slow down, and animals take shelter at their habitations, birds at their nests; creatures relax and rest from all their toil and endeavour; and then, once creatures have rested and slept, and are anxious to seek their food and interests, the Breaker of Dawn, the Almighty, ushers the day, leading its

troops, with the harbinger of dawn heralding its progress; so it defeats the dark, shattering it to shreds, sweeping it from the world; and lo! everyone can see: animals spread, milling around for forage and seeking their interests; birds leave their nests. It is a revival and recreation that point to the power of Allah, the Almighty, to resurrect creatures on the day of the great reckoning. But as this spectacle is seen by people day after day, they get accustomed to it and used to it, until they are insensible to its significance, and they fail to see in it a reminder of the other revival, when creatures are resurrected from their death. No trace of weakness in the power of the All-powerful, no indication of a lack in His Wisdom or His Knowledge implies the failure of that resurrection; but Allah guides those whom He wills and misguides those whom He wills. This also is a glaring sign of His power, that He should bar whoever He wills from among His creatures from perceiving the compelling signs, so that they are blind to them and have no sense of them at all. They are like one who is immersed in the water to his jaws, but is screaming to be saved from thirst, and he denies the existence of water. With these and similar other considerations, one is brought close to Allah, the Exalted and Glorified, so that one thanks Him, praises Him, supplicates to Him, and prays to Him.

The side of the moon facing us

The moon is 240,000 miles (400,000 km) away from us; the lide that takes place twice per day is a subtle reminder of the existence of the moon; the tide on the shores of oceans can be in some cases as high as sixty feet. Even the crust of the carth bends outward twice every day by a few inches on account of the gravity of the moon, although every thing seems to us so normal that we are not aware of the astounding force behind these phenomena. Glorified be Your Name, Lord of the Worlds! If the moon’s orbit were different from what it is now, the tide would be so strong that it would fragment the solid mountains, dislodge continents from their places! So Glory be to Him Who chose for everything its proper place and the right measure, according to a calculation unknown but to Him.

The duration of the day and the night

Consider also the duration of the day and the night, and you will find that they realize the utmost benefit and good; that if the day or the night were prolonged or shortened from what they are there would be corresponding harm, and the functions they perform would be different. Their total is twenty-four hours, and each gives and takes alternately from the time allotted to the other. Not long after one has taken from the time of the other, it pays it back what it borrowed. We may refer in this connection to the Qur’anic verse:

“He makes the night to pass into the day, and He makes the day to pass into the night ...” (35: 13) which has been interpreted in two ways. Some say it means that the dark of one is made to replace the light of the other, and the light of one to replace the dark of the other, each displacing the other alternately, which means that the verse is applicable to both, the day and the night.

The other interpretation is that what is decreased from one is gained by the other, what is decreased is absorbed by the other and not lost altogether; which means in other words that the verse is referring to some hours of the day and the night, at the time of inequality; the verse according to this is particular to the time of the day and the night that is absorbed by each other. In moderate climates, the maximum that the day or the night reaches is fifteen hours, leaving nine hours to the other. Where the difference is more, the climate will be more extreme in cold or heat; and cold and heat will be more extreme in climates which are not habitable by man and no plant grows. Every place which the sun does not shine on is not inhabited by animals and no plant grows,

- Tropic of Cancer

because of the exceeding cold and dryness; which is also true of the parts that the sun shines on all the time, because of the excessive heat and dryness. Places inhabited by animals and where plants grow are those where the sun shines on at times and does not shine on at others, the most moderate being those which all four seasons come over, one after the other, and where there are the two moderate seasons, the autumn and the spring.

High places are colder than the ones at sea-level, because the air in high places is less dense, and so it does not conserve heat. This is the explanation why some high mountains, even in hot regions, remain covered with snow all the year round.

The hottest climate is the tropical regions, falling between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn on both sides of the equator. In this region, the sun falls perpendicular some time of the year.

The sun-rays are weakest in the regions of the north and the south poles, because they fall slanting on those regions, and thus cover a wider area.

Reflect on the sky, look at it time after time. You can see how it is one of the greatest signs in its highness, elevation, spaciousness and stability; it does not rise like fire, nor does it sink down like heavy bodies. It has no props to support it, nor pegs to hold it from above: it is held by the power of Allah, who holds the heavens and the earth lest they vanish. Reflect, too, on its smoothness and fineness, on its having no crack, no rift or a slit, no raggedness or curveness. Consider also the colour it is destined to have, which is one of the best and most adapted to the eye and most healthful; a person who suffers an affliction in his vision is recommended to gaze long at the green and dark green. Physicians say: One way of dealing with weakened vision is to gaze long at a green bowl filled with water. Observe how the colour of the sky is made of this colour, so that one can look long at its vast expanse, and is not exhausted after long staring at it. This is just some of the benefits of this colour, but it is just a fraction of the whole wisdom in that respect.

Name of Diameter Average distance Number of Time for Time for axis (day) days days 56m 50.5m 14m 50m 50m &9h

Comets, ‘dirty snowballs’ in space

The comets appear as hurtling glowing balls in the sky with tails that can extend as long as millions of kilometers. The nucleus of a comet is a mass consisting of a conglomerate of solid particles and hard ice; the nucleus is embedded in a nebulous disk of gases. The diameter of the gaseous disk can be 80,000 km. The rays of the sun have the effect of ejecting gas from the disk, and sv it recedes from the comet, forming a long luminous tail in

Nucleus of rock bits Gaseous capsule Tile of gases and dust and ice

1980 Track of Halley s comet

7ail always extending on the side i

away from the Sun

Like all other bodies in the sky, the earth has a pulling force that we

call the carth gravity. That gravity in attracted to the earth, and accounts for the falling of things towards the earth.

The Earth magnetic field

The earth, with its two poles, is also like a huge magnet. It causes the needle of'a compass always to point towards the north magnetic north, which is not exactly the same ay the geographic north

The way to thinking and _ reflection - focusing the mind for that purpose

Reflect then on the orbiting bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars and the constellations; think how they spin around the world incessantly until the end of time, controlled by an exact system; think of the consequences of all this, the difference of day and night, the seasons, and the heat and cold; what benefits all that realizes for the animals and the plants in the earth. Is it possible that a person with insight should remain ignorant that all that is the making of the Maker, the Wise, and the designing of the Proud, the Knowing? It is for this that the messengers of Allah addressed their peoples in a tone that admits no doubt about Allah; they spoke directly of confining worship to Allah alone; they did not mention admitting His existence, for it is self-evident. They said, as the Qur’an recounts:

DV nal] €... Gs gceil LG a t> “Can there be doubt concerning Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth?...” (14: 10).

The existence of the Almighty and His Lordship and Power are absolutely the most evident thing; they are more obvious to the insight than the sun is to the eyes, clearer to the minds than all that they can comprehend and admit. No one denies Him but someone who is contradicting his tongue, heart, mind and innate nature; all those organs renounce him as liar. Let’s read concerning these concepts the following verses from the Qur’an: