Page 442
wa-sh-shamsu tajrī li-mustaqarrin lahā dhālika taqdīru l-ʿazīzi l-ʿalīmi
The sun runs on to its place of rest: That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing.
— Ali Quli Qarai
36Yā-SīnيسVerse 38 of 83
Ya-Sin36. Yā-Sīnيس
Yā Sīn
Ya Sin
MeccanVerse 38 of 83
Surah Ya-Sin - Verses 37-38
37. “And a sign for them is the night; We strip it of the day and behold they are plunged in darkness.”
38. “And the sun runs unto a resting-place fixed for it; that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing.”
Night is one of the signs of Power and Wisdom of Allah. It is a fixed program in the length of history which has no disorder. This fact is the sign of the existence of a Wise and Knowing Geomancer. These verses state another part of the signs of the greatness of Allah in the world of existence; and following the discussion mentioned in the former verses about Resurrection and reviving the dead lands, plants and trees, another form of the forms of Monotheism is stated.
It says:
While the light of sun has covered everywhere, and the army of darkness has been drawn back, Allah says:
The Arabic term /naslaxu/ is derived from /salax/ which originally means ‘taking off the skin of an animal’ and it is a tender meaning. As if the light of the day were a white clothing which has been put on the body of the night. At the sunset this clothing is taken off of its body, like the skin, in order that its innate becomes manifest. To be careful in this meaning reiterates this point that the main nature of the earth is darkness, and light is something casual which is given to it from another source. It is like a shirt put on the body of a person that when he takes it off, the natural colour of the body is made manifest.
Here, the Qur’an has emphasized on the darkness of night. It seems it intends to state the change of the light of the day into darkness of the night, as an example of the death after life, and this is next to the statement of giving life to the dead lands, which was mentioned as a sign out of the Divine signs in the previous verses. However, when man is in the midst of the darkness of night, he remembers the light and its blessings, the light and its excitements, the light and its source, and, by a comparison he will be acquainted with ‘the Creator of light and darkness’.
In the next verse, which has been pointed out next to the night as a sign, there is the light of sun as a sign. It says:
This verse clearly states the constant motion of the sun, but, concerning the purpose of this motion, commentators have delivered different discussions. A group of them say that this motion refers to the apparent motion of the sun round the earth which will continue until the end of the world and, in fact, is the destination of the sun and it is the end of its lifetime. Some others have rendered it to the declamation of the sun in summer and winter towards the North and South of the earth, because we know that from the beginning of spring the sun declines from the moderate line (equator) toward the North and goes forth as far as 23 northern degree and from the beginning of summer it returns back until the beginning of autumn when it reaches the moderate line (equator).
It also continues its movement toward the South until the beginning of winter, and from the beginning of winter it moves toward the line of equinox and it reaches it at the beginning of spring. Of course, all these motions, in fact, are because of the movement of the earth and the inclination of its excess due to the level of its orb, though apparently and as the result of the sense it seems relates to the movement of the sun. Some others consider it as an indication to the rotation of the ‘sun globe’, because the studies of the scientists have decisively proved that the sun turns round itself.
The last and the most modern commentary for the abovementioned verse is the same thing that scientists have recently discovered. It says that the sun moves with the solar system in the midst of our galaxy toward an appointed direction and toward a far distanced star which has been called ‘Weca’. These meanings do not contrast to each other and the Arabic phrase /tajri/ may refer to all these movements and the movements which have not been known to our knowledge and that they may be discovered in future.
However, to move the sun, this very great globe which is one million and two thousand times bigger than the earth and with an accurate movement in the endless atmosphere, is possible by no one save by Allah Whose Power is above all powers and Whose Knowledge is infinite. That is why, at the end of the verse, the Qur’an says:
The last word about this verse is that there is a meaningful hint in its content upon the system of the solar year which comes into being by means of the movement of the sun in zodiacs a system that gives order and program to the living of man, and arranges its different aspects.