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wa-min ʾāyātihi l-laylu wa-n-nahāru wa-sh-shamsu wa-l-qamaru lā tasjudū li-sh-shamsi wa-lā li-l-qamari wa-sjudū li-llāhi lladhī khalaqahunna ʾin kuntum ʾiyyāhu taʿbudūna
Among His signs are night and day, and the sun and the moon. Do not prostrate to the sun, nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah who created them, if it is Him that you worship.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Fussilat - Verse 37
37. And from among His Signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Prostrate yourselves not to the sun nor to the moon, but prostrate yourselves to Allah Who created them, if you worship Him.
The night and the day are the Signs of Divine Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Mercy. Verse 32 terms the best word as a call toward Allah and the blessed Verse in question treats the Path to Call to Him. The night and the day are Divine Signs indicating His Omnipotence: the serenity of night and its consecution with the day, their timing, decrease, and increase and their proportion to sleep and peace of mind.
The blessings of the day include growth of plants and animals, evaporation of waters which leads to formation of clouds, rain, fruit bearing of trees, saving of energy, genesis of motion, circling, and circulation and contribution of the earth in its revolving and motion, the distance of the sun from the earth, the atmosphere that controls the solar heat, the moon as the nightly light and the natural and common calendar for all, phases of the moon in their roles in the ebb and flow are all the Signs of Divine Omnipotence.
In other words, the blessed Verse in question is saying that consecutive nights and days are Signs of Divine Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Governance. The sun and the moon are among His evident Signs each of which perform their functions in its own position as per the Ordainment of the Governor and Provider of the world and do not veer off its orbit. The sun and the moon despite their grandeur and glory follow Divine Commands and their existence and survival depends upon Divine Will, but they are not worthy of being worshipped, since prostration and showing humility are worthy of the Lord Who brought them from non-existence into existence and ordained them for human existence and survival.
Polytheists imagine that prostrating before the sun and the moon would lead to their exalted station before God as a consequence of which they said:
“We solely worship them in order to be closer to Allah.”
God Almighty is saying unto them that if they wish to become closer to Truth and worship Him, they should not prostrate before them but they should prostrate before God Who is their Creator and Provider.