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yūliju l-layla fī n-nahāri wa-yūliju n-nahāra fī l-layli wa-huwa ʿalīmun bi-dhāti ṣ-ṣudūri
He makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night, and He knows best what is in the breasts.
— Ali Quli Qarai
57Al-ḤadīdالحديدVerse 6 of 29
The Iron57. Al-Ḥadīdالحديد
al-Ḥadīd
The Iron
MedinanVerse 6 of 29
Surah al-Hadid - Verse 6
6. He merges night into day and merges day into night and He has full knowledge of the secrets and intentions in the hearts.
The procession, wane, and wax of days and nights reflect Divine Sovereignty. The blessed Verse in question makes mention of two more Divine Attributes, saying:
"He merges night into day and merges day into night."
He decreases a certain amount of time from one and adds it to the other thereby altering the length of day and time, namely the alteration affected by the four seasons of the year entailing all the blessings for mankind. The blessed Verse proceeds to say that;
"He has full knowledge of the secrets and intentions in the hearts."
The Arabic word dhat denotes "having" herein connoting the intentions and beliefs controlling and ruling the hearts. It is worthy of note that the preceding Verses reflect that God Almighty is All-Aware of our deeds;
("And Allah is the All-Seer of what you do")
and the blessed Verse in question designates that He is fully Aware of our intentions, beliefs, and thoughts;
("He has full knowledge of the secrets and intentions in the hearts").
Bura’ ibn ‘Azib narrates from the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Ali (as):
"I inquired:
'O Commander of the Faithful! I ask you to inform me, for the sake of God Almighty and His Messenger (S), of the best thing which the Noble Prophet (S) bestowed upon you that was revealed to you by God Almighty through Gabriel.'
He replied:
'Whenever you intend to call God Almighty by His Greatest Attribute, recite the first six blessed Verses of Surah al-Hadid and the last four blessed Verses of Surah al-Hashr. Then, raise your hands and say:
'O God! Such are You. I invoke you to pay homage to Muhammad and answer my prayer. ’
Then, say what you need. By God Almighty, besides Whom there is no other object of worship, your prayer will be answered, if God wills. ’ " 10
The tradition reflects the majesty of the blessed Verses and the significance of their contents. However, it must be borne in mind that the Divine Greatest Attribute is not just the form but it requires assuming Divine Attributes.
Footnotes