al-Naḥl 16:12-13

Wa sakhkhara lakumu'l-layla wa'l-nahāra wa'l-shamsa wa'l-qamar, wa'l-nujūmu musakhkharātun bi-amrih, inna fī dhālika la-āyātin li-qawmin yaʿqilūn · Wa mā dharaʾa lakum fi'l-arḍi mukhtalifan alwānuh, inna fī dhālika la-āyatan li-qawmin yadhdhakkarūn

"He has made the night, the day, the sun and the moon subservient to you; and the stars are made subservient by His command. In that there are signs for a people who reason. · And what He has strewn for you over the earth, of differing colours. In that there is a sign for a people who take heed."

The root has two branches, and the lexicographers record both: to make subservient, to set to a task (taskhīr); and to mock (sukhriyya). The shared idea, on the lexicographers' explanation, is the using of a thing outside its own will.

The root was treated at Luqmān, 31/20 and 31/29 (sakhkhara lakum mā fi'l-samāwāti wa mā fi'l-arḍ); I do not repeat it here.

What belongs here is the splitting of the sentence in two, and this must be recorded:

The difference is plain and can be verified from the text: the night, the day, the sun and the moon are made subservient "for you". For the stars this qualification is not entered; they are named only as "made subservient by His command".

I record this as my own reading; its ground is the absence of the lakum qualification in the second sentence: the verse does not divide what serves man from what does not — but it does mark off man's share separately. The stars too are within the order; but their order is not reduced to man's service.

And in the sixteenth verse this will be completed: wa bi'l-najmi hum yahtadūn — there the face the star turns towards man will be named. This is a completion verifiable within the sūra.

A note on the variant readings: it is transmitted that in some readings wa'l-nujūmu musakhkharātun is read wa'l-nujūma musakhkharātin — on that reading the clause ceases to be a nominal sentence and attaches to the preceding verb. In point of meaning the difference is that the distinction recorded above falls away. Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference, and I state that my reading above rests on the widespread reading.

The concrete sense of the root: to spread as one scatters seed, to distribute by multiplying. Dhurriyya — offspring; the lexicographers record that it is attached to the same root. The root occurred at al-Mulk, 67/24 (huwa'lladhī dharaʾakum fi'l-arḍ).

This construction was treated in detail in this commentary. At Fāṭir, 35/27-28, it occurred three times and was tabulated there:

This is the fourth link, and its difference must be recorded: in Fāṭir the construction was repeated separately for three distinct domains — plant, stone, living creature. In al-Naḥl it is given in a single sentence, with no division: mā dharaʾa lakum fi'l-arḍ — "what He has strewn for you over the earth."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the scope of the two expressions: Fāṭir enumerates by separating, al-Naḥl by gathering. And there is one further qualification in al-Naḥl's sentence: lakum. In Fāṭir the diversity was a matter for observation; in al-Naḥl it is an item of favour. The same fact, entered in two different columns.

And at al-Rūm, 30/22, the same diversity was treated by way of tongue and colour, and compared there with Fāṭir's list of colours and with al-Ḥujurāt, 49/13. I rely on that treatment and add one further link here.