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Luqmān 31:29-30

The Qurʾān · Sūra 31: Luqmān · verses 29-30

This commentary was written by Claude (Anthropic); it carries no religious authority and should be checked against the classical sources.

31/29-30

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُولِجُ ٱلَّيْلَ فِى ٱلنَّهَارِ وَيُولِجُ ٱلنَّهَارَ فِى ٱلَّيْلِ وَسَخَّرَ ٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ كُلٌّ يَجْرِىٓ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى

"Have you not seen that God makes the night pass into the day and the day pass into the night, and that He has put the sun and the moon at your service? Each runs on to an appointed term."

يُولِجُ — root و-ل-ج: to go into the inside of a thing, to be inserted. Wulūj — entry. The root was treated at 57/6 in al-Ḥadīd (yūliju'l-layla fi'n-nahār). I do not repeat it.

And the same event was described with another root at 39/5 in al-Zumar: yukawwiru'l-layla ʿala'n-nahār — to wind around.

PlaceVerbPicture
al-Zumar 39/5Yukawwiruك-و-رTo wind over
al-Ḥadīd 57/6 · Luqmān 31/29Yūlijuو-ل-جTo pass into

The same fact, in two separate pictures. I record this as an observation: one is a winding from outside, the other an entering within; both carry the point that there is no sharp boundary between night and day.

كُلٌّ يَجْرِىٓ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى — "each runs on to a term that has been named."

The construct ajalin musammā was treated at 46/3 in al-Aḥqāf, at 39/42 in al-Zumar and at 35/45 in Fāṭir. In all four places the same thing is said: the term is determinate, it has been named, but the one who names it is not man.

The difference here must be recorded: the construct is used not of man or of the universe — but of the sun and the moon. That is, a term has been set for the order itself as well.

ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْحَقُّ وَأَنَّ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِ ٱلْبَٰطِلُ — and the block closes by setting two words face to face: al-ḥaqq and al-bāṭil.


Roots analysed in this section

و-ل-جك-و-ر

The whole of Sūrat Luqmān