Commentary
Each of the sun and the moon moves in its orbit, and it completes it to a known time: the sun to the end of the year, and the moon to the end of the month. And from al-Hasan: the appointed time is the Day of Resurrection. Because their movement does not cease except at that time. It is also indicated by night and day and their alternation, and their increase and decrease, and the movement of the two lights in their orbits, all of this is according to a measure and calculation, and by His encompassing all the deeds of creation: due to His great power and wisdom. If you say: it moves for an appointed time, and it moves to an appointed time: is it from the alternation of the two letters? I say: No, and only a dull-witted person with a narrow mind would take this approach. But the two meanings are intended. I mean the end and the specification, each of which is suitable for the correctness of the purpose. Because your saying it moves to an appointed time means it reaches and ends at it. And your saying it moves for an appointed time: you intend it moves to attain an appointed time, making the movement specific to attaining an appointed time. Do you not see that the movement of the sun is specific to the end of the year, and the movement of the moon is specific to the end of the month? So both meanings do not fail in their place, that which is described of the wonders of His power and wisdom that the able, knowledgeable living beings cannot achieve. So how about the inanimate objects that you call upon besides Allah, it is only because He is the true, established deity. And that which is beneath Him is false in divinity, and that Allah is the Most High, the Great Sovereign. Or that which has been revealed to you from these verses is due to the clarification that Allah is the truth, and that any deity other than Him is false, and that Allah is the Most High, the Great, above having partners.
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