قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِن جَعَلَ اللَّـهُ عَلَيْكُمُ اللَّيْلَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ مَنْ إِلَـٰهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّـهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِضِيَاءٍ ۖ أَفَلَا تَسْمَعُونَ ﴿71﴾ قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِن جَعَلَ اللَّـهُ عَلَيْكُمُ النَّهَارَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ مَنْ إِلَـٰهٌ غَيْرُ اللَّـهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِلَيْلٍ تَسْكُنُونَ فِيهِ ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ ﴿72﴾وَمِن رَّحْمَتِهِ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ لِتَسْكُنُوا فِيهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُوا مِن فَضْلِهِ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ (73
Say (O Muhammad SAW): “Tell me! If Allah made night continuous for you till the Day of Resurrection, who is an ilah (a god) besides Allah who could bring you light? Will you not then hear?” [28:71]
Say (O Muhammad SAW): “Tell me! If Allah made day continuous for you till the Day of Resurrection, who is an ilah (a god) besides Allah who could bring you night wherein you rest? Will you not then see?” [28:72]
It is out of His Mercy that He has put for you night and day, that you may rest therein (i.e. during the night) and that you may seek of His Bounty (i.e. during the day), and in order that you may be grateful. [28:73]
A General Meaning
Allah addresses here the intellect of His slaves. He does this by having them take a look at that which He has created. The things He has directed us to in these verses are a sign that shows us clearly Allah’s extensive knowledge, power and the fact that He is One who is alone that has no partners. These things point us to looking at the blessings that we are surrounded with everyday This is so we gain a better understanding of Allah’s blessing upon us, turn to being obedient to Him and worshiping Him, as well as being grateful for His many blessings.
He told those that have an intellect to tell him what they would do if Allah made the night and its darkness a constant situation in which they had to live. How would they go about earning their provisions? How would they go about getting that which they needed in this constant darkness?
Then He turned the situation around. He asked what would you do if I made the daytime remain with you until the hour was established? The night time would never come around for you to rest in it. This is a necessity so that you can be alert and on your job once you have rested well.
From Allah’s mercy and blessings on His slaves is that He put some order in what goes on in their lives. He put a time for the sun to shine in the sky, time for the moon and starts to take its place. This is the night and day as we know it. When explaining about this Allah said, {And He gave you of all that you asked for, and if you count the Blessings of Allah, never will you be able to count them.} [14:34].
So it is an obligation for the worshipers to take notice of Allah mighty blessings that He has placed upon them. They need not only to take notice, but to understand that they are from Allah and be thankful for them. They must believe in Him and worship him by using His blessings in His obedience. This will cause Allah to be pleased with them, and to pour on them more of His many blessings.
That Which is Extracted from the Verses
1- The obligation of taking a good look at the creation in a way that will cause us to love, worship and extol the Lord of the worlds.
2- A clear explanation of the virtues blessings of Allah and His mercy on His slaves in terms of that which He created for them to benefit from, and the organization of everything.
3- The obligation of thanking Allah by way of being obedient to Him. Also, the fact that Allah’s blessings should be used in a way that it was created for, which is His worship and obedience. All of this goes to say that we should not take that which Allah has blessed us with and use it to disobey Him.
4- Making the one that made a mistake aware of their mistake, and pointing them to that which is correct.
