Qur'an 36:40 - Help me

[Shasid]

:sl:

I need someone to help me with this and make me understand. I can't speak Arabic so I'm having a hard time. Maybe someone with Arabic knowledge can help me? :D

I need help with a verse and I want to understand it in depth.
The verse is: "Itis not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day.They float each in an orbit." <Noble Qur'an, Qur'an 36:40>

In polar regions the longevity of day and night vary during summer and winter. In the north pole and in northen Sweden the night outstrip the whole day, during the winter time. Now the problem is that I do not understand this verse properly. May a brother or sister can help me here to understand this verse properly.

:D Jazakallah Khair

[ardianto]

:wa:

Why do you have to put this thread in the "Clarifications About Islam" if the problem is not in the Qur'an but on your ignorance about the day and the night.

Day is started from sunrise until sunset. Night is started from sunset until sunrise. Their length are varies, depend on place depend on season. You cannot use your clock to count the day length or the night length.

Does night outstrip day in winter in Sweden?. No! but the night is becoming longer, the day is becoming shorter.

[Insaanah]

:wa:

In the north pole and in northen Sweden the night outstrip the whole day, during the winter time.

No, it doesn't. The day there is naturally shorter because of the latitude, and in some places, the sun doesn't rise for a few months. But that is how it is meant to be. The night never outstrips the day, because the day has a certain length, even if short, which the night never outstrips. Even if the sun doesn't rise, it's not meant to. So you cannot say that the night outstrips the day. Using that logic, everywhere there isn't an exact equal 12 hour day and 12 hour night you could say the night outstrips the day. But it doesn't. Allah has given the night and day in various parts of the world and times of the year a certain length, and neither day nor night can outstrip each other in that regard. Even in Arabia, most of the time there isn't an exact 12 hour day or night. But even the enemies of the Qur'an knew that day and night had varying lengths and did not say that the night outstripped the day.

Tafseer ibn katheer says; (It is not for the sun to overtake the moon,) Mujahid said, "Each of them has a limit which it does not transgress or fall short of. When the time of one comes, the other goes away, and when the time for one to prevail comes, the time of the other ceases.''

http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?opt...k=view&id=1487

Until the day finishes, the night cannot come. Until the night finishes, the day cannot come. Even if the day or night is six months long. Each has it's own length. There is no outstripping at all.

[Shasid]

Firstly, I'm new so didn't know where to post. Sorry! imsad

Thanks for the answers brother and sister. I got it finally. I'm dumb! Why didn't I think of it :D

But one thing I want to ask and I ask forgiveness from Allah Azza Wa Jal and you guys if I say something wrong!

In sweden there is a county, a place called Kiruna. In Kiruna there is only night/darkness and no day/daylight (Am I being stupid again?)

Kiruna
00:00—06:15 — night
06:15—07:26 — astronomical twilight
07:26—08:54 — nautical twilight
08:54— n/a — civil twilight
n/a — n/a — sunrise
n/a — n/a — daylight
n/a — n/a — sunset
n/a —14:18 — civil twilight
14:18—15:46 — nautical twilight
15:46—16:57 — astronomical twilight
16:57—00:00 — night

No Sunrise
No Daylight
And.. No Sunset.

So can any1 help here? or am I just being stupid imsad

May Allah Azza Wa Jal forgive me for saying something wrong, and may Allah Azza Wa Jal increase my knowledge!

Jazakallah!

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[Shasid]

This is in Northern Sweden:
00:00—06:14 — night
06:14—07:24 — astronomical twilight
07:24—08:51 — nautical twilight
08:51— n/a — civil twilight
n/a — n/a — sunrise
n/a — n/a — daylight
n/a — n/a — sunset
n/a —14:24 — civil twilight
14:24—15:51 — nautical twilight
15:51—17:01 — astronomical twilight
17:01—00:00 — night

No Sunrise
No Daylight
And.. No Sunset

[ardianto]

In sweden there is a county, a place called Kiruna. In Kiruna there is only night/darkness and no day/daylight (Am I being stupid again?)

No daylight in Kiruna?

Kiruna city hall in summer.

Bro, there is no place in the world where always in daylight or always in night. But day and night in one place could be longer or shorter than in another place.

:)

[Good brother]

http://quran.com/36/40
This sentence can have two meanings and both are correct. (1) The sun does not have the power that it should draw the moon into itself, or enter its orbit and collide with it.
(2) The sun cannot appear in the times which have been appointed for the rising and appearing of the moon. It is not possible that the sun should suddenly appear on the horizon when the moon is shining at night.

Nor does this happen either that the night should approach before the appointed period of the day comes to an end, and should start spreading its darkness suddenly during the time when the day is meant to spread its light.

The word falak in Arabic is used for the orbit of the planets, and it gives a different meaning from the word sama (sky). The sentence, “Each in an orbit is floating” points to four realities.
(1) That not only the sun and the moon but all the stars and planets and celestial bodies are moving.
(2) The falak, or orbit, of each one of them is separate.
(3) That the orbits are not moving with the stars in them, but the stars are moving in the orbits.
(4) That the movement of the stars in their orbits is similar to the floating of something in a fluid.
These verses are not intended to describe the realities of astronomy, but are meant to make man understand that if he looks around himself, with open eyes, and uses his common sense, he will find countless and limitless proofs of the existence of God and His Unity, and he will not come across a single proof of atheism and shirk. The vastness of the solar system in which our earth is included is such that its parent body, the sun, is 300,000 times bigger than the earth, and its farthest planet Neptune is at least 2,793 million miles distant from the sun. However, if Pluto is taken as the farthest planet, it revolves 4,600 million miles away round it. Notwithstanding this vastness, the solar system occupies a very insignificant part of a huge galaxy. The galaxy which includes our solar system has about 3,000 million suns in it, and its nearest sun is so distant from our earth that its light takes about four years to reach us. Then this galaxy also is not the whole universe. According to the investigations made so far, it has been estimated that it is one of about 2,000,000 spiral nebulae, and the nearest nebula is about a million light years away from the earth. As for the farthest celestial bodies which are visible through the modern instruments, their light reaches the earth in about 100 million years. Even now it cannot be claimed that man has seen the whole universe. It is a small part of the Kingdom of God which man has yet been able to observe. It cannot be predicted how far and deep man will yet be able to see with greater and more efficient means of observation at his disposal.
All the information that has been gathered so far about the universe proves that this whole world is made up of the same substance of which our tiny earthly world is made, and the same law is working in the universe which is working in the world of our earth; otherwise it was not at all possible, that man should have made observations of the very distant worlds from the earth, measured their distances and estimated their movements. Is it not a clear proof of the fact that this whole universe is the creation of One God and the Kingdom of One Ruler? Then from the order and the wisdom and the excellence of workmanship and the deep relationships which are found in the hundreds of thousands of the galaxies and in the millions and billions of the stars and planets revolving in them no sensible person can imagine that all this has come about automatically. Is it possible that there should be no administrator behind this order and system, no sage behind this wisdom, no designer behind this design and work of art, and no planner behind this planning?
When the night comes, light disappears and darkness spreads: this is something everyone sees every day in every corner of the world, except for polar areas, for which rules of ijtihad are applicable for praying & fasting. Despite its daily occurrence, it is a remarkable sign that deserves contemplation. The Qur’ānic description here is unique as it shows the day intertwined with the night and then God strips the day off the night to let darkness spread.
Indeed every planet and star has its own orbit which it follows accurately.
Stars and planets are so far apart that the distances separating them are huge. Our planet earth is approximately 93 million miles away from the sun, while the moon is around 240,000 miles away from us. Hardly imaginable as these distances are, they are nothing compared to the distance between our solar system and the nearest star to us outside it, which is estimated to be four light years. We should remember that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second.
God, the Creator, willed that such distances should separate the orbits of stars and planets, and He planned the universe according to this design in order to prevent any collision, until a time He has set and that is known only to Him. Therefore, the sun will not overtake the moon, and the night cannot outrun the day, because the cycle of day and night never fails.

[Shasid]

There is no Daylight in Kiruna when it is winter. Only night. I posted the times. The times are for December

[ardianto]

There is no Daylight in Kiruna when it is winter. Only night. I posted the times. The times are for December

There's no winter, there's no summer in tropical archipelago where I am living. A place where sunrise always prior to 6AM and sunset always around 6PM.

But I know that in polar region, the night is very long in winter, that same as many days and night in my place, and the day is very long in summer, same as many days and night in my place. I learn it when I was a kid in elementary school.

In Kiruna the night is very long in winter, but then night gone and the day come. You can see in that picture. Yes, then the long night come again before replaced again by the day.

So, nothing wrong with surah Yaasin: 40.

[Ahmad H]

The night does not outstrip the day is obvious in its meaning. Night does not overtake the day and day does not overtake the night. This is how all Tafsirs look at it.

The best way is to visualize a ball, in a dark room. Then shine a light on one side of it and rotate it. This is how night and day work with the earth. The poles have half a year of light and half a year of darkness because of the 23 degrees tilt of the earth's axis.

Now what about the sun and the moon? The verse says, and this is the Tafsirs:

Al-Jalalayn:
It does not behove — it is [neither] facilitated nor is it right for — the sun to catch up with the moon, and so appear together with it at night, nor may the night outrun the day, and thus it [the night] never arrives before the latter ends and each (kullun: the nunation compensates for the [missing] genitive annexation [that would have been constructed] with al-shams, ‘the sun’, al-qamar, ‘the moon’, and al-nujūm, ‘the stars’) [of these] is in an orbit, swimming, moving — these [celestial bodies] are being treated as [though they were] rational beings.

Ibn Abbas:
It is not for the sun to overtake the moon) it is not proper for the sun to rise where the moon appears such that it takes away its light, (nor doth the night outstrip the day) nor does the night come at the time of the day such that it eclipses its brightness. (They) the sun, the moon and the planets (float each in an orbit) revolve and turn round an orbit.

The sun never overtakes the moon because the sun gives the moon light. It cannot, therefore, outshine the moon, like it does the star, for example. The moon is a celestial body which reflects light, therefore, the sun can never overtake the moon. In some countries, you do not see the moon during the day, but in Canada, you can see the moon during the day for some parts of the year, and the sun does not overtake the moon by allowing it to not be seen. The moon is seen either way.

Also, just like the example of the ball in darkness, with light shining on one side (such as the sun shines on the earth), shows how night cannot outstrip the day. This is because when light shines, it always pierces the darkness. This is a subtle reality of light, that darkness cannot stand up to it. Take it as a metaphorical or spiritual likeness as well. Good always overtakes evil. But it is also a statement about something obvious, and revealing. The Qur'an here points to a fact, that earth is a ball being shined with light, thus darkness never overtakes the light. Night can never outstrip the day when it is constantly shining on one side. How we perceive that on earth does not matter. It is how things actually work. So the view you have to take in understanding this is from space.

I hope this makes sense. If you are still not clear on this, then do ask. This is a very simple experiment you can do at home, which is a proof of the truthfulness of the Holy Qur'an at the same time.