Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:5
It is He who made the sun a shining light and the moon a derived light and determined for it phases - that you may know the number of years and account [of time]. Allah has not created this except in truth. He details the signs for a people who know
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the words of Allah the Exalted: هُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ ضِيَاءً وَالْقَمَرَ نُورًا وَقَدَّرَهُ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ ذَلِكَ إِلا بِالْحَقِّ يُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ (5)
(He is the One who made the sun a source of light and the moon a luminance, and determined its stages, so that you might know the number of years and the reckoning. Allah did not create that except in truth. He sets forth the signs in detail for a people who know.)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah, Whose mention is exalted, says: Your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth — هُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ ضِيَاءً (He is the One who made the sun a source of light), by day, وَالْقَمَرَ نُورًا (and the moon a luminance), by night. The meaning of this is: He is the One Who made the sun shine and made the moon give light. وَقَدَّرَهُ مَنَازِلَ — he says: He determined it and apportioned it evenly into stages which it does not overstep and below which it does not fall short, remaining forever in the same condition. [30]
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And he said: وَقَدَّرَهُ مَنَازِلَ (and determined its stages) — herein the singular is used, whereas earlier both "the sun" and "the moon" were mentioned. For this there are two possible explanations:
The first: that the pronoun "its" (the hāʾ) in وَقَدَّرَهُ refers exclusively to the moon, because it is by the phases of the moon that the passing of the months and years is known, not by the sun.
The second: that mentioning one of the two suffices as a reference to the other, as has been said elsewhere: وَاللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَحَقُّ أَنْ يُرْضُوهُ (And Allah and His Messenger are more deserving that they should please Him) [Sūrat al-Tawbah: 62] — where the verb is in the singular. And as the poet [31] said:
He accused me of a matter of which I and my father were innocent, and on account of the edge of the well he accused me. [32]
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His words لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ (so that you might know the number of years and the reckoning) — he says: He determined this in stages so that you, O people, might know the number of years — the entering in of what enters of them and the passing of what draws near of them — and the reckoning thereof. That is to say: the reckoning of the periods of the years, the number of their days, and the reckoning of the hours of their days.
مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ ذَلِكَ إِلا بِالْحَقِّ — Allah, Whose praise is exalted, says: Allah did not create the sun and the moon and their stages except in truth. He — exalted is His mention — says: I created all of this in truth, by Myself alone, without help and without partner.
يُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ — he says: He sets forth the proofs and indications distinctly in detail [33], لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ — when they reflect upon them, the reality of Allah's oneness and the correctness of what the Prophet ﷺ calls them to do: the casting off of equals to Allah and the disassociation from idols.
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Footnotes:
[30] See the explanation of "determination" (al-taqdīr) in what has been given earlier, volume 11, p. 560.
[31] This is Ibn Aḥmar, or: al-Azraq ibn Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAmard al-Farāṣī.
[32] See: Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ, volume 1, p. 458; Lisān al-ʿArab (entry "jawl"); and other sources. Between him and a man there was a dispute over a well; his opponent said: "He is a thief, son of a thief." Thereupon he spoke this poem, and then: He called me a thief among thieves, while two men did not call my father so in the past. The correct reading of the verse is: "and on account of the well" (min ajl al-ṭawī), and "al-ṭawī" is the well. "Al-jawl" and "al-jāl" are the side of a well, from bottom to top.
[33] See the explanation of "setting forth in detail" (al-tafṣīl) in what has been given earlier, volume 14, p. 152, note 2, and the sources mentioned there. And the explanation of "sign" (al-āya) in the linguistic indices given earlier (āyī).
