Tafseer of The Bee · An-Nahl · 16:48
Have they not considered what things Allah has created? Their shadows incline to the right and to the left, prostrating to Allah, while they are humble.
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 Qurʾān-reciters differed over the reading of this. Most of the reciters of the Ḥijāz, Medina, and Basra read أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا with a yāʾ — as a report concerning those who devised evil schemes. Some of the reciters of Kufa read: "awa-lam taraw" with a tāʾ — as a direct address (khiṭāb).
The reading with the yāʾ as a report-form concerning those who devised evil schemes I consider the more correct of the two, because it stands within the context of the narrative about them and the report about them; followed by the report about their fleeing from Allah's proof against them and their neglecting to contemplate His signs and to draw a lesson from them. The meaning of the words is then: Did these devisers of evil schemes not look at what Allah has created of a standing body — a tree, a mountain, or something else — whose shadows move back and forth from the right and the left? That is to say: the shadow shifts from one place to another, so at the beginning of the day it is in one state, then it withdraws, and then at the end of the day it returns in another state.
A group of the exegetes of the Scripture held an opinion concerning "the right side and the left sides," namely what Bishr related to us; he said: Yazīd related to us; he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, regarding His word أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ مِنْ شَيْءٍ يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ عَنِ الْيَمِينِ وَالشَّمَائِلِ سُجَّدًا لِلَّهِ: "As for the right side: the beginning of the day; as for the left side: the end of the day."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda — to the same effect.
Al-Qāsim related to us; he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us; he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ عَنِ الْيَمِينِ وَالشَّمَائِلِ — he said: "the morning hour and the evening times: when the shadows return, the shadow of each thing prostrates itself to Allah at the morning hour; and when they return at evening, it prostrates itself to Allah."
It was related to me from al-Ḥusayn; he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us; he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say regarding His word يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ عَنِ الْيَمِينِ وَالشَّمَائِلِ: he means: "at the morning hour and the evening times: the shadows prostrate themselves to Allah from the morning until the shadow returns, then they prostrate themselves to Allah until the night — that is to say: the shadow of each thing."
Ibn ʿAbbās held an opinion concerning His word يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ, namely what al-Muthanná related to us; he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ informed us; he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās regarding His word يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ: he said: "they incline to the side."
Concerning the meaning of His word سُجَّدًا لِلَّهِ there was disagreement. Some said: the shadow of each thing is its prostration.
Mention of who said this:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me; he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ — he said: "The shadow of each thing is its prostration."
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us; he said: Isḥāq al-Rāzī related to us, on the authority of Abū Sinān, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ — he said: "The shadow of the believer prostrates itself willingly, and the shadow of the unbeliever (kāfir) prostrates itself by compulsion."
Others, however, said: by His word يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ is meant their moving back and forth from the right and the left in the state of their prostration, while the prostration of the things is something other than their shadows.
Mention of who said this:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, and Naṣr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awdī related to me; both said: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Abū Sinān, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, regarding the word of Allah أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ مِنْ شَيْءٍ يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ: he said: "When the shadow returns, each thing — plant or tree — turns prostrating toward the prayer-direction (qibla). They therefore considered it commendable to pray at that moment."
Al-Muthanná related to me; he said: al-Ḥammānī informed us; he said: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us; he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, regarding the word of Allah يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ: he said: "When the sun reaches its zenith, each thing prostrates itself to Allah the Almighty."
Still others said: it is the shadow of the things that Allah describes in this verse as prostrating, and only their shadows prostrate themselves, not the things themselves that have the shadows.
Mention of who said this:
Al-Qāsim related to us; he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us; he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, regarding His word أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ مِنْ شَيْءٍ يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ: he said: "It is the prostration of the shadows — the shadows of all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth of living creatures; he said: the prostration of the shadows of the animals, and the shadows of everything."
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me; he said: my father related to me; he said: my uncle related to me; he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, regarding His word أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ مِنْ شَيْءٍ يَتَفَيَّأُ ظِلالُهُ: what Allah created of every thing — from its right side and its left sides; thus the text words it — from the right side and the left sides. He said: "Do you not see that when you perform the morning prayer, all the land between the sunrise and the sunset is shadow? Then Allah sends the sun upon it as a guide and Allah draws the shadow back."
The most correct opinion concerning this, in my judgment, is to say: Allah declared in this verse that the shadows of the things are the ones that prostrate; and their prostration is: their inclining and turning from one side to another and from one direction to another — as Ibn ʿAbbās said. One says: sajadati al-nakhla — "the palm tree prostrated" — when it inclines to the side; and sajada al-baʿīr wa-asjada: when it is held slanted for riding. We have already expounded the meaning of prostration elsewhere in a manner that makes repetition unnecessary.
His word وَهُمْ دَاخِرُونَ — it means: and they are humbled and small. One says: dakhara fulānun li-llāhi yadkharu dakhran wa-dukhūran — when he submitted himself to Him and bowed before Him. Compare the verse of Dhū al-Rumma:
Fa-lam yabqa illā dākhirun fī mukhaywasin wa-munjuḥirun fī ghayri arḍika fī juḥri
(There remained nothing but the humbled one in the prison, and the one creeping into a hole in another's land.)
In accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes of the Scripture also spoke.
Mention of who said this:
Al-Muthanná related to me; he said: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us; he said: Shibil related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَهُمْ دَاخِرُونَ — "humbled."
Al-Qāsim related to us; he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us; he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — to the same effect.
Bishr related to us; he said: Yazīd related to us; he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وَهُمْ دَاخِرُونَ: that is to say: "humbled."
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda — to the same effect.
The singular al-yamīn (the right hand/side) in His word عَنِ الْيَمِينِ وَالشَّمَائِلِ as against the plural al-shamāʾil (the left sides): this has come about because the meaning of the words is: "Did they not look at what Allah has created — that the shadows of what Allah created shift from its right side" — that is to say: from the right side of what was created — "and its left sides." The word mā is singular in its form but plural in its meaning; thus al-yamīn stands as a singular — in the meaning of: the right side of what was created — and then returns to the plural meaning in al-shamāʾil. Some of the Arabic grammarians said: the Arabs do this because most usage is directed at an individual, so that one says to a person: "Go to the right of you"; he said: when the singular stands, it is as though it is directed to one person out of a group, but when the plural stands, that is the customary form about which there is no doubt. As proof for this Arabic usage he cited the poet's verse:
Bi-fī l-shāmitīna l-ṣakhru in kāna haddanī raziyyatu shiblayy mukhdirim fī l-ḍarāghimi
(May the rock fill the mouths of those who gloat over misfortune if it has afflicted me that two cubs of a lion have perished.)
He said: bi-fī (the mouth of) those who gloat — not bi-afwāhi (the mouths). And the verse of the other poet:
Al-wāridūna wa-taymun fī dharā sabaʾin qad ʿaḍḍa aʿnāqahum jildu l-jawāmīsi
(The arrivers, and Taym, in the shelter of Sabaʾ, the hide of the buffaloes bit their necks.)
And he did not say: julūd (hides).
