Tafseer of The Stories · Al-Qasas · 28:73
And out of His mercy He made for you the night and the day that you may rest therein and [by day] seek from His bounty and [that] perhaps you will be grateful.
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 His statement, the Exalted: وَمِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ لِتَسْكُنُوا فِيهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُوا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ (73) ("And it is out of His mercy that He has made for you the night and the day, that you may find rest therein and that you may seek something of His bounty, and that you may be grateful.") (28:73)
The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: "And it is out of His mercy (raḥma)" toward you, O mankind, "that He has made for you the night and the day" — He made the two differ from one another: thus He made this night to be darkness, "that you may find rest therein" and come to stillness and to firm repose, for the refreshment of your bodies therein, from the weariness of the busy going about with which you go about during the day for your livelihood. And in the "hāʾ" (the personal pronoun) in His statement: "that you may find rest therein" there are two possibilities: The first is that it refers specifically to the mention of the night, and that for the day, together with the "seeking," another "hāʾ" is left implicit. The second is that it refers to the mention of both the night and the day, and that the manner in which they are combined into a single whole — while it applies to both — corresponds to the manner in which the Arabs summarize into a unity in their saying: "Your coming and your going torment me" — because the coming and the going is an action, and an action, whether it occurs often or seldom, is rendered in the singular. And He made this day to be light in which you can see, so that you may go about therein with your eyes for your livelihood and for seeking His provision, which He, by His bounty with which He has favored you, has distributed among you.
And His statement: "and that you may be grateful." The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: and that you may thank Him for His favor toward you thereby. He did that with you so that you might thank Him alone and devote praise to Him alone, because no associate aided Him in His favor toward you thereby; therefore it is fitting that He should likewise have no associate in the praise for it.
