Tafseer of Yaseen · Yaseen · 36:39
And the moon - We have determined for it phases, until it returns [appearing] like the old date stalk.
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.
Exposition of the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: وَالْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَاهُ مَنَازِلَ حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("And the moon—We have determined for it phases, until it returns like the old, withered palm-stalk") (39)
The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of His statement وَالْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَاهُ مَنَازِلَ ("And the moon—We have determined for it phases"). Some of the Meccans, some of the Medinans, and some of the Basrans read it: (وَالقَمَرُ) in the nominative, as a conjunction (ʿaṭf) upon "the sun," since "the sun" had already been conjoined to "the night"; so they likewise made the moon follow the sun in case-ending, because it too belongs to the signs, just as the night and the day are two signs. According to this reading, the explanation of the words is: and a sign for them is the moon, for which We have determined phases. Others among the Meccans, some of the Medinans, some of the Basrans, and the generality of the reciters of Kūfa read it in the accusative: وَالْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَاهُ ("And the moon, We have determined it"), in the meaning: and We have determined for the moon phases, just as We did with the sun; so they referred it, according to the meaning, back to the [pronominal] "hā" of "the sun," because the "wāw" in it points to the verb mentioned later.
The correct judgment concerning this, in our view, is that these are two well-known readings, both correct in meaning; whichever of the two the reciter reads, he has hit upon the truth. The explanation of the words is therefore: and a sign for them is Our determining of phases for the moon, for the sake of its waning after its fullness, completeness, and roundness, until it returns like the old, withered palm-stalk (al-ʿurjūn al-qadīm). The ʿurjūn is a part of the cluster (al-ʿidhq), namely from the place where it sprouts in the palm tree up to the place of the twigs (the shamārīkh). He, exalted be His praise, has compared it with the old (al-qadīm) palm-stalk—and "the old" here means "the withered"—because that part of the cluster, when it has grown old and dry, is almost never found except bent and curved, and is almost never found straight and even like the branches and twigs of other trees. So it is with the moon: when it is at the end of the month, before its disappearance, it becomes, in its curving and bending, like that palm-stalk.
And in agreement with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("until it returns like the old palm-stalk"), he says: the old stalk of the cluster.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("until it returns like the old palm-stalk"): he means by the ʿurjūn: the withered cluster.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His statement وَالْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَاهُ مَنَازِلَ حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("And the moon—We have determined for it phases, until it returns like the old palm-stalk"), he said: like the cluster of the palm tree when it has grown old and bent itself.
Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī related to me, saying: Abū Yazīd al-Kharrāz—that is, Khālid ibn Ḥayyān al-Raqqī—related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, on the authority of Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm, concerning His statement حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("until it returns like the old palm-stalk"), he said: the cluster of the palm tree bends itself when it has grown old.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His statement كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("like the old palm-stalk"), he said: the old palm tree.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra al-Asadī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl informed us, on the authority of Abū Yaḥyā, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("like the old palm-stalk"), he said: the withered cluster.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī al-Muqaddamī and Ibn Sinān al-Qazzāz related to me, both of them saying: Abū ʿĀṣim and al-Muqaddamī related to us; he said: I heard Abū ʿĀṣim saying: I heard Sulaymān al-Taymī, concerning His statement حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("until it returns like the old palm-stalk"), saying: the cluster.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning حَتَّى عَادَ كَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِيمِ ("until it returns like the old palm-stalk"), he said: Allah determined for it phases, and so it waned until it was like the cluster of the palm tree; He compared it with the cluster of the palm tree.
