“Say, ‘Have you considered: if Allah were to make the night perpetual over you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than Allah could bring you light? Will you not then hear?’ (71) Say, ‘Have you considered: if Allah were to make the day perpetual over you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than Allah could bring you a night in which you might rest? Will you not then see?’ (72) And out of His mercy, He made for you the night and the day, that you may rest therein and seek of His bounty, and perhaps you will be grateful. (73) And on the Day He will call to them and say, ‘Where are My partners whom you used to claim?’ (74) And We shall bring forth from every nation a witness and say, ‘Bring your proof.’ Then they will know that the truth belongs to Allah, and what they used to fabricate will vanish from them. (75)”

His statement, exalted is He: “Say, ‘Have you considered?’”—that is, tell Me (1), people of Mecca—“if Allah were to make the night perpetual”: everlasting, “until the Day of Resurrection,” with no day alongside it, “what god other than Allah could bring you light?”—that is, a day in which you could seek your livelihood. “Will you not then hear?”—with hearing that entails understanding and acceptance.

“Say, ‘Have you considered: if Allah were to make the day perpetual over you until the Day of Resurrection’”—there is no proof in it—“what god other than Allah could bring you a night in which you might rest? Will you not then see?”—the error upon which you stand.

“And out of His mercy, He made for you the night and the day, that you may rest therein”—that is, in the night—“and seek of His bounty”—during the day—“and perhaps you will be grateful” for Allah’s blessings, exalted is He.

“And on the Day He will call to them and say, ‘Where are My partners whom you used to claim?’” He repeated the mention of calling the polytheists in order to increase their rebuke and reproach.

“And We shall bring forth”—that is, bring out—“from every nation a witness,” meaning their messenger who had been sent to them, as He said: “So how will it be when We bring from every nation a witness?” (Women 4:41). “And We shall say, ‘Bring your proof’”—your evidence that I have a partner. “Then they will know that the truth”—namely, monotheism—“belongs to Allah, and what they used to fabricate” in the life of this world “will vanish from them.”