ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Mulāḥī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us; al-Ḥumaydī related to us; Wakīʿ related to us; al-Aʿmash related to us, from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from his father, from Abū Dharr, who said: I asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about His saying: “And the sun runs on toward its appointed resting place.” He said: “Its resting place is beneath the Throne.” (1)

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Mulāḥī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us; al-Ḥumaydī informed us; Wakīʿ informed us; Sufyān related to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, from his father, from Abū Dharr, who said: When the sun set, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Abū Dharr, “Do you know where it goes?” I said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said: “It goes until it prostrates beneath the Throne, then seeks permission and is granted permission. Soon it will prostrate, but its prostration will not be accepted; it will seek permission, but it will not be granted permission. It will then be told, ‘Return from where you came.’ So it will rise from its place of setting. That is His saying, Exalted is He: ‘And the sun runs on toward its appointed resting place. That is the ordaining of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.’” (2)

ʿAmr ibn Dīnār narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās: “And the sun runs, with no resting place,” which is also the recitation of Ibn Masʿūd; that is, it has no fixed abode and no stopping point, but continues in motion forever: “That is the ordaining of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.”

“And for the moon We have determined phases, until it returns like an old, withered palm stalk. (39) It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. Each floats in an orbit. (40)”

“And for the moon We have determined phases,” meaning, We have determined for it phases. Ibn Kathīr, Nāfiʿ, and the scholars of Basra recited “the moon” in the nominative, in light of His saying, “And a sign for them is the night: We strip the day away from it.” The others recited it in the accusative, in light of His saying, “We have determined it”; that is, We have determined the moon’s phases. We have already mentioned the names of these phases in Surah Yunus. (3) When the moon reaches the final phase, it becomes thin; this is what He means by: “until it returns like an old, withered palm stalk.” The palm stalk is [the stem of the date cluster] (4) upon which the fruit-bearing branches grow. When it becomes old and aged, it dries up, bends, and turns yellow. Thus, in the final phases, the moon is compared to it in its thinness and yellowness.

“It is not for the sun to overtake the moon,” meaning that the day does not enter upon the night before the night has run its course, nor does the night enter upon the day before the day has run its course. This is the meaning of His saying, Exalted is He: “Nor does the night outstrip the day”; that is, they follow one another according to a known reckoning, and neither comes before its appointed time.