(45–46) “Have you not seen how your Lord extends the shade? Had He willed, He could have made it stationary. Then We made the sun an indicator of it; then We draw it in toward Us, little by little.”

That is: Have you not perceived, with both your sight and insight, the perfection of your Lord’s power and the vastness of His mercy? He extends the shade over His servants before sunrise. “Then We made the sun an indicator of it”—that is, an indicator of the shade. Were it not for the sun, the shade would not be known, for a thing is known by its opposite.

“Then We draw it in toward Us, little by little.” As the sun rises, the shade contracts gradually until it disappears entirely. The alternation of shade and sunlight over creation—which people witness with their own eyes—and the resulting variation and succession of night and day, the changing seasons, and the many benefits thereby attained constitute the clearest proof of Allah’s power and greatness, His perfect mercy and care for His servants, and the fact that He alone is worthy of worship, praise, love, and glorification—the Possessor of Majesty and Honor.