Thus, the day reveals the sun and the night covers it, even though the sun’s appearance causes the day and its disappearance causes the night.

Allah has indicated this in His words:

“By the sun and its brightness.”

He thus attributes the brightness to the sun. This brightness encompasses the entire day, as He says:

“Or the heaven? He built it, raised its height and proportioned it, darkened its night and brought forth its daylight.”

He also says:

“By the morning brightness, and by the night when it grows still.”

As for His words:

“By the heaven and the One who built it,
and by the earth and the One who spread it,
and by a soul and the One who fashioned it,
then inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness,”

it has been said that mā is a nominalizing particle, so that the meaning is: “By the heaven and Allah’s building of it, by the earth and Allah’s spreading of it, and by a soul and Allah’s fashioning of it.” The agent must be included in the sentence. The verbal noun cannot here be construed as expressing the action alone, as in “and its construction,” because the agent is mentioned in the clauses “and the One who built it” and “and the One who spread it.” The verb necessarily has an agent in the sentence, as well as an object. Both agent and object must therefore be included in the expanded wording.

However, if mā is nominalizing, it is a particle containing no pronoun. The subject pronoun in banāhā (“built it”) would then refer to someone not mentioned, but known from the context. The expanded wording would be: “By the heaven and Allah’s building of it.” This departs from both the default construction and the apparent meaning.