Quran Garden

Session 364

Chapter 3

Verse 27

"You merge night into day and day into night; You bring the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living; You give provision to whom You will without account."

(Chapter 3: Verse 27)

Allah ended verse 26 of Al-Imran with the phrase, "Surely You have full power over everything," then He gave us ample evidence of His power in verse 27.  He says:

"You merge night into day and day into night; You bring the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living; You give provision to whom You will without account." (3:27)

God turns our attention towards two wonders of the universe: night and day, and life and death.  We are all familiar with the phenomenon of night and day because it is one of the greatest wonders of nature.  The phrase "merges night into day and day into night" does not only apply to sunrise and sunset, but it also includes the fact that God did not give the day a fixed duration throughout the year.  Day and night vary by as much as five to six hours between summer and winter. 

Do these shifts in duration happen suddenly?  Do you have a six-hour night one day, and then a thirteen-hour night the next?  No, it is a gradual, almost unnoticeable process.  This type of change is seamless because it happens in infinitely small increments.  Contrast that to human-made mechanical movements, such as that of a hand watch.  A watch keeps time using an intricate system of springs, gears, and cogs.  The second, minute, and hour hands do not continuously move; instead, each hand stops then jumps to the next location, and then stops again.  There is stillness in the minute hand from one minute to the next. Allah's creation is different.  Time flows between day and night, and the changes between the seasons are seamless. 

You can also find the same type of change as humans, plants, and animals grow.  A newborn baby does not grow suddenly from one morning to the next.  He or she grows ever so slowly with the parents hardly noticing.  The baby's height may increase by a fraction of a millimeter each day.  This growth is almost imperceptible as each cell grows ever so slightly.  Such a process requires infinite precision in the distribution of growth between cells and atoms over time.  This is the magnificence of our Creator! Change happens all around us while we enjoy the perception of stability.   

If a mother stares at her newborn son and does not take her eyes off him for months, she would not notice any growth.  But if she travels for a few weeks, then comes back, she would immediately see all the changes in her baby.  

Here we should ask, why did Allah give us the examples of "You merge night into day and day into night; You bring the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living" right after He spoke about rule, kingship, and authority? We answer that Allah drew our attention to His infinite ability to merge night into day slowly but surely, so that we do not despair.  When you see an oppressive ruler established in power, or a civilization spreading injustice, rest assured that Allah will bring them to an end.  Just as He injects precise –almost unnoticeable– changes in the day and night, He injects decay into the rule of the unjust.  This is how civilizations decline after reaching the height of their progress, then collapse from within.  God draws our attention to the majesty of His ability and the precision of His creation.   The One who can turn night into day, and death into life and growth, can depose kings and dictators. 

The verse continues, "You bring the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living."  What is life? There have been endless discussions among philosophers about the meaning of life.  Some said that life is awareness: if you are aware of yourself and your surroundings, you are alive.  Others said that life is movement, and so on.  All these definitions are based on our human experience.  We answer that the broadest and most comprehensive meaning of life is the ability and the fitness to perform your intended task.  Take a tree, for example.  As long as it is growing and producing fruit, it is alive.  Once it stops growing or producing, it no longer performs its task, and it is dying.  A man is alive as long as he can perform his duties.  We refer to a man in a coma as entering a vegetative state because he can no longer do any tasks.  We also refer to a lazy man as a deadbeat.  You can apply the same to inanimate objects.  Go to the beach and look at the smooth pebble stones.  You will see that each has a different shape and size.  Some are big, others very small.  This indicates change.  With time, even the most massive rock turns into grains of sand.  This is the lifecycle and function of a rock.  If you remove a pebble from its natural environment, the change will stop, and the stone is no longer performing its intended task.  So each being and object is alive as long as it can perform its intended task in life.  God says in the 42nd verse of chapter 8:

It happened so that Allah could settle a matter whose result was preordained: so that those who perished would perish with clear proof, and those who lived would live with clear proof. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.

Take note that Allah used the verb "to perish" opposite to the verb "to live."  Then we find the following verse:

Do not call out to any other god besides God, for there is no god but Him. Everything will perish except His Face. His is the Judgement, and to Him you shall all be brought back. (28:88)

"Everything will perish except His Face" refers to all beings such as people, angels, and jinn; it also refers to all plants, animals, planets, stars, objects, and matter.  Since all these things will perish, it means that each was alive before.  Each had a life, maybe not like yours and mine, yet a life suitable for its purpose. 

Modern science showed us that individual atoms are full of movement and change and that a drop of water is full of living bacteria.  Even when matter drastically changes, such as when we make sand into glass, it merely moves from one form of life and function to another.  Allah is ever-present, ever-watchful over His creation.  No one gave Him life, and no one takes it away from Him.  He is ever fit and capable of watching over and running the universe.  Thus, His life is the one true life.  It is a principal of the Divine self.

Scientific discoveries allowed us to peek into the secrets of the universe, from the leaves interacting with the sun to electrons moving about a nucleus.  There is a difference in what the layperson sees and perceives as life, and what life means in the eyes of those who study science.  A farmer in a remote village may not know that the dry and shriveled seed is alive, but he or she understands that God will sprout life out of it once it is sown in healthy soil.  Now, let's consider the atoms of the soil.  They may not grow as a tree, but within each of them is an awesome amount of energy.  If properly harnessed, the energy trapped in the atoms of a grain of sand is enough to power an entire city for weeks. 

Thus, when a scientist reads the verse "You bring the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living," he or she will have a different understanding than when an ordinary person reads it.  Each appreciates God's power based on their level of knowledge.  This is part of the beauty of the miraculous words of the Noble Quran.  It can be read, understood, and appreciated by a person in a remote village, as well as by a Ph.D. university professor.  It satisfies the scientific and spiritual needs of a janitor and an astronaut.  This is the power of God's words.