Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage)

61. “That is because Allah merges the night into the day and He merges the day into the night and that Allah is All-Hearing, All-seeing.”

62. “That is because Allah, He is the Truth, and that what they call upon besides Him, it is falsehood; and because Allah, He is the High, the Great.”

The Power and Knowledge of Allah in relation to changing day and night is a sign for His ability in helping the servants. The change of the day and the night is not casual; and the administration of the whole world has a wise and knowing administrator.

In view of the fact that the promise of aid and help is encouraging and effective when it is from the side of an almighty and powerful person, then, a part of the infinite Power of Allah in the universe is mentioned through the first verse in the above.

It says:

“That is because Allah merges the night into the day and He merges the day into the night…”

(He constantly decreases from one and, according to a certain system, He adds to another. This system is a fix and perfectly accurate one which has been running for thousands or millions of years.)

The Arabic term /yulij/ here is derived from /’ilaj/ and originally from /waluj/ which means ‘admission’. As we said, this alteration refers to the gradual and perfectly regular and accurate changes of the day and the night during different seasons of the year in which one of them decreases and the other increases.

It is also probable that this refers to the sunrise and sunset that, because of the special circumstances of the atmosphere (the air surrounding the earth) this change does not occur suddenly.

From very early morning i.e. the onset of dawn, the rays of the sun shine the higher levels of the air and slowly transfer to the lower levels of the air. As if the day gradually enters into the night, and the forces of light prevail over the army of darkness.

On the contrary, at the time of sunset, at first the light begins to be vanished from the lower levels of the atmosphere and it becomes rather dim and gradually it will be dismissed from the higher and higher levels until when there will be no ray of the sun, and the army of darkness occupy everywhere.

If it were not such, the rising of the sun and sunset would happen in a fleeting moment, and the sudden transition of the night to the day, and the day to the night, would be spiritually and physically harmful for human beings, and this sudden and rapid change would also bring forth many difficulties in the social system.

There is no problem that the abovementioned holy verse refers to both of the interpretations.

At the end of the verse, the Qur’an says:

“…and that Allah is All-Hearing, All-seeing.”

This means that Allah hears the request of the believers for help, and He is always aware of their circumstances and, at the necessary time, His grace will hasten to help them, and in the same way, He is always aware of the deeds and intentions of the enemies of the Truth.

The next verse, in fact, is an evidence for what was said before.

It says:

“That is because Allah, He is the Truth, and that what they call upon besides Him, it is falsehood; and because Allah, He is the High, the Great.”

You see that the army of the Truth becomes victorious.

The falsehood retreats, the grace of Allah hastens to help the believers and leaves the disbelievers alone; all these are for the sake that the latter ones are wrong and the former ones are right; those are against the system of the world of existence and their end is destruction and annihilation, while these are in agreement with the laws of the world of existence.

In principle, Allah is the Truth and other than Him is futile; and all those human beings and other beings that contact with Allah are somehow right, and as much as they are aloof from Him they are wrong.

The Arabic word /‘aliyy/ is derived from /‘uluww/ which means ‘high ranked’. It is also applied for someone who is capable and almighty, and no one can resist before his will.

The word ‘great’ refers to the grandeur of the Knowledge and Power of Allah (s.w.t.), and He Who is qualified with these attributes can help His friends very well, and defeat the enemies violently. Thus, His friends must be encouraged with His promises.