Ibrahim (Abraham)

33. “And He has made the constantly moving sun and the moon subservient to you, and He has made the night and the day subservient to you.”

The Qur’anic term /d a’ibin/ is derived from the word /da’b/ which means a ‘continuous habit’. Maraghi has mentioned in his commentary that /d a’ibin/ means ‘those continues in moving’.

Certainly, the sun is a great power house which functions constantly, as contrary to the man-made power plants which require repair every now and then and close down at times. Once the sun disappears for sometime, what will then happen?

How will man’s life and the life of the plants and animals terminate or come to an end? In face of the existence of numerous microbes and lack of heat and steam, what kind of catastrophe would await the world?

Allah not only conquered and made the existing beings subservient to you but He also made the constantly moving sun and moon subservient to you.

The verse says:

“And He has made the constantly moving sun and the moon subservient to you…”

Allah not only made the existing beings of this world subservient to you but He also made their accidental states as submissive to you in the same way He did with the day and night.

From the Qur’an’s point of view, man is so splendid that all these beings are made submissive to him by the command of Allah. That is, either they are directly at the service of man’s interest, or they are running by man’s control.