Yūnus 10:5-6

Huwa'lladhī jaʿala'sh-shamsa ḍiyāʾan wa'l-qamara nūran wa qaddarahū manāzila li-taʿlamū ʿadada's-sinīna wa'l-ḥisāb, mā khalaqa'llāhu dhālika illā bi'l-ḥaqq, yufaṣṣilu'l-āyāti li-qawmin yaʿlamūn

"It is He who made the sun a ḍiyāʾ and the moon a nūr, and measured out stages for it so that you might know the number of the years and the reckoning. God did not create this except in truth. He sets out the signs in detail for a people who know."

This distinction has been named in many places in the index (Nūḥ 71/16, al-Taghābun, al-Shams, al-Nabaʾ, al-Anbiyāʾ 21/33) and reference was made each time to this verse. This is the word's own place; so I record the distinction here in one piece.

The root ض-و-أ: ḍawʾ — light, brightness. Aḍāʾa — it lit up, it shone. The core the lexicographers give: a spreading, strong, dazzling brightness.

The root ن-و-ر: nūr — illumination. The core the lexicographers give: illumination that makes a place visible.

The distinction the lexicographers draw between these two words is transmitted thus:

Some lexicographers put the distinction more sharply and separate ḍiyāʾ as "from itself" from nūr as "taken from another / reflected". This distinction was transmitted at al-Anbiyāʾ 21/33, and there too it was given with the note that it is "a transmitted distinction".

Per the method (Method) I draw a plain limit here: I draw no conclusion about modern astronomy from this distinction. That the moon's light is reflected is something known today; but to say that the verse states this would be to turn a stylistic distinction of the lexicographers into a proposition of physics. The distinction of the classical lexicographers rests on a difference of intensity and softness in the words — not on a difference of source. The second reading is transmitted and can be related; but the sentence "the Qurʾān announced the reflected light of the moon" is not built in this commentary. It is a way of looking, and it is left at that.

And this note is needed too: the Qurʾān uses the word ḍiyāʾ of things other than the sun — at al-Anbiyāʾ 21/48 the book given to Moses and Aaron (Hārūn) is called ḍiyāʾ. That is, the word is not a technical term meaning "a heavenly body that gives out light of its own". This is a datum that must be recorded so that the distinction is not turned into a proposition of physics.

And this finding recorded in al-Shams belongs here: nowhere does the Qurʾān call the moon sirāj (a lamp); sirāj is for the sun (Nūḥ 71/16, al-Furqān 25/61). The choice of word is consistent, and this is a datum that can be counted.

The pronoun is singular: qaddarahū — "He measured it out". The lexicographers record that the pronoun goes back to the moon; manāzil (stages, halting places) has to do with the phases of the moon.

The root م-ن-ز-ل / ن-ز-ل: manzil — a place where one halts, a stage where one comes down. The concrete picture in the word is travel: the stage where the traveller halts each night.

And the verse's own stated purpose must be recorded, because it is the verse itself that draws the limit here: li-taʿlamū ʿadada's-sinīna wa'l-ḥisāb — "so that you might know the number of the years and the reckoning."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this sentence: the verse names the heavenly bodies as a calendar. As was recorded in al-Shams: in the Qurʾān's description of nature the sun is first of all a clock. That is, the benefit the verse gives is not the physics of light but the measurability of time.

مَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ذَٰلِكَ إِلَّا بِٱلْحَقِّ — and the backbone word of the sūra occurs here for the first time, as the quality of the creating.

إِنَّ فِى ٱخْتِلَٰفِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ (6) — the root خ-ل-ف: to come after. Ikhtilāf here is not "disagreement" but the following of one upon the other, the taking of turns.

And the closings of the two verses can be compared — this is a datum of word order:

Four distinct qualities, on the same pattern. I record this as an observation: the sūra does not tie the proof to a single capacity — knowing, guarding oneself, reflecting and hearing are counted separately.