أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ مَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ مِن شَىْءٍ يَتَفَيَّؤُا۟ ظِلَٰلُهُۥ عَنِ ٱلْيَمِينِ وَٱلشَّمَآئِلِ سُجَّدًا لِّلَّهِ وَهُمْ دَٰخِرُونَ · وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مِن دَآبَّةٍ وَٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ وَهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ · يَخَافُونَ رَبَّهُم مِّن فَوْقِهِمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ
A-wa-lam yaraw ilā mā khalaqa'llāhu min shayʾin yatafayyaʾu ẓilāluhū ʿani'l-yamīni wa'l-shamāʾili sujjadan li'llāhi wa hum dākhirūn · Wa li'llāhi yasjudu mā fi'l-samāwāti wa mā fi'l-arḍi min dābbatin wa'l-malāʾikatu wa hum lā yastakbirūn · Yakhāfūna rabbahum min fawqihim wa yafʿalūna mā yuʾmarūn
"Have they not looked at the things God has created? Their shadows turn to the right and to the left, prostrating themselves to God, and they are lowly. · To God prostrates whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth of living creatures, and the angels; and they do not make themselves great. · They fear their Lord above them, and they do what they are commanded."
The proof from the shadow was treated in detail in this commentary: at al-Furqān, 25/45-46 (a-lam tara ilā rabbika kayfa madda'l-ẓilla wa law shāʾa la-jaʿalahū sākinā, thumma jaʿalna'l-shamsa ʿalayhi dalīlā, thumma qabaḍnāhu ilaynā qabḍan yasīrā). I rely on that treatment and summarise what was recorded there:
"A shadow is a thing with no existence of its own. It cannot be held and cannot be measured; it exists only by the existence of something else. And it is precisely this that the verse makes into a proof." "What one expects is that the shadow should be the proof of the sun. The verse says the reverse: the sun is the proof of the shadow. When a shadow is to be read, the place to look is not the shadow itself — it is its source."
| al-Furqān 25/45-46 | al-Naḥl 16/48 | |
|---|---|---|
| The verb | Madda'l-ẓill — He stretched it out; qabaḍnāhu — We drew it in | Yatafayyaʾu — it turns to and fro |
| The tense | Perfect — an ordering already made | Imperfect — it goes on |
| The agent | God — who stretches the shadow out and draws it in | The shadow itself — ẓilāluhū is the subject |
| What the proof is about | The existence of an order — jaʿala'l-shamsa ʿalayhi dalīlā | Submission — sujjadan li'llāhi wa hum dākhirūn |
| The word | ظِلّ (ẓill) — shadow in general | تَفَيُّؤ (tafayyuʾ) — the turning shadow |
| What is asked | A-lam tara — singular, the addressee | A-wa-lam yaraw — plural, third person |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the difference of agent: in al-Furqān the shadow is passive — it is stretched out and drawn in. In al-Naḥl the shadow is the agent: it turns of itself, it prostrates of itself. The same fact is given in the one as the object of an ordering, in the other as the subject of an obedience.
The choice of this word is the most striking thing in the verse, and the root was analysed in detail at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/9. I rely on that treatment and bring its notes over here:
"Root: ف-ي-ء. The primary sense the lexicographers record: to turn, to turn back. And the concrete picture in the root is this: al-fayʾ is the shadow that turns back after the sun has passed the zenith."
| Word | Root | Which shadow |
|---|---|---|
| ظِلّ (ẓill) | ظ-ل-ل | Shadow in general; and in particular the shadow that shortens from morning to noon |
| فَيْء (fayʾ) | ف-ي-ء | The shadow that turns back and lengthens after noon |
And the picture recorded in the al-Ḥujurāt section was this: in the morning the shadow is long; as the sun rises it shortens; at noon it all but vanishes; then it turns back and lengthens until evening.
What belongs here must be recorded, and the verse uses the two words together: yatafayyaʾu ẓilāluhū. The verb is from the root ف-ي-ء, its subject from the root ظ-ل-ل.
I record this as an observation about the language: two roots come together in one sentence. The verse says "shadow", and names the work the shadow does with the verb to turn. A motionless object is thereby made a moving agent.
And it was recorded that in al-Ḥujurāt the verb tafīʾa was chosen for a moral turning — the attacking party's "returning to its place". In al-Naḥl the same verb tells of a turning that takes place in nature.
| Place | The verb fayʾ | What turns |
|---|---|---|
| al-Ḥujurāt 49/9 | Ḥattā tafīʾa ilā amri'llāh | The attacking party — to God's command |
| al-Naḥl 16/48 | Yatafayyaʾu ẓilāluhū | The shadow — to the right and to the left |
The same root: in the one a turning that is asked for, in the other a turning that takes place. This is an overlap verifiable across the sūras. And the idea recorded in al-Ḥujurāt of "returning to one's natural condition" stands, in al-Naḥl's usage, in the word's own home: the shadow turns not under compulsion but of itself, by the course of the sun.
There is an asymmetry in the wording, and the lexicographers dwell on it: al-yamīn is singular, al-shamāʾil plural.
| Explanation | Ground |
|---|---|
| 1 | Yamīn here is a generic noun; it comes in the singular but carries a plural sense |
| 2 | The right is one direction, the left sides are many — a body has one right, but its shadow may fall in more than one direction |
| 3 | Agreement with the verse-ending — the word was chosen to suit the sound of the sentence |
All three explanations are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. But the fact itself can be verified from the text and must be recorded.
The verse ascribes prostration to the shadow. This is a pattern treated at many places in this commentary: the ascribing of an act to beings that are inanimate or without will.
The forty-ninth verse gives the scope openly: wa li'llāhi yasjudu mā fi'l-samāwāti wa mā fi'l-arḍi min dābbatin wa'l-malāʾika.
And the word order must be recorded: the angels are enumerated separately — wa'l-malāʾika. Yet "what is in the heavens" would already have covered them.
The lexicographers count this separate enumeration as takhṣīṣ (naming a thing specially). And I give this as an observation: the angels are named together with the note that follows immediately upon them, wa hum lā yastakbirūn (they do not make themselves great). The reason they are enumerated separately is therefore the attribute that follows.
دَآبَّة — root د-ب-ب: a living thing that moves upon the ground. The root was treated at al-Jāthiya, 45/4; I do not repeat it here.
The word was treated at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin), 40/60, and I rely on that treatment. What was recorded there was this:
"دَاخِرِين — root د-خ-ر: to be made small, to bow the neck, to be brought low. The word is the exact opposite of pride, and it is set against it in the same sentence."
| Place | Of whom dākhirīn is said | Its opposite |
|---|---|---|
| Ghāfir 40/60 | Alladhīna yastakbirūna ʿan ʿibādatī sa-yadkhulūna jahannama dākhirīn | Yastakbirūn — in the same sentence |
| al-Naḥl 16/48-49 | The shadows and those who prostrate — wa hum dākhirūn | Wa hum lā yastakbirūn (49) — in the next verse |
The same two words, set against each other in two different sūras. This is an overlap verifiable across the sūras.
And the difference must be recorded; I give it as my own reading: in Ghāfir being dākhir is a punishment — the end of the one who makes himself great. In al-Naḥl it is a state — the attribute of what is already so. The same word, then, is in the one a position one is brought down to, in the other a position one already occupies.
The lexicographers dwell on the construction: min fawqihim — "from above them", or "who is above them".
| Reading | What it attaches to |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rabbahum min fawqihim — they fear their Lord, who is above them |
| 2 | Yakhāfūna … min fawqihim — the direction from which the fear comes |
And the closing of the verse must be recorded: wa yafʿalūna mā yuʾmarūn — "and they do what they are commanded."
I give this as an observation, and it bears on the sūra as a whole: the forty-eighth verse enumerated the shadows, the forty-ninth living creatures and angels. The fiftieth ties their common attribute to a single act: obeying the command. And the sūra had already named, in its fourth verse, the one being that does not obey that command: khaṣīmun mubīn.