أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَيْفَ مَدَّ ٱلظِّلَّ وَلَوْ شَآءَ لَجَعَلَهُۥ سَاكِنًۭا ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَا ٱلشَّمْسَ عَلَيْهِ دَلِيلًۭا
Have you not considered your Lord - how He extends the shadow, and if He willed, He could have made it stationary? Then We made the sun for it an indication.
Introduction
This is āyah 45 of Sūrat Al-Furqaan (The Criterion), the 42nd sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 19. Meccan verses tend to address faith, the oneness of God, and the hereafter.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Meccan
- Order revealed
- 42 of 114
- Surah
- Al-Furqaan (25)
Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow? Had He willed, He would have made it still. Then We made the sun an indicator of it. In terms of outwardness, this verse explains a miracle of MuṣṬafā, but in the meaning understood by the folk of the realities, it alludes to the special favors and redoublings of generosity he received. The explanation of the miracle is that during one of his journeys, God's Messenger dismounted under a tree at the time of the afternoon nap. All the companions were with him, but the tree's shadow was small. To make manifest a miracle for MuḤammad, the Exalted Lord pulled out that shadow by His power such that the whole army of Islam had a place in the tree's shadow. In that state the Exalted Lord sent down this verse, and this miracle became manifest. As for the explanation of his being singled out for proximity and nearness, it is that Dost thou not see thy Lord is addressed to those who have presence and declares the eminence of the proxi- mate. In the station of whispered prayer Moses wanted to see the Real: “Show me, that I may gaze upon Thee!”[7:143]. The exalted majesty of the Unity pulled the bodkin of severity across the eyes of his holiness: “Thou shalt not see Me” [7:143]. To MuṣṬafā He said, “Dost thou not see thy Lord?”: “Do you not see Me and gaze upon Me? What do you want with another?” O chevalier! Do not suppose that when someone reaches the contemplation of the exaltedness of the Possessor of Majesty, his passion and yearning will become less by one iota. In the liver of a fish there is a heat that will not settle down by one iota even if you gather together all the oceans of the world. A heart that is a heart is at work today and it will also be at work tomorrow. Today it is in yearning itself and tomorrow it will be in tasting itself. One of the secrets of Dost thou not see thy Lord? is that mortal man, though he is singled out for the special favors of proximity, would never reach the point where he requests the vision of the exaltedness of the Possessor of Majesty if mutual seeing had not come at the request of Beauty.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
Community resources
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