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36:68 - If We grant long life to any We cause him to be reversed in nature: will they not then
understand? 4014
4014 This connects on with the last verse. Everything is possible with Allah. If you doubt how man can be transformed from
his present nature, contemplate the transformations he already undergoes in his present nature at different ages. As a
child powers of mind and body are still undeveloped. As he grows, they grow, and certain moral qualities, such as
courage, daring, the will to conquer, unfold themselves. In extreme old age these are again obscured, and a second
childhood supervenes. The back of the man who walked proudly straight and erect is now bent. If these
transformations take place even in his present nature and constitution, how much easier was it for Allah to cast him in
an immobile mould? But Allah granted him instead the high possibilities and responsibilities referred to in the last note.
(36.68)
38:18 - It was We that made the hills declare in unison with him Our Praises at eventide and at
break of day. 4168
4168 See n. 2733 to xxi. 79. All nature sings in unison and celebrates the praises of Allah. David was given the gift of music
and psalmody, and therefore the hills and birds are expressed as singing Allah's praises in unison with him. The
special hours when the hills and groves echo the songs of birds are in the evening and at dawn, when also the birds
gather together, for those are respectively their roosting hours and the hours of their concerted flight for the day.
(38.18)
50:6 - Do they not look at the sky above them? How We have made it and adorned it and there are
no flaws in it? 4945
4945 The greatest philosophers have found a difficulty in understanding the sceptical position when they contemplate the
wonder and mystery of the skies with all the countless beautiful stars and planets and light in them, and laws of order,
motion, and symmetry, that respond to the highest mathematical abstractions without a flaw. Can blind Chance give
rise to such conditions? (50.6)
55:6 - And the herbs and the trees-both (alike) bow in adoration. 51755176
5175 Najm: may mean stars collectively, or herbs collectively: perhaps both meanings are implied. (55.6)
5176 All nature adores Allah. Cf. xxii. 18, and n. 2790; xiii. 15; and xvi. 48-49. (55.6)
78:6 - Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse 5890
5890 See n. 2038 to xvi. 15. Cf. also xiii. 3 and xv. 19. The spacious expanse of the earth may be compared to a carpet, to
which the mountains act as pegs. The Signs of Allah are thus enumerated: the great panorama of outer nature
(verses 6-7); the creation of Man in pairs, with the succession of rest and work fitting in with the succession of night
and day (verses 8-11); the firmaments above, with their splendid lights (verses 12-13); and the clouds and rain and
abundant harvests, which knit sky and earth and man together (verses 14-16). These point to Allah, and Allah's
Message points to the Future Life. (78.6)
78:7 - And the mountains as pegs?
78:8 - And (have We not) created you in pairs
78:9 - And made your sleep for rest
78:10 -And made the night as a covering 5891
5891 The darkness of the night is as a covering. Just as a covering protects us from exposure to cold or heat, so this
covering gives us spiritual respite from the buffets of the material world, and from the tiring activities of our own inner
exertions. The rest in sleep (in verse 9) is supplemented by the covering of the night with which we are provided by
Allah. (78.10)
78:11 - And made the day as means of subsistence? 5892
5892 "Subsistence" in English only partly covers the idea of ma'ash, which includes every kind of life activity. The Day is
specially illuminated, so runs the figure of speech, in order that these life-activities of all kinds may be fully exercised.
(78.11)
78:12 - And (have We not) built over you the seven firmaments 5893
5893 See n. 5526 to lxv. 12 and n. 2876 to xxiii. 17, also xxxvii. 6 and notes there. (78.12)
78:13 - And placed (therein) a Light of Splendor? 5894
5894 That is, the sun. Cf. xxv. 61; xxxiii. 46 (where it is used metaphorically for the holy Prophet); and lxxi. 16. (78.13)
78:14 - And do We not send down from the clouds water in abundance 5895
5895 Note how the evidences of Allah and His beneficence arc set out in four groups. (1) Look to external nature on the
earth around you (verses 6-7); (2) your own nature, physical, mental and spiritual (verses 8-11); (3) the starry
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