3:27 Aal-i-Imraan (The Family of Imraan)

{ تولج الليل في النهار وتولج النهار في الليل } أي: تدخل هذا على هذا، وهذا على هذا، فينشأ عن ذلك من الفصول والضياء والنور والشمس والظل والسكون والانتشار، ما هو من أكبر الأدلة على قدرة الله وعظمته وحكمته ورحمته { وتخرج الحي من الميت } كالفرخ من البيضة، وكالشجر من النوى، وكالزرع من بذره، وكالمؤمن من الكافر { وتخرج الميت من الحي } كالبيضة من الطائر وكالنوى من الشجر، وكالحب من الزرع، وكالكافر من المؤمن، وهذا أعظم دليل على قدرة الله، وأن جميع الأشياء مسخرة مدبرة لا تملك من التدبير شيئا، فخلقه تعالى الأضداد، والضد من ضده بيان أنها مقهورة { وترزق من تشاء بغير حساب } أي: ترزق من تشاء رزقا واسعا من حيث لا يحتسب ولا يكتسب

وقوله تعالى "تولج الليل في النهار وتولج النهار في الليل" أي تأخذ من طول هذا فتزيده في قصر هذا فيعتدلان ثم تأخذ من هذا في هذا فيتفاوتان ثم يعتدلان وهكذا في فصول السنة ربيعا وصيفا وخريفا وشتاء وقوله تعالى "وتخرج الحي من الميت وتخرج الميت من الحي" أي تخرج الزرع من الحب والحب من الزرع والنخلة من النواة والنواة من النخلة والمؤمن من الكافر والكافر من المؤمن والدجاجة من البيضة والبيضة من الدجاجة. وما جرى هذا المجرى في جميع الأشياء "وترزق من تشاء بغير حساب" أي تعطي من شئت من المال ما لا يعده ولا يقدر على إحصائه وتقتر على آخرين لما لك في ذلك من الحكمة والإرادة والمشيئة. قال الطبراني: حدثنا محمد بن زكريا العلائي حدثنا جعفر بن حسن بن فرقد حدثنا أبي عن عمر بن مالك عن أبي الجوزاء عن ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال "اسم الله الأعظم الذي إذا دعي به أجاب في هذه الآية من آل عمران "قل اللهم مالك الملك تؤتي الملك من تشاء وتنزع الملك ممن تشاء وتعز من تشاء وتذل من تشاء بيدك الخير إنك على كل شيء قدير".

Encouraging Gratitude

Allah said,

قُلْ

(Say) O Muhammad , while praising your Lord, thanking Him, relying in all matters upon Him and trusting in Him.

اللَّهُمَّ مَـلِكَ الْمُلْكِ

(O Allah! Possessor of the power) meaning, all sovereignty is Yours,

تُؤْتِى الْمُلْكَ مَن تَشَآءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَآءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَن تَشَآءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَآءُ

(You give power to whom You will, and You take power from whom You will, and You endue with honor whom You will, and You humiliate whom You will.) meaning, You are the Giver, You are the Taker, it is Your will that occurs and whatever You do not will, does not occur. This Ayah encourages thanking Allah for the favors He granted His Messenger and his Ummah. Allah transferred the prophethood from the Children of Israel to the Arab, Qurashi, Makkan, unlettered Prophet, the Final and Last of all Prophets and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to all mankind and Jinn. Allah endowed the Prophet with the best of qualities from the prophets before him. Allah also granted him extra qualities that no other Prophet or Messenger before him was endowed with, such as granting him (more) knowledge of Allah and His Law, knowledge of more of the matters of the past and the future, such as what will occur in the Hereafter. Allah allowed Muhammad's ﷺ Ummah to reach the eastern and western parts of the world and gave dominance to his religion and Law over all other religions and laws. May Allah's peace and blessings be on the Prophet until the Day of Judgment, and as long as the day and night succeed each other. This is why Allah said,

قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَـلِكَ الْمُلْكِ

(Say: "O Allah! Possessor of the power,") meaning, You decide what You will concerning Your creation and You do what you will. Allah refutes those who thought that they could decide for Allah,

وَقَالُواْ لَوْلاَ نُزِّلَ هَـذَا الْقُرْءَانُ عَلَى رَجُلٍ مِّنَ الْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ

(And they say: "Why is not this Qur'an sent down to some great man of the two towns (Makkah and Ta'if)") 43:31.

Allah refuted them by saying,

أَهُمْ يَقْسِمُونَ رَحْمَةَ رَبِّكَ

(Is it they who would portion out the Mercy of your Lord) 43:32, meaning, "We decide for Our creation what We will, without resistance or hindrance by anyone. We have the perfect wisdom and the unequivocal proof in all of this, and We give the prophethood to whom We will." Similarly, Allah said,

اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُ

(Allah knows best with whom to place His Message) and,

انظُرْ كَيْفَ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ

(See how We prefer one above another (in this world)) 17: 21

Allah said,

تُولِجُ الَّيْلَ فِى الْنَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِى الَّيْلِ

(You make the night enter into the day, and You make the day enter into the night) meaning, You take from the length of one of them and add it to the shortness of the other, so that they become equal, and take from the length of one of them and add it to the other so that they are not equal. This occurs throughout the seasons of the year: spring, summer, fall and winter. Allah's statement,

وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَىَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الَمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَىِّ

(You bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living.) means, You bring out the seed from the plant and the plant from the seed; the date from its seed and the date's seed from the date; the faithful from the disbeliever and the disbeliever from the faithful; the chicken from the egg and the egg from the chicken, etc.

وَتَرْزُقُ مَن تَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

(And You give wealth and sustenance to whom You will, without limit.) meaning, You give whomever You will innumerable amounts of wealth while depriving others from it, out of wisdom, and justice.

You make the night to pass to enter into the day and You make the day to pass to enter into the night each of them increasing by the amount by which the other decreases; You bring forth the living from the dead such as humans and birds from sperm-drops and eggs respectively; and You bring forth the dead the sperm-drop and the egg from the living and You provide with abundant provision whom You will without reckoning’.

The second verse (27) demonstrates that Allah controls all spaces and heavenly bodies and employs the sun and the moon to make the days longer than nights and the nights longer than the days at His will and command.

Mentioned after that is His unrivalled power of 'bringing the living out from the dead' such as, a chick from an egg, or a human infant from the sperm, or a tree from a seed and of 'bringing the dead out from the living' such as eggs from birds and beasts, sperm from humans or fruit from trees and dried grain from plants.

If we were to take 'the living' and the dead' in a broad and general sense, this will become inclusive of the learned and the ignorant, the perfect and the imperfect and the believer and the disbeliever (the Muslim and the Kafir). It only goes to show that Allah's perfect power exercises absolute control over all phenomena, both physical and spiritual, through which He can make a Muslim out of a Kafir, a perfect believer out of a staunch disbeliever, a scholar out of an ignorant person - if He so wills. And if He so wills, He can let a believer turn into a disbeliever or a rustic into a scholar. He brought Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) out of an idol-worshipper. He let the son of Prophet Nuh (علیہ السلام) remain an infidel. Strange but true, the son of an ` alim عالم (scholar) can remain illiterate and the son of someone illiterate can become an ` alim عالم .

A discerning reader will not fail to notice the eloquent order in which Allah's most perfect power that reigns and runs the universe from the cosmos to the soul of man has been demonstrated so effectively.

The special merit of this verse:

Imam al-Baghawi (رح) reports a hadith from the Holy Prophet ﷺ in which he said: It is Allah's promise that anyone who recites, after every Surah, the Surah al-Fatihah, Ayah al-Kursi, two verses of 'Al-` Imran, that is شَهِدَ اللَّـهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ (3:18) and the present verse from قُلِ اللَّـهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ (26-27), He will make his abode in Paradise, and have him placed in the Sacred Enclosure, and bless him with His mercy seventy times every day, and fulfill seventy of his needs, and protect him against every envier and enemy and make him prevail over them.