58. The word dalil has been used in the sense of the pilot, who is a person trained to take ships safely in or out of a harbor, or along a waterway. The sun has been made the pilot of the shadow because the lengthening out of the shadow and its being rolled up depends on the rising, declining and setting of the sun.

59. We annihilate it or cause it to disappear, for everything which is annihilated returns to Allah, because everything comes from Him and returns to Him.

The Quran has used the phenomenon of the shadow caused by the sun for two purposes. (if it is taken literally, it is meant to warn the disbelievers that they should learn a lesson from this and should not behave like cattle, as if to say: If you had considered the benefits of the shadow in regard to your everyday experience, you would have accepted without any hesitation the doctrine of Tauhid. Had the shadow been constant, there would have been no life on earth, for life depends on the light and heat of the sun. On the other hand, if there had been no shadow at all, the constant heat and light of the sun would have made life impossible. Besides this, if there had been sudden changes in the sun and the shadow, they would not have been able to endure it for long; therefore you should reflect on this phenomenon and understand it well that it has been so ordained by the All-Wise and the All-Powerful Creator so that it always increases or decreases gradually in accordance with fixed natural laws. Thus it is obvious that it could not have come into existence by itself nor produced by blind mechanisms nor functioned so regularly and continuously under many independent gods.

But if it is taken in the metaphorical sense, there is between the lines a subtle suggestion, and it is this: Just as the shadow does not remain in one and the same state, likewise the shadow of disbelief and shirk, which appears to have spread far and wide, will begin to shorten as the sun of guidance gradually rises; but it requires patience, for Allah never brings about sudden changes.

60. The night is a garment in the sense that it covers and hides things.

61. This verse has three objects:

(1) It provides a proof of Tauhid.

(2) It furnishes a proof of the possibility of life-after-death from everyday human experience.

(3) It bears the good news that the night of ignorance has come to an end and now the bright day of knowledge and guidance has dawned. It is therefore inevitable that those who were sleeping in ignorance, will sooner or later wake up, but those who have slept the sleep of death, will not wake up and will themselves be deprived of life, while the business of the day will go on thriving even without them.

62. That is, such water as is pure and free from all sorts of impurities, germs and poison, which cleanses and washes away filth and becomes a source of life for men, beasts as well as all kinds of plant life.

63. This verse also gives proofs of the doctrine of Tauhid and the Hereafter. Besides, it contains a subtle suggestion that the period of the drought of ignorance has been replaced through Allah’s mercy by the blessed rain of Prophethood, which is showering the life giving knowledge of revelation from which many servants of Allah will certainly benefit, if not all.

64. “We have repeated it among them” may have three meanings:

(1) We have cited the phenomenon of rainfall over and over again in the Quran in order to make plain to them the reality.

(2) We are time and again showing them the wonderful phenomenon of the heat and drought, seasonal winds and clouds, rainfall and its life producing effects.

(3) We go on changing the system of the distribution of rainfall throughout the world year after year, so that the same place does not receive the same amount of rainfall every time. Sometimes a place is left completely dry, another has more or less of rainfall than usual, while some other is flooded with rain water. They see all these different phenomena with their countless different results in their daily life.

65. The verse means to impress that the wonderful system of rainfall is by itself a proof of the existence of Allah, of One Lord of the universe, and of His attributes. Its wonderful distribution during the year and over different parts of the earth is a clear proof that there is an All-Wise Designer. But the obdurate disbelievers do not learn any lesson from it, and persist in their ingratitude, though this has been cited in the Quran repeatedly for this purpose.

It is also a proof of the life-after-death, for the disbelievers themselves see that rainfall brings to life dead land year after year. This clearly shows that Allah has the power to bring the dead back to life, but the disbelievers do not learn any lesson from it and persist in their irresponsible ways.

If verse 48 is taken in the metaphorical sense, the pure water of rain will mean the blessings of Prophethood. Human history shows that whenever this blessing has been sent down, ignorance has been replaced by knowledge, injustice by justice and wickedness by righteousness. The coming of Prophets has always proved to be the harbinger of a moral revolution. But only those who accepted their guidance benefited from it. This is the lesson of history, yet the disbelievers reject it because of their ingratitude.