A real picture of the moon that shows its luminous face and from God's graces to us that He made mansions for this moon so as to know the dates, so He be exalted Said: (And the moon, We have measured for it mansions (to traverse) till it returns like the old dried curved date stalk).
The holy verse:
God be He exalted says: (And a sign for them is the night. We withdraw there from the day, and behold, they are in darkness, and the sun runs on its fixed course for a term (appointed). That is the Decree of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing, and the moon, We have measured for it mansions (to traverse) till it returns like the old dried curved date stalk, It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. They all float, each in an orbit) [
The explanation of the verse:
Allah be He blessed and exalted reminds us of His many graces like: the grace of day and night, the grace of the sun and moon, and from His mercy on His that He subjected for them the moon with its mansions, so everything is of precise order and all these creatures float in their orbits and this order never breaks down.
Ibn Kathir said: what is meant by the moon mansions is the places of the moon as the moon when first appears is small then it increases till it becomes full (full moon) then it decreases again till it returns to its first state through one month.
In the explanation of Al-kashaaf the (old dried curved date stalk) means that the moon returns to be like an old curved stem of a palm tree.
Scientific fact:
When we keep looking at the moon all over the month, we notice that every day it takes a new state and place that differs than the next day, and every day the moon rises later than the day before by 50 minutes.
And the beginning of the lunar month is the first place for the moon, and during the rotation of the moon around the earth; the moon receives an amount of sunlight then reflects it to the earth. But because of the different places that the moon takes with respect to the earth, we couldn't see continuously all the reflected light all over the month. But each day we see an amount of reflected light that commensurate with the number of days of the month.
Thus, this precise order is a way for us to know the date and calculations, therefore God be He exalted said: (It is He Who made the sun a shining thing and the moon as a light and measured out for it stages that you might know the number of years and the reckoning. Allah did not create this but in truth. He explains the Ayât (proofs, evidence, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) in detail for people who have knowledge) [
The point of inimitability:
The places of the moon is from God's graces to us because without those places that let the moon appears to us as a crescent then full moon then it returns back to a crescent then it disappears and without the astronomical positions of the moon that changes according to the days of the month, we could know neither the date nor the days of the month. And here appears the miracle in the Quran words about the mansions.
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By: Abduldaem Al-Kaheel
