Surah Ya-Sin 36:39
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 39 of 83
وَٱلْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَٰهُ مَنَازِلَ حَتَّىٰ عَادَ كَٱلْعُرْجُونِ ٱلْقَدِيمِ
Translation
We have determined phases for the moon until finally it becomes like an old date-stalk.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And the moon, We have measured for it phases, until it returns like an old, withered date-stalk.' al-Biqa'i and Ibn Ashur admire the precision and the image: the moon is measured through its stations until it dwindles to a thin, pale, curved crescent, 'like an aged palm-branch.' The calendar of months, and of our lives, is written in that patient waxing and waning. Ask yourself: the moon's slow shrinking to a frail crescent is a monthly picture of decline, fullness, then fading, then renewal. I watch my own years do the same and resist the pattern. This verse presents the dwindling not as tragedy but as measured, designed, on a schedule leading somewhere. Can I read my own waning the way the verse reads the moon's, as appointed, not accidental?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Biqa'i, Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:39 is discussed in 8 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:39 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.