Surah Ar-Rahman 55:17
سُورَةُ الرَّحۡمَٰن · Medinan · Verse 17 of 78
رَبُّ ٱلْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ ٱلْمَغْرِبَيْنِ
Translation
He is Lord of the two risings and Lord of the two settings.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Lord of the two easts and Lord of the two wests.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note this points to the sun's shifting rising- and setting-points across the year, He governs not one fixed sunrise but the whole moving arc of the seasons, the lengthening and shortening days. Ask yourself: I picture 'sunrise' as a single fixed thing, when in truth its position travels all year, and the One in charge is managing that entire turning motion. This verse names Him Lord of the ranges, of every angle at which my days begin and end. The reliable arrival of tomorrow, and the seasons that structure my whole life, are under His command. Do I meet each new dawn as a mercy freshly issued, or as a mechanical certainty I'm simply owed?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
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