سورة الإسراء

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Then He created the sun and the moon and made both of them radiant. If Allah the Exalted had left the two of them as they were at the beginning of their creation, night would not have been distinguished from day, nor month, nor year, nor winter from summer, nor spring from autumn. The religious people would not have known the time of their religious duties, and the labourer would not know when to go after his livelihood and when to rest. Out of the mercy He had for His servants, Allah made provision for them and sent Jibra'il, who wiped one of the two suns with his wing and took away its radiance and left its light. This is the word of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: وَ جَعَلْنَا اللَّیْلَ وَ النَّهارَ آیَتَیْنِ فَمَحَوْنا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ وَ جَعَلْنا آیَةَ النَّهارِ مُبْصِرَةً لِتَبْتَغُوا فَضْلًا مِنْ رَبِّکُمْ وَ لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِینَ وَ الْحِسابَ وَ کُلَّ شَیْءٍ فَصَّلْناهُ تَفْصِیلًا [And We have made the night and the day two signs, then We have made the sign of the night to pass away and We have made the sign of the day manifest, so that you may seek grace from your Lord, and that you might know the numbering of years and the reckoning; and We have explained everything with distinctness].

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) - Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashim said: Among the manners of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) is this: when someone wishes to relieve himself, he must not face the qibla or turn his back to the qibla. The reason for this is that the Ka'ba is the greatest sign of Allah on the earth and holds the greatest sanctity. Therefore, out of reverence for the sign of Allah, the sanctuary of Allah, and the House of Allah, he must not face the qibla or turn his back to it. And [likewise] he must not face the sun or the moon, because the sun and the moon are two signs among the signs of Allah, and there is nothing greater than them in the sky, on account of this word of Allah, who has said: وَ جَعَلْنَا اللَّیْلَ وَ النَّهارَ آیَتَیْنِ فَمَحَوْنا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ [And We have made the night and the day two signs, then We have made the sign of the night to pass away] — what is meant by the sign of the night is the blackness present on the moon. وَ جَعَلْنا آیَةَ النَّهارِ مُبْصِرَةً لِتَبْتَغُوا فَضْلًا مِنْ رَبِّکُمْ وَ لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِینَ وَ الْحِسابَ وَ کُلَّ شَیْءٍ فَصَّلْناهُ تَفْصِیلًا [And We have made the sign of the day manifest, so that you may seek grace from your Lord, and that you might know the numbering of years and the reckoning; and We have explained everything with distinctness]. And another reason is that in it there is a light composed of several parts, and for this reason he must not face it or turn his back to it, because it is one of the signs of Allah and in it there is a ray of the light of Allah.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): فَمَحَوْنَا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ [Then We made the sign of the night to pass away] — this erasure occurred in the moon [and its light was diminished].

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) - Abu Basir said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said concerning the word of Allah the Exalted فَمَحَوْنَا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ [Then We made the sign of the night to pass away]: "What is meant is the black spot that exists on the surface of the moon."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Abdullah ibn Umar narrates: The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: When Ali (peace be upon him) came out, a man said to him: "Did the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) confide a secret to you?" He said: "Yes, he taught me a thousand chapters of knowledge, in each chapter there were a thousand other chapters." He said: "Did you memorise them all?" He said: "Yes, and I understood them." That man said: "What is this blackness that is on the face of the moon?" He said: "The blackness on the face of the moon is this word of Allah: وَ جَعَلْنَا اللَّیْلَ وَ النَّهارَ آیَتَیْنِ فَمَحَوْنا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ وَ جَعَلْنا آیَةَ النَّهارِ مُبْصِرَةً [And We have made the night and the day two signs, then We have made the sign of the night to pass away and We have made the sign of the day manifest]."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The [mark of] blackness that is on the moon is Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family).

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): When Allah created the moon, He wrote upon it: la ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), Ali is Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him); and that is the blackness which you see on the face of the moon.

Imam Hasan (peace be upon him): As for those marks that are on the moon — indeed the light of the moon was like the light of the sun, and Allah effaced it and erased it, and He said in the Qur'an: فَمَحَوْنا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ وَ جَعَلْنا آیَةَ النَّهارِ مُبْصِرَةً [Then We effaced the sign of the night and made the sign of the day manifest].

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Asbagh ibn Nubata says: Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) delivered a sermon to us upon the pulpit of Kufa ... Ibn al-Kawwa went towards him and said: "O Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him)! What is this blackness that is clear and manifest in the moon?" Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) said: "Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar! This man, blind and heartless, without insight, asks blind questions. O Ibn al-Kawwa, have you not heard that Allah the Exalted says in the Qur'an: وَ جَعَلْنَا اللَّیْلَ وَ النَّهارَ آیَتَیْنِ فَمَحَوْنا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ وَ جَعَلْنا آیَةَ النَّهارِ مُبْصِرَةً [And We have made the night and the day two signs, then We effaced the sign of the night and made the sign of the day manifest]."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Abu Imran al-Kunduri said: [Ibn al-Kawwa'] asked Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) about the blackness on the face of the moon. He said: "Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: وَ جَعَلْنَا اللَّیْلَ وَ النَّهارَ آیَتَیْنِ فَمَحَوْنا [And We have made the night and the day two signs, then We have made the sign of the night to pass away] — this is the blackness on the face of the moon." He said: "How far is it between the east and the west?" He said: "The distance of one day's travel of the sun, which rises from its rising place and sets in its setting place. Whoever tells you otherwise, count his words as a lie."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): In the book of Ibn Jumhur, with its chain, it is reported: Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) ascended the pulpit and said: ... "Have you not heard the word of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, who says: فَمَحَوْنا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ وَ جَعَلْنا آیَةَ النَّهارِ مُبْصِرَةً [Then We made the sign of the night to pass away, and We made the sign of the day manifest]? The blackness you see in the moon is because Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, created from the light of His Throne two suns, and He commanded Jibra'il to draw his wing over that which had passed in Allah's knowledge, and he wiped it out. For He willed that the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, and the hours and days and months and years and ages, and departure and descent, and coming and going, and the Hajj and the Umrah, and the term of a debt and the wage of the hired worker, and the number of days of pregnancy, and the waiting period of the divorced woman and of the woman whose husband has died, and the like of these, should be distinct and marked out from one another."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Yazid ibn Sallam asked the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): "Why are the light of the moon and the sun not equal and the same?" He said: "When Allah created the two of them, both obeyed Allah and did not disobey any command of His. Allah commanded Jibra'il to wipe out the light of the moon, and he did so. This wiping and effacing of the light of the moon left black spots on its face. If the moon had remained in the same luminous and shining state and its light had not been wiped away, night would not be distinguished from day, nor day from night, the fasting person would not know how many fasts he had kept, and people would not know the number of years and the reckoning [of days]. And this is the word of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, who says: وَ جَعَلْنَا اللَّیْلَ وَ النَّهَارَ آیَتَیْنِ فَمَحَوْنَا آیَةَ اللَّیْلِ وَ جَعَلْنَا آیَةَ النَّهَارِ مُبْصِرَةً لِتَبْتَغُواْ فَضْلًا مِّن رَّبِّکُمْ وَ لِتَعْلَمُواْ عَدَدَ السِّنِینَ وَ الْحِسَابَ [And We have made the night and the day two signs, then We made the sign of the night to pass away and We made the sign of the day manifest, so that you may seek grace from your Lord, and that you might know the numbering of years and the reckoning]." [Yazid ibn Sallam] said: "You have spoken the truth, O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)!"

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He made their sun a seeing sign of their day and their moon an effaced sign of their night, and set them running in the courses of their orbits and measured their movement in the stages of their gradations, so that by them He might distinguish between night and day, and so that the number of years and the reckoning might be known by their measures.