And the moon We have determined mansions for till it returns like an old date-stalk, withered and curved;(36:39)

see what a subtle style it displays. It is like this: one of the moon’s mansions is in the Pleiades. The Qur’an likens the crescent moon to a withered and whitened old date stalk. With this simile it depicts for the eye of the imagination a tree behind the green veil of the skies; one of its white, curved, luminous branches has rent the veil and raised its head; the Pleiades are like a bunch of grapes on the branch and the other stars all luminous fruits of that hidden tree of creation. If you have any discernment, you will understand what an appropriate, graceful, subtle, and elevated style and manner of expression this is in the view of the desert-dwellers, for whom the date palm is the most important means of livelihood.

And for example, as is proven at the end of the Nineteenth Word, the words “runs its course” in,

And the sun runs its course to a place appointed (36:38)

opens a window onto an elevated style, as follows: with the words “runs its course,” that is, the sun revolves, it puts in mind the Maker’s tremendousness by recalling the orderly disposals of divine power in the alternations of winter and summer and day and night, and directs one’s gaze to the missives of the Eternally Besought One inscribed by the pen of power on the pages of the seasons. It proclaims the wisdom of the All-Glorious Creator.

And with the word “lamp” in,

And set the sun as a lamp,(71:16)

it opens a window onto the style like this: it makes one understand the Maker’s majesty and Creator’s bounty by recalling that the world is a palace and the things within it are adornments, food, and necessities prepared for man and living creatures and that the sun is a subservient candle, demonstrating that the sun is an evidence of God’s unity, and that the idolators’ greatest, most brilliant object of worship is merely a subjugated lamp, an inanimate creature. That is to say, the word “lamp” calls to mind the Creator’s mercy within the grandeur of His dominicality; it recalls His favours within the breadth of His mercy, and in so doing informs of His munificence within the majesty of His sovereignty, thereby proclaiming divine unity, and saying indirectly: “An inanimate, subservient lamp is in no way fit to be worshipped.”

And in the “course” of “runs its course” it calls to mind the wondrous orderly disposals of divine power in the revolutions of night and day and winter and summer, and in so doing makes known the grandeur of a single Maker’s power in His dominicality. That is to say, it turns man’s mind