S14
Shadows extending and contracting
25:45–46 asks us to watch a shadow: God "extends the shadow", could have made it still, made the sun its "indication", and then draws it in "for a brief grasp".
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَيْفَ مَدَّ ٱلظِّلَّ وَلَوْ شَآءَ لَجَعَلَهُۥ سَاكِنًا ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَا ٱلشَّمْسَ عَلَيْهِ دَلِيلًا٤٥ ثُمَّ قَبَضْنَٰهُ إِلَيْنَا قَبْضًا يَسِيرًا٤٦
Transliteration: alam tara ilā rabbika kayfa madda l-ẓila walaw shāa lajaʿalahu sākinan thumma jaʿalnā l-shamsa ʿalayhi dalīlan · thumma qabaḍnāhu ilaynā qabḍan yasīran
Have you not considered your Lord - how He extends the shadow, and if He willed, He could have made it stationary? Then We made the sun for it an indication. Then We hold it in hand for a brief grasp.
Translation: Saheeh International
Key words
Madda al-ẓill: "extends the shadow". Sākinan: "stationary". Dalīlan: "an indication", a guide. Qabḍan yasīran: "a brief grasp", a gentle drawing-in.
Have you not considered your Lord - how He extends the shadow, and if He willed, He could have made it stationary? Then We made the sun for it an indication.
25:45
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir. The shadow refers to "the period from the beginning of the dawn until the sun rises", a view he attributes to Ibn ʿAbbas, Ibn ʿUmar, Mujahid, Qatada "and others". On "the sun its guide", he reports Qatada and al-Suddi: the sun is a guide that follows the shade until the shade disappears. On the "gradual withdrawal", he says it "refers to the shade".
Al-Jalālayn. The shadow lasts "from the point of daybreak to the point of sunrise."
What they share. For both, the extended shadow is the soft half-light before sunrise, which the rising sun then draws in. Neither reads the verse as describing the Earth's rotation.
How it works
Each point is tied to the verse's words "extends", "stationary", "the sun… an indication" and "a brief grasp".
- "The sun for it an indication". Established A shadow's length is set by the sun's height in the sky: the length equals the object's height divided by the tangent of the sun's elevation angle. When the sun is low, shadows are long; when it is high, short. (Standard geometry; no named source was read.)
- How shadows change through the day. Established Shadows are longest at sunrise and sunset and shortest at local noon. (Standard geometry; no named source was read.)
- Why shadows move. Established Shadows move because the Earth turns relative to the sun. (The commentators read 25:45 as the shade before sunrise; neither mentions rotation, and this page does not read rotation into the verse.)
- Shadows as a clock in Islamic law. Established The start of the afternoon prayer (ʿAṣr) is defined by shadows. For the Maliki, Shafiʿi and Hanbali schools it begins when "the length of any object's shadow equals the length of the object itself plus the length of that object's shadow at noon"; in "the dominant opinion in the Hanafi school", when the shadow "is twice the length of the object plus the length of that object's shadow at noon" (Wikipedia, "Asr prayer"). The basis is the hadith in which Ibn ʿAbbas (ra) reports that the Prophet (pbuh) said Jibril led him in prayer twice: once he "prayed Asr when everything was similar (to the length of) its shadow", and on the second day "when the shadow of everything was about twice as long as it" (Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhi 149; al-Albani: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ). The schools differ on which end of this window marks the start.
Points of awe
The shadow before sunrise, which the commentators saw in this verse, is drawn in gently, not snapped away: "a brief grasp".
Text version
- A shadow's length equals the object's height divided by the tangent of the sun's elevation angle.
- At sunrise and sunset shadows stretch very long; at solar noon they reach their shortest length of the day.
- The pattern changes with latitude and season, because Earth's axis is tilted about 23.4°. Twice a year in Mecca the noon sun stands directly overhead and shadows almost disappear.
- In the majority view, ʿAṣr begins when the shadow equals the object's length plus its noon shadow; in the Ḥanafī view, twice the length plus the noon shadow.
- The drawing is seen from the south: the drawn shadow is its east–west part, so it shrinks and grows smoothly as it swings through noon. The readout gives the shadow's full length.
Reflection
"Have you not considered your Lord - how He extends the shadow" (25:45). The verse asks us to look at something we never look at. A shadow is the most ordinary thing in the world. It lies across the ground in the early morning, and then, without a sound, it shrinks.
The commentators thought of the soft shade before sunrise, when the whole world lies in shadow and the light is still gentle. Then the sun comes up, and the shadow is drawn in — "a brief grasp", slowly, not all at once.
The verse adds a phrase that changes everything: "if He willed, He could have made it stationary". A shadow that never moved would mean a sky that never changed: no morning, no evening, no way to tell time. Muslims still use shadows to know when to pray the afternoon prayer. The moving shadow is a clock given to everyone, free, everywhere.
There is also something for the heart here. Change in our lives often comes like this: not suddenly, but a little at a time, the way a shadow shortens. The verse invites us to notice the gentleness of that change, and the One who sets its measure.
Questions readers ask next
What shadow is the verse about?
Ibn Kathir and al-Jalālayn: the shade "from the beginning of the dawn until the sun rises".
Why does it say God "could have made it stationary"?
Because the shadow's movement is not necessary; it depends on the sun and the Earth's motion. A still shadow would mean an unchanging sky.
How are shadows used to time prayers?
ʿAṣr begins when a shadow equals the object's length plus its noon shadow (Maliki, Shafiʿi, Hanbali), or twice the length plus the noon shadow (the dominant Hanafi view), based on the hadith of Jibril (al-Tirmidhi 149).
What does "a brief grasp" mean?
The gentle, gradual drawing-in of the shadow as the sun rises; Ibn Kathir says it "refers to the shade".
Sources
- Saheeh International — 25:45–46.
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), and Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (English), on 25:45–46, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-45-sora-25.html.
- "Asr prayer", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asr — the schools' definitions of the start of ʿAṣr.
- Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhi 149, via tohed.com, https://en.tohed.com/hadith/tirmidhi/149, with al-Albani's grade.
- Ibn Kathīr and al-Ṭabarī on 25:45–46
- David A. King, In Synchrony with the Heavens (Brill), on Islamic astronomical timekeeping
- Diyanet İlmihal, on prayer times (namaz vakitleri)