Surah Ar-Rum Ayat 17 (30:17 Quran) With Tafsir

Ala-Maududi

(30:17) So^[22] glorify Allah^[23] in the evening and the morning.

22. “So”, here, implies, when you have come to know the good results of belief and righteous acts and the evil consequences of disbelief and denial of the truth, you should adopt the following conduct. It also means: By holding the life Hereafter to be impossible, the polytheists and disbelievers are, in fact, holding Allah to be helpless. Therefore, as against them, you should glorify Allah, and proclaim that He is free from this weakness. This command has been addressed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and through him to all the believers.

23. “To glorify Allah” means to proclaim Allah’s being free from and exalted above the defects and faults and weaknesses, which the mushriks ascribe to Him due to their shirk and denial of the Hereafter. The best form of this proclamation and expression is the Prayer. That is why Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Qatadah, lbn Zaid and other commentators say that here “to glorify” means to offer the prescribed Prayer. A clear indication in favor of this commentary is contained in the verse itself. It lays down certain definite times for the glorification of Allah. Evidently, if it was meant to instill the belief that Allah is free from all defects and weaknesses, there should be no question of the restriction of the times of the morning and evening, and the early and late afternoon, for a Muslim should always have this belief. Similarly, if it was meant to teach glorifying Allah merely verbally, it should be meaningless to specify the times, for a Muslim should express Allah’s glory at all times. Therefore, inevitably the command to glorify Allah with the restriction of the times points to its particular practical form which is none other than the Prayer.

Ibn-Kathir

17. So glorify Allah, when you enter the evening, and when you enter the morning. 18. And His is all the praise in the heavens and the earth; and in `Ashiyya and when Tuzhirun. 19. He brings out the living from the dead, and brings out the dead from the living. And He revives the earth after its death. And thus shall you be brought out.

Here Allah glorifies Himself and commands His servants to glorify and praise Him at these times which come one after the other and are indicative of His might and power in the heavens. This is when the night comes with its darkness, then in the morning the day comes with its light. This glorification is followed by befitting praise, as Allah says:

(And His is all the praise in the heavens and the earth;) meaning, He is the One who is to be praised for what He has created in the heavens and on earth. Then Allah says:

(and in `Ashiyya and when Tuzhirun.) — the `Ashiyy is the time when the darkness is most intense, and Izhar is the brightest point of the day. Glory be to the One Who created both of them, the Cleaver of the daybreak and the One Who makes night a time of rest. Allah says:

(By the day as it shows up its brightness. By the night as it conceals it.) (91:3-4)

(By the night as it envelops. By the day as it appears in brightness. ) (92:1-2)

(By the forenoon (after sunrise). By the night when it darkens.) (93:1-2) And there are many similar Ayat.

(He brings out the living from the dead, and brings out the dead from the living.) This is what we see of His power to create things and their opposites. These Ayat which come one after the other are all of the same; in each of them Allah mentions the creation of things and their opposites, to indicate to His creation the perfection of His power. Thus He creates the plant from the seed and the seed from the plant; He creates the egg from the chicken and the chicken from the egg; He creates man from sperm and sperm from man; He creates the believer from the disbelievers and the disbeliever from the believers.

(And He revives the earth after its death.) This is like the Ayat:

(And a sign for them is the dead land. We give it life, and We bring forth from it grains, so that they eat thereof.) until:

(and We have caused springs of water to gush forth therein. ) (36:33-34)

(And you see the earth barren, but when We send down water on it, it is stirred, and it swells and puts forth every lovely kind.) until:

(and certainly, Allah will resurrect those who are in the graves.) (22:5-7)

(And it is He Who sends the winds as heralds of glad tidings, going before His mercy. Till when they have carried a heavy-laden cloud) until:

(so that you may remember or take heed.) (7:57) Allah says here:

(And thus shall you be brought out.)