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78. An-Naba The Great News · Makkan
# Ayah/ 40

An-Naba 78:6–11 · Juz 30 · Makkan

Signs Within Reach: The Earth, the Body, and the Rhythm of Day and Night

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  • Editorial teamRe-segmented into a passage; study updated.

Layered by depth — the essentials are open, deeper layers are one tap away

The verseALWAYS SHOWN

أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ ٱلْأَرْضَ مِهَـٰدًا

Have We not made the earth a resting place,QuranicpediaVerified

وَٱلْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا

and the mountains as pegs,QuranicpediaVerified

وَخَلَقْنَـٰكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا

and created you in pairs,QuranicpediaVerified

وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَكُمْ سُبَاتًا

and made your sleep a rest,QuranicpediaVerified

وَجَعَلْنَا ٱلَّيْلَ لِبَاسًا

and made the night a covering,QuranicpediaVerified

وَجَعَلْنَا ٱلنَّهَارَ مَعَاشًا

and made the day for livelihood,QuranicpediaVerified

In plain languageALWAYS SHOWN

After warning the deniers of the Day of Judgment, this passage turns to the everyday world as proof of God's power and care. In six tightly linked verses it points to the earth spread out as a stable bed, the mountains driven in like pegs to steady it, human beings created in pairs, sleep given as rest, the night as a covering, and the day opened for earning a living. The cadence of "Have We not…" and the repeated "and We made" presses the listener to recognize that the One who arranged all this so precisely can surely raise the dead and judge them.

al-Saʿdī

Allah recounts His favours and the signs of His power that prove the Resurrection He has just affirmed. He spread the earth as a cradle (mihād) so His servants could settle, rest, walk, farm and build upon it, and fixed the mountains as stakes (awtād) to steady it and keep it from quaking with them. He created humankind in pairs, male and female, so the species would continue and find tranquillity. He made sleep a cessation of movement and a rest from toil, the night a covering that wraps people in its darkness so they may be still, and the day a time of spreading out to seek provision. The One who arranged all this with such wisdom is fully able to raise the dead and judge them.

Ibn Kathīr

Ibn Kathīr explains that Allah made the earth spread out, level and firm, a settled place (mihād) prepared for its inhabitants, and set the mountains upon it as pegs that anchor it and keep it from shifting with its people. He notes that mankind was created in pairs, male and female, and that sleep was made a means of rest so the body recovers from the day's exertion. The night is a covering whose darkness conceals and gives quiet, while the day is made bright for movement and earning a livelihood — all of these being clear proofs of the Creator's power and grace, and evidence that He can bring about the Hereafter.

al-Ṭabarī

Al-Ṭabarī reports the lexical sense that mihād means a bed or cradle made smooth and spread out for people to dwell upon, and that awtād are stakes like tent-pegs by which Allah steadied the earth so it would not sway. He transmits from the early authorities that 'pairs' (azwāj) means He created you as males and females, and that 'subāt' for sleep means a severing of activity and rest for the body. He explains 'libās' (covering) for the night as its darkness clothing and enveloping people, and 'maʿāsh' for the day as the time in which they seek their sustenance and means of life.

al-Qurṭubī

Al-Qurṭubī discusses that the earth was made a mihād — a resting place subdued and prepared like a child's cradle — and that the mountains as awtād hold it firm just as pegs hold down a tent. He cites views on 'subāt': that sleep is a rest and a cutting-off of motion, some relating it to the sense of repose and stillness. He glosses the night as a 'libās' because its darkness covers and screens people as a garment covers the body, and the day as 'maʿāsh', the time appointed for the pursuit of livelihood; he draws from these the lesson of recognising Allah's bounty and ordering of life.

Ayah78:12 — The same 'and We built/made' sequence continues to the seven strong heavens, extending the catalogue of signs in the very next verses.Ayah25:47 — Night as a covering (libas), sleep as rest (subat), and day for rising — an almost word-for-word parallel to verses 9-11.Ayah16:15 — God cast firm mountains into the earth lest it sway with you — mirrors the 'mountains as pegs' image of verse 7.

This passage points to ordinary, observable features of the natural world and presents them as deliberate provisions, so it invites a measured comparison with later human understanding — without claiming that the verses predicted modern science. The earth described as a mihād (a cradle or settled resting place) matches the lived reality that the planet's surface is, for human purposes, stable, habitable, and supportive of dwelling and agriculture; the verse frames this as a designed convenience rather than offering a geophysical model. The image of mountains as awtād (pegs or stakes that steady a tent) resonates with the modern observation that large mountain ranges have deep crustal roots and that the lithosphere tends toward isostatic balance, so mountains are not merely surface bumps but extend into the crust. This resonance is genuine and worth noting, but it should not be overstated: the Qur'an uses the language of stabilisation and steadying, which is a functional and evocative description, not a technical statement of plate tectonics or root depth. The reference to creation "in pairs" (azwāj) aligns with the familiar duality of male and female across human and animal life. The framing of sleep as restorative rest, night as a concealing covering, and day as the time for activity tracks well with circadian biology — the body's recovery during sleep and the alternation of rest and labour with the light cycle. The Qur'an's purpose here is to evoke gratitude and to infer the Creator's power to resurrect, not to function as a scientific text; the alignment is best read as harmony rather than proof.

Notice how every line of this passage names something you experienced today — the firm ground, your own rest, the dark and the light. Sit with one of them and ask: if the One who arranged this never asked my thanks, would I have noticed His care at all?

QuestionWhy does the Qur'an describe mountains as pegs (awtād)?QuestionWhat does it mean that the earth was made a "mihād" (resting place)?QuestionWhy does the Qur'an describe sleep as rest and the night as a covering?

MisconceptionCritics argue that calling the earth a "resting place" (mihād) spread out and pinned by mountains shows the Qur'an teaches a flat earth.

  1. 1Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān — ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī (c. 1950 CE)
  2. 2Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm — Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr (c. 1370 CE)
  3. 3Jāmiʿ al-bayān — Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (c. 910 CE)
  4. 4al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān — Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (c. 1260 CE)
An-Naba 78:6