30:17

فَسُبۡحَٰنَ ٱللَّهِ حِينَ تُمۡسُونَ وَحِينَ تُصۡبِحُونَ

Fasubhana Allahi heena tumsoona waheena tusbihoona

So exalted is Allah when you reach the evening and when you reach the morning.

Word by word
  1. فَسُبۡحَٰنَSo glory be to
  2. ٱللَّهِAllah
  3. حِينَwhen
  4. تُمۡسُونَyou reach the evening
  5. وَحِينَand when
  6. تُصۡبِحُونَyou reach the morning
Ar-Rum · 30:17Makkah

Glorify Allah as evening falls and morning breaks.

The day's turning points as times of praise


The rhythm
eveningnight comes with darkness
and
morningday comes with light
both call for
glorifying AllahSubhan Allah
What the shift means
just a clocktime to go home, time to wake
a sign of His powera time to remember Him

Ibn Kathir titles this passage the command to pray five times daily. Allah glorifies Himself and tells His servants to glorify Him at times that follow each other. Night comes with its darkness, then morning with its light, and each change shows His might and power.

You step out of the office and the streetlights are coming on. Or your alarm rings and grey light is at the curtain. You reach for your phone. The verse offers a different first move: glorify the One who turned the day.

Evening and morning are just when my day starts and ends.

Every evening and morning are invitations to remember Allah.

Try this

Tomorrow, before you check your phone, say Subhan Allah three times.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir

So glorify Allah, when you enter the evening, and when you enter the morning (17)And His is all the praise in the heavens and the earth; and in 'Ashiyya and when Tuẓhirūn (18)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 (19)

The Command to pray Five Times Daily

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:

وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ 

(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:

 وَعَشِيًّا وَحِينَ تُظْهِرُونَ

(and in 'Ashiyya and when Tuẓhirūn.) – the 'Ashiyy is the time when the darkness is most intense, and Iẓhār 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:

وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلَّاهَا - وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَاهَا

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

وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَىٰ - وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا تَجَلَّىٰ

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

وَالضُّحَىٰ - وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ

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

يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَيُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ

(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.

وَيُحْيِي الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا

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

وَآيَةٌ لَهُمُ الْأَرْضُ الْمَيْتَةُ أَحْيَيْنَاهَا وَأَخْرَجْنَا مِنْهَا حَبًّا فَمِنْهُ يَأْكُلُونَ

(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:

وَفَجَّرْنَا فِيهَا مِنَ الْعُيُونِ

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

وَتَرَى الْأَرْضَ هَامِدَةً فَإِذَا أَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا الْمَاءَ اهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ وَأَنْبَتَتْ مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجٍ بَهِيجٍ

(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:

وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْعَثُ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ

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

وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَقَلَّتْ سَحَابًا ثِقَالًا

(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:

 لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ

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

وَكَذَٰلِكَ تُخْرَجُونَ

(And thus shall you be brought out.)