فَلَمَّا جَنَّ عَلَيْهِ ٱلَّيْلُ رَءَا كَوْكَبًا ۖ قَالَ هَـٰذَا رَبِّى ۖ فَلَمَّآ أَفَلَ قَالَ لَآ أُحِبُّ ٱلْـَٔافِلِينَ 76
Translations
So when the night covered him [with darkness], he saw a star. He said, "This is my lord." But when it set, he said, "I like not those that set [i.e., disappear]."
Transliteration
Fa-lammā janna 'alayhi al-laylu ra'ā kawkaban qāla hādhā rabbī fa-lammā afl qāla lā uhibbu al-āfilīn
Tafsir (Explanation)
This ayah depicts Prophet Ibrahim's intellectual journey toward recognizing the One God by observing the celestial bodies. When night fell and he saw a star, Ibrahim initially remarked 'This is my Lord,' but when it set/disappeared, he rejected it as a deity, establishing the principle that God cannot be something that disappears or changes. Classical scholars like Al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir explain this as Ibrahim's logical deduction that a true Lord must be eternal and unchanging, leading him through the observation of stars, then the moon, and finally the sun in the subsequent verses to arrive at absolute monotheism.
Revelation Context
This ayah is part of the narrative of Ibrahim's spiritual development in Surah Al-An'am, a Meccan chapter revealed early in the Prophet Muhammad's mission. The passage (6:74-79) presents Ibrahim's methodical rejection of idolatry and his search for the true God, serving as a compelling argument for Meccan polytheists to abandon idol worship and recognize Allah's oneness. This context resonates with the surah's overarching theme of rejecting shirk (polytheism).
Related Hadiths
While no hadith directly quotes this incident, Sahih Bukhari and other collections contain reports of the Prophet Muhammad explaining Ibrahim's intellectual path to tawhid. Additionally, hadiths emphasizing the signs of Allah in creation (as in 2:164) relate thematically to Ibrahim's observational method of discovering divine truth.
Themes
Key Lesson
This ayah teaches that true faith in God must be based on reason and reflection rather than blind tradition, and that anything subject to change, disappearance, or dependence cannot be divine. For modern believers, it emphasizes the importance of intellectual engagement with faith and the pursuit of absolute truth in rejecting all false objects of worship.
Related Ayahs
قَدْ خَسِرَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِلِقَآءِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءَتْهُمُ ٱلسَّاعَةُ بَغْتَةً قَالُوا۟ يَـٰحَسْرَتَنَا عَلَىٰ مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِيهَا وَهُمْ يَحْمِلُونَ أَوْزَارَهُمْ عَلَىٰ ظُهُورِهِمْ ۚ أَلَا سَآءَ مَا يَزِرُونَ
Those will have lost who deny the meeting with Allāh, until when the Hour [of resurrection] comes upon them unexpectedly, they will say, "Oh, [how great is] our regret over what we neglected concerning it [i.e., the Hour]," while they bear their burdens [i.e., sins] on their backs. Unquestionably, evil is that which they bear.
وَكَيْفَ أَخَافُ مَآ أَشْرَكْتُمْ وَلَا تَخَافُونَ أَنَّكُمْ أَشْرَكْتُم بِٱللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِۦ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَـٰنًا ۚ فَأَىُّ ٱلْفَرِيقَيْنِ أَحَقُّ بِٱلْأَمْنِ ۖ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
And how should I fear what you associate while you do not fear that you have associated with Allāh that for which He has not sent down to you any authority? So which of the two parties has more right to security, if you should know?"
ٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ كَذَبُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ ۚ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ
See how they will lie about themselves. And lost from them will be what they used to invent.
وَهُوَ ٱلْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِۦ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْحَكِيمُ ٱلْخَبِيرُ
And He is the subjugator over His servants. And He is the Wise, the Aware.