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
وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَا فِى كُلِّ قَرْيَةٍ أَكَـٰبِرَ مُجْرِمِيهَا لِيَمْكُرُوا۟ فِيهَا ۖ وَمَا يَمْكُرُونَ إِلَّا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ
And thus We have placed within every city the greatest of its criminals to conspire therein. But they conspire not except against themselves, and they perceive [it] not.
قُلْ هُوَ ٱلْقَادِرُ عَلَىٰٓ أَن يَبْعَثَ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابًا مِّن فَوْقِكُمْ أَوْ مِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِكُمْ أَوْ يَلْبِسَكُمْ شِيَعًا وَيُذِيقَ بَعْضَكُم بَأْسَ بَعْضٍ ۗ ٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ نُصَرِّفُ ٱلْـَٔايَـٰتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَفْقَهُونَ
Say, "He is the [one] Able to send upon you affliction from above you or from beneath your feet or to confuse you [so you become] sects and make you taste the violence of one another." Look how We diversify the signs that they might understand.
ذَٰلِكَ أَن لَّمْ يَكُن رَّبُّكَ مُهْلِكَ ٱلْقُرَىٰ بِظُلْمٍ وَأَهْلُهَا غَـٰفِلُونَ
That is because your Lord would not destroy the cities for wrongdoing while their people were unaware.
قُلْ أَرَءَيْتَكُمْ إِنْ أَتَىٰكُمْ عَذَابُ ٱللَّهِ أَوْ أَتَتْكُمُ ٱلسَّاعَةُ أَغَيْرَ ٱللَّهِ تَدْعُونَ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ
Say, "Have you considered: if there came to you the punishment of Allāh or there came to you the Hour - is it other than Allāh you would invoke, if you should be truthful?"