Surah Ar Rum Notes (16-19)

Source: Ibn Kathir

 (16) And as for those who disbelieved and belied Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, Allah's Messengers, Resurrection, etc.), and the Meeting of the Hereafter, such shall be brought forth to the torment (in the Hell-fire).

The Command to pray Five Times Daily

 (17) So glorify Allah [above all that (evil) they associate with Him (O believers)], when you come up to the evening [i.e. offer the (Maghrib) sunset and ('Isha') night prayers], and when you enter the morning [i.e offer the (Fajr) morning prayer].

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:

(18) And His is all the praises and thanks in the heavens and the earth, and (glorify Him) in the afternoon (i.e. offer 'Asr prayer) and when you come up to the time, when the day begins to decline (i.e offer Zuhr prayer). (Ibn 'Abbas said: "These are the five compulsory congregational prayers mentioned in the Quran)."

(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.

(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)

(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 (resurrected).

(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.)