its decrease, its course, its cycles, its rising, and its setting. This was done so that we might know the nature of the Higher and Lower Creation and the arrangement of His existence (the Exalted) for each of them according to their rank.

Had it not been for that, we would not have known the number of years and calculations. Just as without the rising and setting of the Sun there would never have been night or day, and without the crescent of the Moon there would not have been the Arabic [lunar] months. Similarly, without the course of the Sun through the Zodiac, there would not have been the Roman [solar] months. Allah the Exalted only ordained the crescent of the Moon, its path, its stations, the days of the Arabic months and their cycles, and the Sun's rising, setting, and course through the Zodiac and the days of the Roman months and their cycles, so that we may know the number of years and calculations whose Outward points to their Inward regarding the formation of the upper and lower worlds and His manifestation—the Exalted—to each of them according to their capacity. Then He made the evidence and foundation for all of that the Night and Day, whose outward forms are parables for their inward meanings, according to the saying of the Exalted:

{And We have made the night and the day two signs, and We erased the sign of the night and made the sign of the day visible that