you may seek bounty from your Lord and that you may know the number of years and the account [of time]. And everything We have set out in detail.} (Al-Isra 12).

And the saying of the Exalted: {It is He who made the sun a shining light and the moon a derived light and determined for it stations that you may know the number of years and the account [of time].} (Yunus 5).

And the Exalted has informed us that this night and day and all that He has created are evidences and signs, by His saying: {Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the ships which sail through the sea with that which benefits people, and what Allah has sent down from the heavens of rain, giving life thereby to the earth after its death and dispersing therein every [kind of] moving creature, and [in] the directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth are signs for a people who use reason.} (Al-Baqarah 164).

And He—Glory be to Him—has made them outward parables indicating inward meanings, so that we may contemplate the inward purposes He intended, according to His saying: {And Allah sets forth parables for mankind that they may reflect} (Ibrahim 25).