The Criterion
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[25:46]
and then, [after having caused it to lengthen,] We draw it in towards Ourselves with a gradual drawing-in.

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* v.46 : I.e., “We cause it to contract in accordance with the ‘laws of nature’ which We Ourselves have instituted.” As in so many other instances in the Qur’ān, the abrupt change from the third-person pronoun “He” to “We” is meant to illustrate the fact that God is undefinable, and that it is only the inadequacy of human speech – and, hence, of the human mind – that makes it necessary to refer to the Supreme Being by pronouns which in reality are applicable only to finite, created “persons” (cf. Foreword, note 2).