Surat al-Imran (3) : 190- Part 2

إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلاَفِ ٱلَّيلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لأُوْلِي ٱلأَلْبَابِ

"In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the succession/alternation of the night and the day are signs for those endowed with perceptive Hearts"

Several exegetes relate the following Hadith from the Lady Aisha (ra):

" When this verse was descended, the Prophet (saaws) got up in the night to pray....eventually Bilal approached him asking leave to call for the dawn prayers. He found the Prophet crying, so he asked :" Do you still cry and Allah has wiped away your wrongdoings, those in the past and those in the future". The Prophet answered:" Should I then not be a thankful slave! and Allah has (also) descended on me this verse ( In the creation of the heavens and earth....) Woe is him, who reads it without reflecting on it"

From the commentary of Imam al-Qurtubi

It has come down to us, documented in the authentic collections of Bukhari and Muslim and agreed upon by scholars, that upon awakening one should wipe his face and start his day with the 10 last verses of Surat aal- Imran (3):190-200.

From the commentary of Imam al-Razi

Allah (swt) had already mentioned this verse in Surat al-Baqara (2): 164
{ إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلاَفِ ٱللَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ وَٱلْفُلْكِ ٱلَّتِي تَجْرِي فِي ٱلْبَحْرِ بِمَا يَنفَعُ ٱلنَّاسَ وَمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مِن مَّآءٍ فَأَحْيَا بِهِ ٱلأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا وَبَثَّ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ دَآبَّةٍ وَتَصْرِيفِ ٱلرِّيَاحِ وَٱلسَّحَابِ ٱلْمُسَخَّرِ بَيْنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلأَرْضِ لآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ }
"In the creation of the Heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day and the vessels that speed through the sea with what is useful to man: and in the waters which Allah sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless, and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon: and in the change of the winds, and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth: [in all this] there are Signs for people who use their Intellect ( who think)."

Some differences between the two verses: 1) eight different proofs are enumerated in the verse in Surat al Baqara instead of the three in this verse 2) the verse in Surat al Baqara is directed to people who think instead of people with perceiving Hearts.

Imam Razi continues: The Traveller to Allah (al-Salik) requires in the beginning many proofs; but as his Heart receives the Light of Divine Knowledge, his preoccupation with this evidence becomes as a veil which prevents his Heart from "seeking to drown, immersing itself" (Istighraq) in the Divine Knowledge. In the beginning of his affair, the traveller on the Path asks for the multiplicity of proofs; with the "falling of the Light ( noor)" in his Heart, he asks for fewer, until the time when the darkness bred in his Heart from the preoccupation with other than Allah is wiped out, at which time the Lights of Divine Knowledge are revealed in His Heart and the allusion to this matter is in verses like :
"In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the succession of the night and the day are signs for those endowed with perceptive Hearts"
and in Verse 12 from Surat TA-HA (20)
{ إِنِّيۤ أَنَاْ رَبُّكَ فَٱخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِٱلْوَادِ ٱلْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى }
" It is I your Lord; so take off your (two) shoes, you are in the Sacred Valley"
The two shoes are the introductions by which the Intellect arrives to Divine Knowledge ( Maarifa); once he arrives to it, he is commanded to take them off. Mussa is told: " If you want to place your foot in the Sacred Valley of Essential Unicity ( Wahdaniat), give up the preoccupation with proofs"
" Now that you know this rule concerning the Divine Knower who once he becomes a Knower must gradually decrease his attention to proofs in order to perfect his Istighraq so that he is able Know "What is being pointed to" you also see that in the verse from Surat aal-Imran (3) the terrestrial proofs are the ones that have been dispensed with and the heavenly ones are maintained because they are greater in leading to subjugation (Aqhar), to admiration tinged with Awe ( Abhar); they contain greater wonders, and the movement of the Heart from them to the Majesty and Nobility of Allah is more powerful....
The verse in Surat al Baqara ends with the reference to "people who think" while this verse ends with the reference to " people with perceptive Hearts"; for the Intellect is the outer, while the Perceptive Heart (Lubb) is inner. In the beginning of the matter, the Salik is an intellect and in the perfection of this matter he becomes a Lubb.