23 Preface وَمِن آياتِهِ مَنامُكُم بِاللَّيلِ وَالنَّهارِ وَابتِغاؤُكُم مِن فَضلِهِ ۚ إِنَّ في ذٰلِكَ لَآياتٍ لِقَومٍ يَسمَعونَYusuf AliAnd among His Signs is the sleep that ye take by night and by day,1 and the quest that ye (make for livelihood) out of His Bounty: verily in that are signs for those who hearken.2If we consider deeply, sleep and dreams, the refreshment we get from sleep to wakefulness as well as from wakefulness to sleep, as also the state of our thoughts and feelings and subconscious self in these conditions, are both wonderful and mysterious. Normally, we sleep by night and do our ordinary work “in quest of the Bounty of God” by day. But sleep and rest may come and be necessary by day, and we may have to work by night. And our work for our livelihood may pass by insensible transitions to our work or thought or service of a higher and spiritual kind. These processes suggest a background of things which we know but vaguely, but which are as much miracles as other Signs of God.From verse 20 to verse 25 are mentioned a series of Signs or Miracles, which should awaken our souls and lead us to true Reality if we try to understand God. (1) There is our own origin and destiny, which must necessarily be our subjective starting-point: “I think; therefore I am”: no particular exertion of our being is here necessary (30:20). (2) The first beginnings of social life arise through sex and love: see 4:1, and n. 506; to understand this in all its bearing, we must “reflect” (30:21). (3) The next point is to understand our diversities in speech, colour, etc., arising from differences of climate and external conditions; yet there is unity beneath that diversity, which we shall realise by extended knowledge (30:22). (4) Next we turn to our psychological conditions, sleep, rest, visions, insight, etc.; here we want teaching and guidance, to which we must hearken (30:23). (5) Next, we must approach the higher reaches of spiritual hopes and fears, as symbolised by such subtle forces of nature as lightning and electricity, which may kill the foolish or bring prosperity in its train by rain and abundant harvests; to understand the highest spiritual hopes and fears so symbolised, we want the highest wisdom (30:24). (6) And lastly, we may become so transformed that we rise above all petty, worldly, ephemeral things: God calls to us and we rise, as from our dead selves to a Height which we can only describe as the Heaven of stability: here no human processes serve, for the Call of God Himself has come (30:25-27).