Al-Mu'minun 23:80
A short verse that lines up four cosmic-and-human events: giving life, giving death, night, day.
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُحْىِۦ وَيُمِيتُ وَلَهُ ٱخْتِلَـٰفُ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
And it is He who gives life and brings death, and to Him is the alternation of night and day. Do you not understand
Al-Mu'minun 23:80 · Translation: talal-itani
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Then a single closing question: "a-fa-lā taʿqilūn" — will you not reason? In its double pairing, the verse places human existence and the rhythm of the cosmos under one question: the turning between birth and death and the turning between day and night are named side by side. The word "ikhtilāf" — "to succeed one another, to take one another's place" — fits both biological generations and astronomical rhythm.
Observation
The biological life cycle — birth, growth, death, and the conversion of organic matter back into minerals — is one of the foundational concepts of ecosystem ecology; the remains of an organism become material for new organisms through decomposer microorganisms. The day-night cycle results from Earth's rotation on its own axis and regulates the circadian (≈ 24-hour) biological internal clock of living beings.
Exegesis
Al-Rāzī examines the word "ikhtilāf" closely — it means that what replaces a thing is different from the thing it replaces; day is not followed by day but by night. The same logic holds for human generations. The verse offers a test for contemplation: a mind that can look at once upon its own lifespan and upon the sky finds the same signature in both.
Sources
Tafsīr: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb.