Ali 'Imran 3:27
The verse's key verb is "tūliju" — to insert one thing into another, to slip inside.
تُولِجُ ٱلَّيْلَ فِى ٱلنَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ ٱلنَّهَارَ فِى ٱلَّيْلِ ۖ وَتُخْرِجُ ٱلْحَىَّ مِنَ ٱلْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ ٱلْمَيِّتَ مِنَ ٱلْحَىِّ ۖ وَتَرْزُقُ مَن تَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
“You merge the night into the day, and You merge the day into the night; and you bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living; and You provide for whom you will without measure.”
Ali 'Imran 3:27 · Translation: talal-itani
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The Arabic root "walaja" means "to enter into." Night does not replace day; it seeps into it. The verse frames the day-and-night transition not as a border but as an interpenetration. Immediately afterward, the verse turns to drawing the living from the dead and the dead from the living — two different phenomena joined by the same grammatical pattern. The thought: the line between opposites is not as sharp as we suppose.
Observation
The transition between night and day does not occur abruptly but gradually; this transitional zone is known in astronomy as the 'terminator' (the boundary line between light and dark). As the Earth rotates, this line moves continuously; because the atmosphere refracts light, the boundary does not form a sharp line but rather an overlapping transitional band spanning the twilight period.
Exegesis
Classical exegetes stress the distinction between "ilāj" (insertion) and "intiqāl" (transition): day does not take the place of night — it slips inside it. Al-Zamakhsharī draws attention to the verse's grammatical architecture: night–day and the living–dead are set in the same verbal pattern. An invitation to contemplation: in every transition around you, look for an interpenetration.
Sources
Tafsīr: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb; Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf.