And He has made subject to you the sun and the moon,
both diligently persuing their courses;
and the night and the day has He (also) made subject to you.
-- Sura 14:33

They were never subject to me. They pursue their courses whether or not I want them to, and I am sure, the reader does not have more influence on them than I do. The contrary is true. Mankind is subject to them in various ways.

The presence or absence of sunlight (day and night) determines to a great degree what we can or cannot do. The moon heavily influences high tide and low tide of the oceans. People living in coastal areas are subject to it, they cannot change it but have to adjust their lives to it.

The invention of electricity has changed much of this "being subject" to the availability of sunlight, at least in the industrialized areas of the world. We have found a certain substitute for the natural light. Nevertheless, although we can "locally" make night into day and day into night because of our modern technology, sun and moon are still not influenced by us at all. They are not subject to us.

It would have been acceptable to say that God placed sun and moon in the sky for our benefit, but to claim they are subject to us is simply not true since we cannot influence them in any way.

Contradictions in the Qur'an
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