Why does the Qur’an keep making references to things outside itself?

A thread on why the Qur’an contains many verses that talks about natural phenomena and
nature.
The Qur’an keeps drawing the attention of the reader to the phenomenal world and
encourages them to understand it. Example: “Indeed in the creation of the heavens and the
Earth, and in the alteration of the night and day, are signs for those who understand” (ali-
Imran: 190)

“And he created the stars for you, so you may be guided by them through darkness at land
and sea. We have detailed the signs for the people who know” (al-An’am: 97) and many
more.

The Qur’an is telling us something important about its nature. It is telling us without a hint of
ambiguity that it is not a book closed upon itself—that it is open to the world and to the
universe, as the world and the universe are open to the Qur’an.

It is telling us to situate ourselves in the Qur’an and turn our gaze to the universe from
whence the universe is reflected back on the Qur’an. It is only when one is situated in and by
the Qur’an are they able to read the universe as consisting of the signs of Allah.

And then returning the gaze back to the Qur’an, allowing them to understand it differently,
which in turn requires understanding the universe differently, and this process continues until
the end of time. Taken from The Rise and Fall of Culture of Learning in Early Islam.

Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazālī said: “The Qur’an, in pointing to God’s existence, is a universe
that speaks. The same way that the universe is a silent Qur’an”. SubhānAllāh! Surely this is a
miracle of the Qur’an. Selamat mentadabbur al-Qur’an. Wallāhu a’lam.