Verses 1–12
بِسۡمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate
This chapter discusses how people turn away from the scripture that has been sent down to them—meaning the Qur’an. This is the central concern around which it revolves, and to which it returns time and again in the flow of its discourse. The chapter begins with the words: A [revelation] sent down from the All-beneficent, the Most Merciful (). Later, it says: The faithless say: “Do not listen to this Qur’an…” (). Then, it says: Indeed those who commit sacrilege in Our signs are not hidden from Us… () and Indeed those who defy the Reminder when it comes to them… (). Finally, it closes with the words: Say, “Tell me, if it is from Allah and you disbelieve in it…” ().
The logical corollary of people turning away from the Book of God is that they also deny the three principles that form the foundation of its call to truth, namely monotheism, prophethood, and resurrection. And this is why God talks at length about these topics in this chapter, coupled with glad tidings for the believers and warnings for the disbelievers.
Sūrah Fuṣṣilat is of Meccan provenance based on the content of its verses, and according to the narrations, it is one of the chapters revealed in the early stages of the Prophet’s mission in Mecca.
Commentary
حم ١ تَنْزِيلٌ مِنَ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ ٢
(41:1–2) Ḥā Mīm: A [revelation] sent down from the All-beneficent, the Most Merciful,
In terms of its syntactical structure, the second verse is the predicate (khabar) of an implicit subject (mubtadaʾ). At the same time, the verbal noun tanzīl is used in the sense of the verb’s passive participle (that is, sent down). Hence, the meaning reads: This is sent down from the All-beneficent, the Most Merciful. As for the two divine names mentioned that are invoked here: the All-beneficent (al-Raḥmān) exemplifies God’s boundless mercy that encompasses both the believer and the disbeliever, while the Most Merciful (al-Raḥīm) signifies His mercy that is reserved for the faithful alone. In doing so, God indicates that this revelation that has been sent down to humankind will set right people’s worldly life just as it will set right their afterlife.
كِتَابٌ فُصِّلَتْ آيَاتُهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ ٣
(41:3) a Book whose signs have been elaborated, an Arabic Qur’an, for a people who know,
This is a second predicate for the same subject (that is, This). Tafṣīl (to elaborate) conveys a meaning that is the opposite to that of iḥkām (to make definitive) and ijmāl (to summarize). By elaborating the signs of the Qur’an, God means to distinguish its dimensions and parts from one another by sending it down to the level of comprehensible speech, such that the listener who is aware of the rules of language can understand its meanings and discern its purposes. This is something alluded to elsewhere in the Qur’an, when God says: a Book, whose signs have been made definitive and then elaborated, from One who is all-wise, all-aware (), and when He says: We have made it an Arabic Qur’an so that you may apply reason, and indeed it is with Us in the Mother Book, surely sublime and definitive… ().
In the present verse, the phrase an Arabic Qur’an is adverbial (ḥāl) and refers either to the state of the book or of its verses. The particle ‘for’ (li) in for a people who know (li qawmin yaʿlamūn) is there either to explain the motivation behind the act (that is, for the sake of ‘a people who know’) or for specificity (that is, only ‘for a people who know’). As for the object of the verb know, this is either implicit, in which case it means for a people who know its meanings because they are familiar with the language in which it was revealed—Arabic, or the verb is without an object entirely, in which case it means ‘for a people who have knowledge.’
The upshot of the first meaning is that God has shown special concern for the Arabs by revealing the Qur’an in Arabic, which is also the meaning intimated by the verse below: Had We made it a foreign Qur’an, they would have surely said, “Why have not its signs been articulated?” “What! Foreign and Arabic!?’’ (). Also of similar meaning to this is the verse: Had We sent it down upon some non-Arab and had he recited it to them, they would not have believed in it ().
This meaning does not contradict the universality of the Prophet’s mission to all humankind, because the progress of his mission consisted of multiple stages. The first time he publicly preached to people was during the pilgrimage season, but they vehemently rejected his message. After this, he preached to people in secret for a time. Then, he was instructed by God to preach to his closest relatives, as we can see in the verse: Warn the nearest of your kinsfolk’ (). Then, God bade him to preach to his people, as per the verse: So proclaim what you have been commanded, and turn away from the polytheists (). Finally, he was commanded to preach His message to all of humankind, as we see in the verse: Say, “O mankind! I am the Messenger of Allah to you all…!” (), and in the verse: …and this Qur’an has been revealed to me that I may warn thereby you and whomever it may reach… ().
Furthermore, it is a matter of historical record that the Prophet’s followers included non-Arabs such as Salmān, who was Persian, Bilāl, who was Ethiopian, and Ṣuhayb, who was Roman. History also records that the Prophet preached to the Jewish tribes of Arabia, and the events that transpired between him and them are well-known. In addition, he sent letters to the rulers of Persia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Rome, calling on them to accept the new faith. All of this points to the universality of his message.
بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا فَأَعْرَضَ أَكْثَرُهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُونَ ٤
(41:4) a bearer of good news and a warner. But most of them turn away [from it], [and] so they do not hear.
A bearer of good news and a warner is an adverbial phrase that refers to the Book mentioned in the previous verse. The meaning of they do not hear in this verse, as indicated by the fact they are described as turning away, is that they do not pay attention to what is being said.
وَقْرٌ وَمِنْ بَيْنِنَا وَبَيْنِكَ حِجَابٌ فَاعْمَلْ إِنَّنَا عَامِلُونَ ٥
(41:5) They say, “Our hearts are in veils [which shut them off] from what you invite us to, and there is a deafness in our ears, and there is a curtain between us and you. So act; we too are acting.”
Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī says kann (pl. akinna, translated as veils’) is that in which a thing is protected, a kinān is a cover which envelops a thing, and the plural is akinna on the same pattern as ghitāʾ and aghṭiya, as God says: “Our hearts are in veils from what you invite us to….”
Based on this, when the Qur’an quotes the disbelievers saying that their hearts are in veils, it means that their hearts are such that they do not understand the Prophet’s message of divine unicity, as though they were so wrapped up that nothing could penetrate them from outside.
As for the phrase: and there is a deafness in our ears, it means as though there is a physical blockage that prevents them from hearing the Prophet’s preaching. Then, the phrase and there is a curtain between us, means that there is a barrier that keeps us back from you, such that we cannot agree with anything that you say. In other words, they are telling the Prophet that he should give up hope of them ever accepting his invitation because, according to them, first of all, their hearts are covered by veils that mean his preaching cannot reach them in order for them to even comprehend it; second, their ears are closed up so that they cannot hear his preaching and none of his glad tidings of reward for the faithful or warnings of divine punishment for the faithless can enter them; and, third, there is a barrier set up between him and them which means that they can never find any common ground with him whatsoever. Together, these convey the utter futility of his preaching to them.
So act; we too are acting: This is the logical conclusion drawn from what has just been said, and it contains an implied threat. The meaning, therefore, is that if there is no way for us to understand one another, then do whatever you can to prove us wrong and we will do likewise to prove you wrong.
Some have suggested that the meaning is: ‘So act according to what your faith requires, we too are acting according to what ours requires.’
Others have said that it means: ‘So do whatever you can to destroy us, as we are doing whatever we can to destroy you.’
However, both of these readings are far from the apparent meaning of the text.
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ يُوحَىٰ إِلَيَّ أَنَّمَا إِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ فَاسْتَقِيمُوا إِلَيْهِ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ ۗ وَوَيْلٌ لِلْمُشْرِكِينَ ٦ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ بِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ كَافِرُونَ ٧
(41:6-7) Say, “I am just a human being like you. It has been revealed to me that your Allah is the One Allah. So be steadfast toward Him and plead to Him for forgiveness.” And woe to the polytheists, those who do not pay the zakat, and they disbelieve in the Hereafter.
This verse [] contains the response to the statement of the disbelievers in the previous verse: Our hearts are in veils…. Based on the context, its core message is: Tell them: “I am just a human being like you. I associate with you just as you associate with one another, and I speak with you just as you speak to one another. I am not from a different species of creature to you, such as an angel, such that there would be any barrier between me and you, that my words could not penetrate your ears, or that their meaning would not reverberate in your hearts. The only difference is that what I tell you and what I call you towards is a revelation that has been revealed to me, namely that your God, the One who is worthy of your worship, is but a single deity and not multiple gods.”
So be steadfast toward Him: Meaning, that if there is only One God, and this God has no partners, then behave properly towards Him by affirming His oneness and negating all partners from Him, and seek His forgiveness for the idolatry and sins you have committed previously.
And woe to the polytheists: This is a warning to the idol worshippers who assign partners to God and do not affirm His oneness. Here, the Qur’an singles out the idol worshippers with two of their most distinctive features: They do not give ‘zakat,’ and they disbelieve in the hereafter.
The meaning of ‘zakat’ here is any kind of charitable giving to the poor and needy for the sake of God, as the duty of zakat in the sense of obligatory almsgiving in Islam had not yet been legislated when this chapter of the Qur’an had been revealed, and this appears to be one of the oldest Meccan chapters.
Some have said that the meaning of pay the zakat here is cleansing and purification of the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs) from the filth and pollution of sins and nurturing it to health and prosperity through worshipping God. This is a good interpretation, so long as pay the zakat can be understood in this sense.
And they disbelieve in the hereafter: This is another description of the idolaters, which is the logical corollary of their denial of the resurrection. It is for this reason that the Qur’an uses the pronoun they separately in order to emphasise that they are defined by their disbelief in the hereafter.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُمْ أَجْرٌ غَيْرُ مَمْنُونٍ ٨
(41:8) As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, there will be an everlasting reward for them.’
According to some scholars, ‘an everlasting reward’ (ajr gayr mamnūn) means that it will never come to an end, but rather will be continuous and unceasing. Others, however, have said that ghayr mamnūn means that it is uncountable, in a similar vein to the verse: …provided therein without any reckoning ().
The meaning of ghayr mamnūn could also be that this reward is given freely without any reproach or condescension (mann) which would otherwise sully the act of giving. Such a reading might be supported by the fact that the verse refers to what they are given as a ‘reward’ (ajr), which suggests that they are deserving of what God gives them on account of their faith and righteous deeds. However, even this deservingness of reward is ultimately something that is given to them by God rather than something they have given to themselves, as God says elsewhere: This is indeed your reward, and your endeavour has been well-appreciated’ ().
قُلْ أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَكْفُرُونَ بِالَّذِي خَلَقَ الْأَرْضَ فِي يَوْمَيْنِ وَتَجْعَلُونَ لَهُ أَنْدَادًا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ ٩
(41:9) Say, “Do you really disbelieve in Him who created the earth in two days, and ascribe partners to Him? That is the Lord of all the worlds!”’
Having refuted the disbelievers’ claim that Our hearts are in veils…, above, God now commands the Prophet to ask the disbelievers whether they will still insist on assigning partners to Him in spite of the manifest signs of His oneness in the creation of the heavens and the earth and His direction of them both.
This is a rhetorical question intended to express amazement, which is why the question ‘Do you really…?’ (a innakum la-takfurūn) is accompanied in Arabic with the particles of emphasis inna and la (translated as ‘really’). This is as though to say it is beyond belief that anyone would deny God or associate partners with Him when there is such clear and indisputable proof to the contrary on offer.
…and ascribe partners to Him?—is an explanation of Do you really disbelieve in Him who created the earth…, and ‘partners’ (andād) is the plural of nidd, which literally means ‘likeness.’ Hence, the meaning of ascribe partners here is to associate partners with Him who resemble Him in lordship and divinity.
That is the Lord of all the worlds! The indicative pronoun ‘that’ (dhālika), which usually signifies something distant, is used here to emphasise God’s lofty position and His being exalted above such fanciful delusions. He is the Lord of the Worlds and the director of all affairs, so it is inconceivable that there could be a lord or a god other than Him.
The meaning of ‘day’ (yawm) in the passage who created the earth in two days is of a period of time. It does not denote the literal day of twenty-four hours with which we are familiar through our life on this planet, where a day refers to a single rotation of the earth on its axis, as this meaning clearly cannot apply in the context of the current verse. The use of ‘day’ to refer to a time period that contains a significant event is widespread in the Arabic language, hence why God says: and We make such days rotate among mankind (), and Do they await anything except the like of the days of those who passed away before them? ().
Therefore, the ‘two days’ in which God created the earth are, in fact, two periods of time in which the creation of the earth was completed fully. God says that there were two days rather than one to show that the formation of the earth took place across two distinct stages, such as one stage of rawness and another of ripening, or one of being molten and another of solidifying.
وَجَعَلَ فِيهَا رَوَاسِيَ مِنْ فَوْقِهَا وَبَارَكَ فِيهَا وَقَدَّرَ فِيهَا أَقْوَاتَهَا فِي أَرْبَعَةِ أَيَّامٍ سَوَاءً لِلسَّائِلِينَ ١٠
(41:10) And he made in it firmly set [mountains] [rising] above it, and blessed it and ordained therein its [various] means of sustenance in four days, alike for all the seekers [of the means of sustenance].’
This verse is linked by And to the sentence: Him who created the earth in two days… and there is no harm in the passage and ascribe partners to Him? That is the Lord of all the worlds intervening between the two sentences, because the first sentence is an exposition of Do you really disbelieve…? while the second emphasizes the amazement expressed in the form of the rhetorical question.
‘Firmly set’ (rawāsī) is an adjective whose noun is implicit, namely firmly set mountains, meaning that they are fixed upon the earth. The five occurrences of the pronoun ‘it’ (hā, which is grammatically feminine singular) throughout this verse all refer back to the earth in the previous verse.
…and blessed it—meaning He filled it with abundant goodness to provide all manner of benefits to all of the living beings who dwell upon it, whether plants, animals, or humankind.
…and ordained therein its means of sustenance in four days, alike for all the seekers…: Some have said that the adverbial phrase in four days is counting from the beginning of creation. In other words, it includes the two days that had already elapsed for the creation of the earth: God created the earth in two days, then He ordained the means of sustenance therein in two days, and this makes a total of four days.
Others have said that both the creation of the earth and the ordinance of sustenance took place in a total of four days, such that the two processes were running in parallel rather than one after another.
Others still have said that four days is the duration in which all the events mentioned in the verse took place, including the creation of mountains upon the earth, blessing it, and ordaining sustenance therein. However, this reading involves positing a lot of implicit meanings within the verse.
According to al-Zamakhsharī, writing in al-Kashshāf, the adverbial phrase in four days is linked to an implicit sentence consisting of a subject and a predicate, namely: All of that happened in four days, as if to say: ‘The earth was created in two days, and the provisions and other things it contains were created in two days, so all of that was created in a total of four days.’
Commentators have argued that the verse cannot be read to mean that the events it describes (such as the creation of the mountains and the ordainment of provisions) took place in the space of four days in addition to the two days for the creation of the earth, because this would make a total of six days for the creation of the earth and its contents, and a subsequent verse says that the heavens were created in two days (). Read in this way, these verses would mean that creation took a total of eight days (two for the creation of the earth, four for its contents, and two for the heavens), when God has repeatedly stated in the Qur’an that the creation of the heavens and the earth took a total of six. On this basis, they say, it is necessary to adopt the aforementioned reading of four days, where this includes the two days for the creation of the earth, even if this requires us to posit some implicit terms and meanings within the verse.
However, if we are being truthful, the apparent meaning of verse …and ordained therein its means of sustenance in four days, alike for all the seekers… does not accord with what the above commentators have said. Instead, the context of the verse suggests that four days means that provisions were ordained in four periods of time, namely the four seasons that are caused by the shifting position of the sun in the sky over the course of the year. Therefore, four days here refers to the four seasons.
The verses here say that the heavens and the earth were created in four days: Two for the creation of the earth, and two for fashioning of the heavens into seven heavens after they were smoke. As for the days relating to provisions, these are the days in which they were ordained rather than the days in which they were created. Equally, the frequent refrain that the heavens and the earth were created in six days refers only to their creation and does not include the ordination of their affairs. Therefore, the correct opinion is that the adverbial phrase in four days only qualifies the latter most sentence, namely and ordained therein its means of sustenance without there being any implicit terms or phrases in the verse. The goal of this verse is to expound that the provisions and sustenance of the earth were ordained through the four seasons of the year.
There are several possibilities for the phrase, …alike for all the seekers: First, it could be an absolute object (mafʿūl muṭlaq) for an implicit verb: being equal. This would render the meaning, means of sustenance that is equal and alike for all the seekers.
Second, it could be an adverbial phrase that qualifies means of sustenance, in which case it means God ordained them to be equally divided amongst all seekers, such that each is sufficed without excess or shortfall.’
‘The seekers’ (sāʾilīn) here are the plants, animals, and human beings, for all of them are in need of provisions and sustenance for their survival, and thus they are seeking or asking for sustenance from their Lord. As God says: Everyone in the heavens and the earth asks Him (), and: and He gave you all that you had asked Him ().
ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ وَهِيَ دُخَانٌ فَقَالَ لَهَا وَلِلْأَرْضِ ائْتِيَا طَوْعًا أَوْ كَرْهًا قَالَتَا أَتَيْنَا طَائِعِينَ ١١
(41:11) Then He turned to the heaven, and it was smoke, and He said to it and to the earth, “Come! Willingly or unwillingly!” They said, “We come willingly.”
According to al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, when the verb istawāʾ is made transitive with the preposition ʿalā (‘on’), it gives the meaning of to ‘take possession of’ or ‘to gain mastery over’ (istīlāʾ), as in the verse the All-beneficent, settled on the Throne (). On the other hand, if it is made transitive with the preposition ilā (‘to’), then it means ‘to turn towards’ (as in the present verse).
Also in al-Rāghib’s Mufradāt, we read that karh (here translated as ‘unwillingly’) refers to a difficulty imposed on the human being externally in order to compel him to do something, while kurh (with a u instead of an a on the kāf) refers to a difficulty that emanates from within the human being.
Based on the above, Then He turned to the heaven means that He directed His attention towards them in the sense of their creation, not in the sense of their location, as the latter would imply that God was turning from one direction to another or moving from one place to another, when He exists beyond place.
The verse appears to begin with ‘Then’ (thumma) to show that the creation of the heavens happened after that of the earth. However, some have said that the delay marked by thumma here is not a delay between the events being related themselves but in the relation of those events to the audience in the Qur’an. This reading is supported by the verses: …or the sky which He has built… and after that He spread out the earth, and brought forth from it its water and pastures, and set firm the mountains… (), as a literal reading of after here would indicate that the earth was created after the heavens, rather than the other way around.
However, one might object that this refers to the ‘spreading out’ of the earth being subsequent to the ‘building’ of the heavens, and ‘spreading out’ (daḥw) the earth is not the same as ‘creating’ (khalq) it. After all, after the spreading out of the earth, God mentions the bringing forth of water, pastures, and mountains, which corresponds to the process described by the phrase And He made in it firmly set [mountains], and blessed it and ordained therein its [various] means of sustenance in four days… in the previous verse, which is mentioned as distinct from the creation of the heavens and the earth. Therefore, these verses from Sūrah al-Nāziʿāt provide no basis for arguing that thumma here means anything other than the fact that the heavens were created after the earth. After all, it is even more apparent that the phrase ‘after that’ (baʿd dhālik) signifies a temporal delay than that ‘then’ (thumma) does in the present chapter.
…and it was smoke… is an adverbial qualifier for the heaven, meaning that when God turned to heaven to create it, it was a substance that God refers to as ‘smoke’ (dukhān). This ‘smoke’ is pure matter, to which God gave form, and decreed that it should become seven heavens, whereas previously the heavens were without number, and one was indistinguishable from another. That is why He uses the singular term ‘heaven’ (samāʾ) rather than ‘heavens’ (samawāt).
…and He said to it and to the earth, “Come! Willingly or unwillingly!’’: This follows on from His turning His attention towards heaven, and this is still unmistakably about the act of creation. Hence, when He says to the heaven and the earth: “Come! Willingly or unwillingly!” this is the word of origination and the creative command, as with His saying to something “Be!” in the verse: All His command, when He wills something, is to say to it “Be!” and it is ().
The exchange that takes place between God on the one hand saying: Come!, and the heaven and the earth on the other saying: We come… presents an allegorical representation of the creative act that is intended to make this comprehensible to ordinary folk in everyday language. However, it also reflects the deeper reality that all entities possess some degree of knowledge and that all beings can be endowed with speech in a way that befits their condition and, as a result, God can converse with them. We have discussed this to some extent already, and we will discuss it further when we reach the verse: They will say, “We were given speech by Allah, who gave speech to all things,” below ().
Some have said that when God says Come…! this is a command for them to reveal their latent qualities and benefits, which is distinct from the command for them to come into being and exist. However, this reading is rejected on the basis that the creation of the heavens will be mentioned subsequently, and it does not make sense that God would command them to reveal their latent qualities and benefits before the heavens had even come into being.
Some say that Come! Willingly or unwillingly! is a figurative representation of God’s irresistible power over the heaven and the earth and the impossibility of their defying that, and that it does not establish either their obedience or God’s compulsion of them. However, this is refuted by the next phrase: They said, “We come willingly,” as were the choice Willingly or unwillingly purely figurative, then there would have been no sense in the heaven and the earth affirming their obedience in response to it.
“We come willingly” is the response of the heaven and the earth to the choice given to them by God, and they choose to come willingly. The word willingly (ṭāʾiʿīn) takes a form usually reserved for intelligent beings (that is, that of the third-person masculine plural) because it is in the context of an address and a response, both of which are actions unique to intelligent beings. They used the plural rather than the dual form for willingly possibly in order to show their humility by counting themselves no different from any other of God’s creatures, all of whom are obedient to His command, and hence they used the plural to refer to themselves, even though they are a pair. This is akin to the verse: You alone do we worship, and to You alone do we appeal for help ().
Why are heaven and the earth addressed together—with the phrase Come!—and why do they respond together, even though their creation and the management of their affairs are mentioned separately in the previous verses? This seems to suggest that there is an ontological relationship between them and that they share a special connection in the cosmic order that governs both of them. And this is indeed the case, as different parts of the cosmos affect and influence one another.
When God says and He said to it and to the earth, this alludes, in any case, to the fact that then in the phrase Then He turned to the heaven signifies a passage of time between the two events.
فَقَضَاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ فِي يَوْمَيْنِ وَأَوْحَىٰ فِي كُلِّ سَمَاءٍ أَمْرَهَا ۚ وَزَيَّنَّا السَّمَاءَ الدُّنْيَا بِمَصَابِيحَ وَحِفْظًا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ تَقْدِيرُ الْعَزِيزِ الْعَلِيمِ ١٢
(41:12) Then He set them up as seven heavens in two days, and revealed in each heaven its ordinance. We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and guarded them. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing.
The original meaning of qaḍāʾ (translated here as set up) is to separate one thing from another, and the pronoun ‘them’ (hunna—third-person feminine plural) refers to the heavens, while seven heavens is an adverb for them. The phrase in two days qualifies the verb of He set them up. Taken together, this sentence means that when God turned toward the heavens they were smoke, meaning they were raw unformed potentiality, then God determined their affair by making them into seven heavens in two days.
Some have said that the meaning of qaḍāʾ in this verse means ‘to make,’ which would entail that seven heavens was the second object of the verb. Other grammatical analyses of the verse have also been proposed, but we will omit these for the sake of brevity.
Both this verse and the one before it are concerned with expounding what was left ambiguous in the verse: Have the faithless not regarded that the heavens and the earth were interwoven and We unravelled them…? ().
…and revealed in each heaven its ordinance: Some say that this means God revealed to each heaven its capacities or the qualities that God’s wisdom had ordained for it, such as the existence of angels, celestial bodies, and the like thereof within it. ‘Revealed’ (waḥī) here refers to creation and origination. This sentence follows on from He set them up…, which shows that this was happening at the same time as the creation of seven heavens, meaning that as God created each of the heavens, he populated it with angels, celestial bodies, and other denizens.
As I’m sure you can see, the claim that revealed refers to creation and that ‘ordinance’ (amr) means the denizens of the heavens, such as angels and celestial bodies, can only be accepted on the basis of clear evidence, as does the claim that this was concomitant with the process being described by the phrase He set them up….
Some say that the ‘ordinance’ (amr) mentioned here refers to the responsibilities imposed on the angelic denizens of each heaven, while revealed here is used in the conventional sense of divine revelation. This would render the meaning: And He revealed to the angels who inhabited each heaven the acts of worship He had prescribed for them to perform.’
However, this does not accord with the apparent meaning of the verse, as God says that He revealed in each heaven rather than ‘to each heaven.’
It is also been suggested that the meaning of its ordinance here is what God wanted from it. However, in reality, this interpretation devolves to one of the two aforementioned possibilities: Either revelation signifies creation and origination, in which case it accords with the first meaning, or revelation signifies its conventional meaning, in which case it accords with the second.
However, what God has said elsewhere about the divine ordinance that pertains to the heavens suggests a meaning that is far more subtle than anything others have proposed: He directs the command from the heaven to the earth; then it ascends toward Him… (); and: It is Allah who has created seven heavens, and of the earth [a number] similar to them. The command gradually descends through them… (62:12); and: Certainly We created above you the seven ways and We have not been oblivious of creation ().
The first of these verses indicates that the heavens represent the point of origin for the divine command, which descends to the earth; the second verse indicates that this command descends from one heaven to another until it reaches the earth; and the third verse indicates that the heavens are ways (ṭarāʾiq) for the command to traverse from the Lord of the Throne, or for the angels to traverse bearing this command to the earth, as God alludes to in the verse: In it the angels and the Spirit descend, by the leave of their Lord, with every command (); and in the verse: Every definitive command is resolved in it ().
If what was meant by this command (amr) was the creative command (al-amr al-takwīnī)—which is the word of origination referred to in the verse All His command, when He wills something, is to say to it “Be,” and it is ()—then, put beside one another, these verses show that the divine command that descends to the terrestrial realm—and, in doing so, causes things to exist and events to transpire—is borne by the angels from the Lord of the Throne and carried by them through the paths of the heavens—descending through the heavens one after another—until it reaches the earth.
And it is carried through each heaven by the angels who inhabit that heaven, as we can deduce from the verse: When fear is lifted from their hearts, they say, “What did your Lord say?” They say, “The truth, and He is the All-exalted, the All-great” (). And we have already discussed this and how the heavens are the abode of the angels, a fact alluded to by the verses: How many an angel there is in the heavens… () and on the verse: They do not eavesdrop on the Supernal Elite but are shot at from every side ().
Therefore, the divine command is related to each of the heavens in terms of the angels who inhabit it, and in relation to each class of angels in terms of their bearing it. Hence, insofar as God burdened the angels with carrying this command, it is His revelation to them, for He also referred to this command as a form of speech: All that We say to a thing, when We will it, is to say to it “Be!” and it is. ()
From the above, we can conclude that the meaning of the phrase and revealed in each heaven its ordinance is that God revealed the divine command in each of these heavens, and the divine command for each of the heavens was directed to its inhabitants, meaning the angels who were assigned to it.
Given that the seven heavens were created in two days, does this also mean that this command was revealed in two days? There is no evidence for such a claim in the text of the verse.
We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and guarded them. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing: It is referred to as the ‘lowest heaven’ (dunyā) to indicate that it is the nearest of the heavens to the earth, while the heavens themselves are arranged one above the other in layers, as God says elsewhere: He created seven heavens in layers ().
The apparent meaning of adorning the heavens with lamps—which is a reference to the celestial bodies, as per the verse: Indeed We have adorned the lowest heaven with the finery of the stars ()—is that these celestial bodies in the lowest heaven or even beneath it are like hanging candles. And were these celestial bodies scattered throughout all of the heavens, without any barrier or obstruction between them because of the transparency of the heavens, as some have suggested, then they would have been an ornament for all of the heavens rather than only one of them, which is what the context indicates here. Therefore, there is no basis to the claim that they are ornaments for all of the heavens; they are seen to sparkle in the lowest of the heavens and, therefore, they are considered to be an ornament for it.
As for the verse Have you not seen how Allah has created seven heavens in layers, and has made therein the moon for a light, and the sun for a lamp? (), the moon was made a light and the sun was made a lamp in relation to we who dwell on the earth and seek their illumination by day and night (rather than for the seven heavens as a whole), as God says elsewhere: and make a radiant lamp? ().
As for and guarded them, this means to have guarded them from the devils, as per the verse: and We have guarded them from every outcast Satan, except someone who may eavesdrop, whereat there pursues him a manifest flame ().
And as for That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing, this is to highlight the sublime order and design visible in what has just been described.
Conclusion
From the above, we can conclude the following:
First, that the apparent meaning (ẓāhir) of the verse—though not the explicit meaning (naṣṣ)—suggests that the lowest of the seven heavens is the realm of the stars and planets we see above us.
Second, that these seven heavens are all physical realms arranged one above the other like seven layers above the material realm. And the nearest of these seven heavens to us is the one that contains the stars and planets. The Qur’an has not described any of the other six heavens except for the fact that they are like layers.
Third, the phrase seven heavens does not refer to the heavenly bodies, whether in full or in part, such as the Sun, the Moon, and so on.
Fourth, that what has been said concerning the heavens—that they are the abode of the angels, that they descend through these heavens burdened with God’s command and ascend through them with the records of our deeds, and that the heavens have gates that do not open for the faithless, and that things and provisions descend from these gates, and other such details that are found scattered throughout verses and narrations—reveals that these matters are connected to the heavens, but not in the same way that celestial bodies are fixed in their physical locations in accordance with the divinely instituted cosmic order, in such a way that allows for change and alteration.
This is because today we know that these celestial bodies—whatever they are—are material entities that are subject to the same physical laws and forces that govern the terrestrial realm. Meanwhile, the system that governs the heavens, their inhabitants, and the events that take place therein—such as those described above—is fundamentally distinct from the system that governs the material realm. To this can be added what has been said regarding the angels being created from light, that their food is worship, and the descriptions given of their creation, and what has come down concerning the creation of the heavens and their denizens.
Therefore, the angels inhabit seven supernal realms (ʿawālim malakūtiyya), one above the other. The Qur’an refers to these as the seven heavens and likens their qualities and role to the heavens we can see in this world because of their loftiness and vastness in relation to the earth and in order to make this comprehensible to ordinary people.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, Ibn Abī Shayba, ʿAbd b. Ḥamīd, Abū Yaʿlā, and al-Ḥākim narrate the following, which was deemed authentic by Ibn Mardawayh, Abū Naʿīm, and al-Bayhaqī—both in their respective books known as Dalāʾil—and Ibn ʿAsākir narrates the same from Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh:
The Quraysh assembled one day and said: ‘See who amongst you is most learned in magic, in soothsaying, and in poetry, and let this man who has divided our community, split our affair, and reviled our faith come forth, and let these learned ones speak to him and see how best to respond to him!’
They said: ‘We know none other than ʿUtba b. Rabīʿa!’
So, they told him: ‘It must be you, O Abā l-Walīd!’
So the Prophet came to him and he said: ‘O Muḥammad, are you better or [your father] ʿAbd Allāh? Are you better or [your grandfather] ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib?’
The Messenger of God was silent.
So ʿUtba said: ‘If you claim that they are better than you, then you should worship the same gods that they worshipped and stop reviling them. But, if you claim you are better than they, then speak, and let us hear what you have to say!
For, by God, we have not seen a more grievous weapon wielded against your people than you! You have divided our community, split our affair, and reviled our faith. You have disgraced us amongst the Arabs, to the extent that they say, “the Quraysh have a sorcerer in their midst!” or “the Quraysh have a soothsayer amongst them!” By God, we do not expect anything but a great commotion in which we turn our swords against one another. O man! If you are in need of money, we will gather for you our wealth and make you the richest man of the Quraysh! And if you are in need of a woman, then choose any woman of the Quraysh that you wish—in fact, we will give you ten!’
God’s Messenger asked: ‘Are you done?’
He said: ‘Yes.’
Then God’s Messenger recited: In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the Most Merciful, Ḥā Mīm: A revelation sent down from the All-beneficent, the Most Merciful, a Book whose signs have been elaborated, an Arabic Qur’an, for a people who know… until he reached the verse …But if they turn away, say, “I warn you of a thunderbolt, like the thunderbolt of ʿĀd and Thamūd” ().
ʿUtba said: ‘That’s enough. Don’t you have anything else to say?’
He said: ‘No.’
So ʿUtba returned to the Quraysh, and they asked him, ‘What happened?’
ʿUtba replied said: ‘I think I told everything to him that you would have wanted to say, without leaving anything out!’
They asked, ‘And did he give you an answer?’
He said: ‘By the idol, I did not understand anything he said except this: “I warn you of a thunderbolt, like the thunderbolt of ʿĀd and Thamūd.”’
They said, ‘Woe to you! He spoke to you in Arabic, and yet you could not understand what he said?’
He said: ‘No, by God, I understood nothing of his speech save his mention of the thunderbolt.’
Author’s comments: Similar accounts have been narrated in other sources. In some versions, the Quraysh address him when he returns by saying: ‘What news do you bring, O Abū al-Walīd?’ And he responds by saying: ‘By God, I have heard something the like of which I have never heard before! By God, it is neither poetry, nor magic, nor soothsaying! By God, some event will transpire from these words!’ And other versions contain other details still.
Concerning his recitation of the verses of this chapter to al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, there is another narration which we will discuss—God-willing—in our commentary on Sūrah al-Muddaththir, following the verse: Leave Me [to deal] with him whom I created alone’ ().
- Concerning the present passage of the Qur’an, Ibn Jarīr narrates from Abū Bakr that some Jews came to the Messenger of God and said: ‘O Muḥammad, tell us: What parts of creation did God create in these six days?’
He responded: ‘God created the earth on the Sunday and the Monday, then he created the mountains on the Tuesday, followed by cities—both built-up and ruined—foodstuffs, and rivers on the Wednesday. He created the heavens and the angels on Thursday. Then he created in three hours—on Friday, that is—in the first He created the appointed times of death, in the second he created disease, and in the third he created Adam.’ They said: ‘You have spoken the truth if you finish it!’ Whereat the Prophet realized what they were after and became angry, so God sent down the verses: …and no fatigue did touch Us. So be patient over what they say… ().
Author’s comments: A similar account has been narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, and from ʿIkrima and others, and it is also found in Shīʿī sources. When the Jewish interlocutors say, ‘You have spoken the truth if you finish it!’ they mean if he finishes his account by saying that God finished the creation on Saturday and rested on it.
However, there are some issues with these traditions:
First of all, they present the Jews as assenting to the account of the creation as laid out above, but this account explicitly contradicts the account presented in the Book of Genesis in the Torah, which says that God created the light and the darkness and the day and the night on the first day, then he created the heavens on the second day, followed by the earth, the seas, and the plants on the third day, then the sun, the moon, and the stars on the fourth day, followed by the beasts of the sea and the birds of the air on the fifth, then the animals on land and the human being on the sixth day (Friday). Then, on the seventh day (the Sabbath), God completed the creation and rested. This scheme of creation is clearly different from the one purportedly laid out by the Prophet in the above tradition.
Second, insofar as the days of the week—each of which consists of a day and a night—depend for their existence on the earth’s rotation on its axis as it orbits the sun, how can the earth have been created on the first two days of the week while the heavens and their contents did not yet exist and, hence, the earth could not have been moving? A similar objection can be raised about the creation of the heavens and their denizens, including the sun, insofar as there can be no day if there is no sun.
Third, the scheme of creation found in this narration sets aside a day for the creation of the mountains, while empirical scientific research has shown that these formed gradually. A similar objection can be made about the creation of the cities, rivers, and foodstuffs.
- In Rawḍat al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates from Muḥammad b. ʿAṭiyya from Abū Jaʿfar: ‘And He created the substance from which all other substances derive—namely, water—and made everything depend on water, without making water depend on anything else. And he created the winds from water… then he gave the winds dominion over the water and they split the surface of the water so that as much foam as God willed was thrown up. From that foam, God created the land, barren and formless, with neither crack nor crevice, nor elevation, nor dip, nor vegetation of any kind, then He rolled it up and placed it above the water… then God created fire from the water, and the fire split the surface of the water, until as much vapor was thrown up as God willed. From that vapor, God created the heavens transparent and formless, with neither crack nor crevice. That is the meaning of God’s words: “or the sky which He has built” ().’
Author’s comments: There are other narrations with a similar meaning to this one. It is possible to apply these narrations, and indeed the verses of the Qur’an, to the results yielded by modern scientific investigations into the formation of the cosmos and its contents. However, we have avoided doing this here because we do not wish to reduce the realities of the Qur’an to the level of mere scientific conjectures or theories, unless these theories are indisputably true.
- In Nahj al-Balāgha, we read: ‘Among the proofs of His creation is the creation of the heavens which are raised without pillars and stand without support. He called them and they responded obediently and humbly without being lazy or recalcitrant. If they had not acknowledged His divinity and obeyed Him, He would not have made them the place of His throne, the abode of His angels, and the destination to which ascend the pure utterances and the righteous deeds of the creatures.’
- And in Kamāl al-Dīn, al-Ṣadūq narrates from Fuḍayl al-Rassān: Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm wrote to Abū ʿAbd Allāh, and asked him: ‘Inform us, what is your merit as the Prophet’s Household (ahl al-bayt)?’ So Abū ʿAbd Allāh replied: ‘Surely the stars were made as a guarantee of safety for the inhabitants of the heavens, for if the stars were to vanish from the sky, the fate promised to the inhabitants of the heavens would surely come to pass. God’s Messenger said: The people of my household are a guarantee of safety for my nation, for if the people of my household were to vanish from the earth, then the fate promised to my nation would surely come to pass.’
Author’s comments: More than one narration has come down with this meaning.
- In Biḥār al-Anwār, Majlisī narrates from Kitāb al-Ghārāt via its chain of narration to Ibn Nubāta that the Commander of the Faithful was asked: ‘What is the distance between the heavens and the earth?’ He answered: ‘The extent of sight and the prayer of the oppressed.’
Author’s comments: This is an example of his eloquent speech, in which he refers to both the manifest and hidden aspects of the heavens, as we have already discussed.
Even though at first glance these verses appear to be referring to rational beings, but a closer inspection—especially in the case of the second verse—reveals that the meaning of seeking’ here is the state of neediness and potentiality. Therefore, the verses include plants and animals, while the masculine plural pronoun (which would normally be reserved for rational beings) is used here rhetorically (for taghlīb). (Trans.) ↩︎