سَّمَآءُ

2:211.

Commentary:

The reference in the verse may be to the Battle of Badr when rain came as a welcome relief to Muslims, and angels descended in large numbers to help them. Elsewhere the Quran says that in the battlefield of Badr as many as five thousand angels descended to attack disbelievers (3:125-126). It further says, "God revealed to the angels, saying, ‘I am with you; so give firmness to those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Smite, then, the upper parts of their necks, and smite off all finger-tips" (8:13).

22:66; 35:42.

Commentary:

At another place in the Quran we have: "Who raised up the heavens without any pillars that you can see" (13:3). Long ages have passed since this solar system came into being, yet nothing has gone wrong with it. Such is God’s handiwork that stars keep their orbits without any visible support. The law of gravitation which is supposed to keep them in their respective positions was discovered long afterwards. This fact too points to God’s great powers and control over the universe. See also 13:3.

Important Words:

For دخان (smoke) see 41:12.

Commentary:

The reference in the verse may be to the severe famine that overtook Mecca and lasted for several years till Abu Sufyan, then a great leader of disbelief, came to the Holy Prophet and begged him to pray for deliverance from the scourge. The famine is said to have been so severe that the Meccans ate hides, bones and even dead bodies (Bukhari, Abwabul-Istisqa). The famine has been described by the word دخان (smoke) because, as the tradition goes, the hunger was so severe that people felt a sort of smoke hanging before their eyes. Or the word may have been used because there was no rain for a long time in Mecca, and the whole atmosphere had become dusty, for دخان also means dust.

The verse may also be taken as referring to the last two world wars in which towns and cities were burnt down to rubble and the smoke that rose from their ruins filled the whole atmosphere with smoke and dust.

Commentary:

Mark the pathos of these words! The ill-fated people of Pharaoh enjoyed all sorts of comforts and luxury. They had wealth, power and influence. A Prophet came to them. They rejected his Message and opposed his mission with the result that heavenly punishment came down upon them sudden and swift and they went to their doom unwept, unhonoured and unsung. The ill-fated monarch who, in his conceit and arrogance, called himself God, went to the depths of the sea (20:79), with the memorable words, "I believe that there is no God but He in Whom the Children of Israel believed," on his lips. He who wanted to have a peep at the God of Moses in the heavens (40:38) had a taste of His might in the depths of the sea.

Commentary:

The verse may signify that on that day all the heavenly forces will operate in favour of the Holy Prophet. So did it happen on the Day of Badr.

69:17; 84:2.

Commentary:

What a graphic picture of the threatened punishment!

55:38; 84:2.

Important Words:

واھیة (frail) is derived from وھی. They say وھی الشیء i.e. the thing became worn out and weak. وھی الحائط means, the wall was about to fall. وھی الثوب means, the cloth was worn out. واھیة means, weak, frail; broken or rent (Aqrab).

Commentary:

The reference in the verse may be to some natural phenomenon which took the form of Divine punishment. Or the word السماء meaning the covering overhead, the verse may signify that the covering over the heads of disbelievers would cleave asunder, i.e. with the Fall of Mecca their political power would vanish and no protection or asylum would remain for them except that they should join the fold of Islam.

73:19.

Commentary:

As mentioned in the Introduction, the Surah deals particularly with the time when Christianity would be very much in the ascendant, and Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the Sonship of Jesus Christ would reign supreme. To this dominance of Christian beliefs, the Quran has referred in very strong language in the words: "The heavens might well-nigh be rent thereat, and the earth cleave asunder, and the mountains fall down in pieces, because they ascribe a son to the Gracious God" (19:91-92). The verse under comment thus signifies that at that time false doctrines of Christianity would dominate the world, and as a result of it God’s wrath would be excited and Divine punishment would overtake the world in various forms. The reference is clearly to the present time.

The verse may also signify that God’s righteous servants would feel so grieved at seeing sin and iniquity spreading all round in the world as a result of false Christian doctrines that their hearts would, as it were, become rent; the word "heavens" referring to the hearts of the righteous believers which in religious phraseology are called God’s Throne.

82:2.

Commentary:

The promise referred to in the verse was the total defeat and destruction of the forces of evil followed by the triumph of Islam which was fully manifested in the Fall of Mecca, when the old corrupt order died and from its ruins emerged a new and better order. This may be the meaning of the words, "the heaven will be rent asunder."