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wa-ʾidhā s-samāʾu kushiṭat
when the sky is stripped off,
— Ali Quli Qarai
81At-TakwīrالتكويرVerse 11 of 29
The Overthrowing81. At-Takwīrالتكوير
al-Takwīr
The Winding Up
MeccanVerse 11 of 29
81At-TakwīrالتكويرVerse 11 of 29
The Winding Up
when the sky is stripped off,
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Takwir, Verses 10-14
10. “And when the scrolls (of the deeds of mankind) are spread,”
11. “And when the heaven shall be unveiled,”
12. “And when Hell is set ablaze,”
13. "And when the Garden is brought nigh (for the righteous),”
14. “Every soul shall (then) know what it has produced (of its deeds)".
The first stage; the events as a preliminary to the Resurrection, viz: the destruction of the world, was described in the former verses. Now, in the following verses, the second stage of the Resurrection is pointed out, that is, the appearance of the Next World with its record and reckoning.
The term /suhuf/ is the plural form of the term /sahifah/ meaning 'a thing spread open like a face, or pages of a book; a book on which something is written'. In the Hereafter, the records are spread in front of their owners to view, read and count the deeds themselves, Surah Isra, No. 17, verse 14 says:
It is also open before the eyes of others; that which is a praise for the good‑doers and a pain and punishment for the astray evildoers.
The term /kuŝiţat/ is based on /kaŝţ/ which as Raqib cites in his book Mufradat, originally means to ‘remove, take off - the covering or skin of an animal', and as Ibn‑manthur cites in Lisan‑ul‑Arab it means 'to remove a curtain from something', then the sense, from verse II, the 'clouds separate and scatter' is derived from this word. The term, in this verse, means that the curtains over the subjects hidden; such as angels, Heaven and Hell, which do exist, but are secret to people in this world, will be removed and man can see the Reality of the existing Universe, and as the next verses denote, the blazing Hell and eternal Heaven are brought near.
Verily, the Day of Judgment is when the reality of everything will be made manifest and the heavens will be unveiled. According to the above commentary, this verse points to the incidents of the second stage of the Resurrection in which the process of mankind's rebirth will come forth and their new life will begin. The verses before and after it, also, confirm the same idea. Many commentators have meant it with the sense of ‘folding up the heavens' which refers to the events of the first stage of the Resurrection, that is, the destruction of this world. This idea seems improbable, though, because it corresponds neither with the original meaning of the term /kuŝiţat/ nor with the arrangement of the verses before and after it.
For this reason, in the next verse, it says:
As Surah Taubah, No. 9, verse 49 says:
Hell exits now, today, but, in this world, the curtains cover it and do not let us see it, as well as Heaven which, according to many verses of the Qur'an, is prepared for the Righteous, at this very moment.8 Also, for the same reason, the next verse says:
This very idea is mentioned in Surah Shu'ara, No. 26, verse 90 with a difference that it contains the word 'Righteous' but, this verse does not. The term /uzlifat/ is based on /zalf/ and /zulfa/ which means 'nearness, proximity, a near approach'. This nearness may be from the view point of 'place' or 'time' or from the view point of 'the means of preparation', or all of them, viz: Heaven is near to the believers both from the point of view of place and time of arrival and it is also easy for them to reach it.
It is worthy to note that it does not say that the Righteous approach Heaven, but it says 'Heaven is brought near for the Righteous' and this is the most honorable situation possible in this case. As was mentioned earlier Heaven and Hen are present just now, hut, on that Day, Heaven is brought nearer and Hell is set more ablaze. Then, finally, in the last verse of the current section which is, indeed, complementary to the previous verses and is a substantive clause for the conditional clauses occurred in the former twelve verses, it says:
This statement clearly shows that all the deeds of man are present there, and man's knowledge about them is a knowledge consisting of Observation and self conviction. This tact is mentioned in some other verses of the Qur'an, too, such as Surah Kahf, No. 18, verse 49:
and Surah Zilzal, No. 99, verses 7‑8 that say:
This verse also makes reference to the personification of deeds. Our deeds apparently have an end and vanish in this world, but this will never be so. They will be personified (incarnated) in appropriate forms, in the next world, and present in the Hereafter.
Explanation: The Order of the Verses
In the current and prior verses twelve events, in relation to the Resurrection, are mentioned. The first six events relate to the first stage viz: the desolation of this world; and the second six events relate to the second stage, that is, the rebirth and new life after death. In the first group of verses, the word is about the darkening of the sun and the stars, the movement and agitation of the mountains, the exploding of the seas, the negligence about wealth, and the fear in wild animals.
In the second group of verses, the statement is about: the different groups of man coming into the Hereafter, the questioning of the girl‑child buried alive, the spreading of the scrolls containing the deeds of mankind, the removing of the curtains from the heavens, Hell being ablaze, Heaven being brought near, and finally, man's full knowledge of his own deeds. In spite of their brevity, these verses are so meaningful and awakening that they shake everyone and bring them into a thoughtful state such that they can visualize the end of this world and the circumstances of the Resurrection, in their minds, as if they see them with their very eyes. How nice and expressive the verses of the Qur'an are, and how impressive and meaningful its refined subtleties and pertinent details!
Will the Solar System and the Stars Darken?
First of all, we should know that the Sun is a star and a medium sized one among all stars, but by itself and in comparison with the Earth it is extraordinarily large. Its volume is more than 1,300,000 times that of the Earth, but since its mean distance from the Earth is nearly 93,000,000 miles (about 150,000,000 kilometers) we see it as it is now. To understand the immenseness and greatness of the Sun it is enough to imagine that if the Earth and its moon, with the same distance that they have between them now, were transferred into the Sun; the moon could easily rotate around the Earth, inside the Sun, without protruding out from its inner surface.
The outside heat of the Sun is estimated to be about 6,000 C, and the heat of the inside is estimated to be several million degrees9. If we want to express the weight of the Sun in metric ton, we should write the figure 2 with twenty seven zeros behind it. The height of the flames from the Sun's surface shoot up to about 160,000 kilometers, so that our Earth can easily disappear in them because, the Earth's diameter is not more than 12,000 kilometers.
The heat and the brightness of the Sun, in spite of George Gamof's statement, do not originate from burning coal forming the Sun's body, but are from the energy produced by atomic decomposition and we know that this energy is extremely intense. Therefore, the atoms of the Sun are always changing into energy through decomposition and reduction. According to the calculations of scientists, every minute, the Sun loses 4,000,000 tons of weight, but its body is so huge that it does not show an apparent change even after thousands of years.
It is worth mentioning, here, that the very loss of weight is effective in the destruction of the Sun over a length of time, and by becoming thinner and thinner at last, this great world‑illuminating‑lamp will gradually darken. This fate is also true for the other stars. Therefore, what is said in the aforementioned verses about the darkening of the Sun and the destruction of the stars is a fact that is in agreement with modern science. The Qur'an has stated these facts when, not only in the Arabian Peninsula, but in all scientific meetings held by scientists of the world, at that time, no one knew anything about these statistics.
Footnotes