Verse. 2587

٢١ - ٱلْأَنْبِيَاء

21 - Al-Anbiya

يَوْمَ نَطْوِي السَّمَاۗءَ كَطَيِّ السِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ۝۰ۭ كَـمَا بَدَاْنَاۗ اَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُّعِيْدُہٗ۝۰ۭ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَا۝۰ۭ اِنَّا كُنَّا فٰعِلِيْنَ۝۱۰۴
Yawma natwee alssamaa katayyi alssijlli lilkutubi kama badana awwala khalqin nuAAeeduhu waAAdan AAalayna inna kunna faAAileena

English

Ahmed Ali

The day We shall roll up the heavens like a written scroll, We shall revert it (to nothing) as it was before We first created it. This is a promise incumbent on Us; We will certainly fulfil it.

104

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (the day) this is the day of judgement (when we shall rolleth up the heavens) with the right hand (and a recorder rolls up a written scroll. as we began the first creation) through a sperm, (we shall repeat it) we shall resurrect from dust. ((it is) a promise (binding) upon us) this is incumbent upon us. (lo! we are to perform it) we will bring them back to life after they die.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : the day (yawma is in the accusative because of an implied preceding udhkur, ‘mention’) when we shall roll up the heaven as the scribe, [al-sijill being] the name of an angel, rolls up the written scroll, that is, the scroll of the son of adam when he dies (the lām [of li’l-kitāb] is extra; alternatively, [one may read the verse so that] al-sijill is ‘the scroll’, and al-kitāb means al-maktūb ‘what is written’, in which case the lām [of li’l-kitāb] has the sense of [the particle] ‘alā, ‘over’; a variant reading [for li’l-kitāb] has the plural, li’l-kutub, ‘the books’). as we began the first creation, from non-existence, we shall repeat it, after making it non-existent (the kāf [of ka-mā, ‘as’] is semantically connected to nu‘īdu, ‘we shall repeat [it]’, and its [suffixed] pronoun [-hu, ‘it’] refers back to awwala, ‘the first’; the mā relates to the verbal noun) — a promise binding on us (wa‘dan is in the accusative because [it is the direct object] of an implied preceding wa‘adnā, ‘we promised’, and [the clause] constitutes a confirmation of the import of the preceding [verse, 103]). truly we shall do [that], which we have promised.