Page 75 - Tafsir of surat at tawba repentance

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Case One:
One critic writes: “Calling together or ripping apart? In the process of
creation, heaven and earth were first apart and are called to come together
[41:11], while 21:30 states they were originally one piece and then ripped apart.”

First let us look at the text of each verse. Verse 30 of Soorah al-Ambiyaa’
states:

$Z)ø?u‘ $tFtR%Ÿ2 uÚö‘F{$#ur ÏNºuq»yJ¡¡9$# ¨br& (#ÿrãxÿx. tûïÏ%©!$# ttƒ óOs9urr& )

( $yJßg»oYø)tFxÿsù

“Have not those who disbelieved known that the heavens and the earth
were joined together, then I split them apart?

On the other hand, verses 11 and 12 of Soorah Fussilat say:

$u‹ÏKø$# ÇÚö‘F|Ï9ur $olm; tA$s)sù ×b%s{ߊ }‘Édur Ïä!$uK¡¡9$# ’n<Î) #“uqtGó™$# §NèO )

’Îû ;N#uq»yJy™ yìö7y™ £`ßg9ŸÒs)sù ÇÊÊÈ tûüÏèͬ!$sÛ $oY÷s?r& !$tGs9$s% $\döx. ÷rr& %·æöqsÛ

( $ydtøBr& >ä!$yJy™ Èe@ä. ’Îû 4‘ym÷rr&ur Èû÷ütBöqtƒ

64
“And He turned to the heaven, when it was smoke and said to it and
the earth: ‘Come, both of you willingly or unwillingly!’—to which
both responded, ‘We come in obedience.’ And He decreed that they

64
The Arabic word is thumma. It is a conjunction which generally indicates an order of events but
at other times is used for a more abstract ordering. Muhammad Asad understood it not to be
ordinal here, so he translated it as ‘and.’ See Diyaa’ as-Saalik ilaa Awdah al-Masaalik for an
explanation of the meanings and usage of thumma. See the Qur’aan, 2:198-9 and 6:154 for other
examples of its nonordinal usage.

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