21:104Al-Anbiyaa

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.