Tafsir Ibn Abbas: Fussilat, Ayah 12
Common Words
Other Scholars on This Ayah
Tafsir
Then He ordained them the suffixed pronoun refers back to al-samā’ ‘the heaven’ because it al-samā’ actually denotes that plural sense to which it will lead in the following clause in other words He made them to be seven heavens in two days — Thursday and Friday. He completed them in the last hour thereof in which He created Adam — which is why He does not say sawā’an ‘evenly’ here as He did earlier; what is said here concords with those verse in which it is stated that the heavens and the earth were created in six days; and in each heaven He revealed its commandment’ that to which He commanded those in it to follow in the way of obedience and worship. And We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps with stars and this was also to guard them hifzan is in the accusative because of its implicit verbal sense in other words ‘We guarded it against the devils lest they try to listen therein to the angels by stealth with meteors’. That is the ordaining of the Mighty in His kingdom the Knower of His creatures.
Ibn Abbas Commentary
(Then He ordained them) He created them (seven heavens) one above the other (in two Days) each day the equivalent of 1,000 years of the years of the life of this world (and inspired in each heaven its mandate) He created for each heaven its inhabitants and commanded it its command; (and we decked the nether heaven) the first heaven (with lamps) with stars, (and rendered it inviolable) and We protected it by means of the stars from the satans, such that some stars are an adornment for the heaven and remain fix, and some of which are used for finding directions in the darkness of land and sea and some are missiles sent against the satans. (That is the measuring) the providence (of the Mighty) in retribution against those who disbelieve in Him, (the Knower) of His providence as well as of those who believe in Him and those who do not.