Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:6
To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth and what is between them and what is under the soil.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Exposition of the word of Allah the Exalted: لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا وَمَا تَحْتَ الثَّرَى (Verse 6)
(To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth and whatever is between them and whatever is beneath the moist soil.)
Allah the Exalted says: To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth and whatever is between them and whatever is beneath the ṯarā — as His property. He is the Administrator of all that and the Disposer over the whole. By al-ṯarā He means: the moist soil.
Moist, wet earth is called ṯarā — a deficient word (a nomen defectivum). One says of it: ṯariyat al-arḍu taṯrā (the earth became moist) — ṯarā is a deficient word; and al-ṯarā is a maṣdar (verbal noun).
In accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes have said.
Among those who said this:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word وَمَا تَحْتَ الثَّرَى : al-ṯarā is everything that is moist.
It was reported to me from al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd reported to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His word وَمَا تَحْتَ الثَّرَى : that which is dug up of moist earth — and by this he meant: what is beneath the seven earths.
As Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sulaymī — known as Ibn Ṣadrān — related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Rifāʿa related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, concerning وَمَا تَحْتَ الثَّرَى : he said: al-ṯarā are the seven earths.
