Tafseer of The Overthrowing · At-Takwir · 81:11
And when the sky is stripped away
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.
Statement concerning the interpretation of the word of the Exalted: وَإِذَا السَّمَاءُ كُشِطَتْ ("And when the heaven is stripped away") (81:11).
The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: and when the heaven is torn off and stripped away and then rolled up.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his word: كُشِطَتْ ("stripped away") — he said: torn off.
And it is reported that in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh [ibn Masʿūd] it is "qushiṭat" with the qāf. And "al-qashṭ" and "al-kashṭ" have the same meaning; that is a conversion by the Arabs of the kāf into a qāf, on account of the closeness of the articulation places of the two, just as one says "qāfūr" for "kāfūr," and "kusṭ" for "qusṭ." That occurs frequently in their speech: when the articulation place of two letters lies close to one another, they substitute each of the two for the other, as in their pronunciation of "al-athāfī" as "athāthī," and "thawb farqabī" and "tharqabī."
