Qur’an 6:125 Refutes the Doubt: Does “Ascending into the Sky” Really Mean Rising Upward?
Impotence in Front of the Miracle of the Qur’an: As if He Is Ascending into the Sky
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Heretic’s Claim
- The Real Meaning of “Ascending”
- Lisan al-Arab and Taj al-Arus
- Further Dictionary Evidence
- The Arabic Usage of Ascension for Hardship
- Al-Tha‘alibi’s Tafsir of the Verse
- Conclusion
Introduction
It is known that the miracle is not complete unless the impotence is proven before it. Therefore, let us convey the attempt of a common heretic who tries to exert effort and use linguistic deception to overcome the miracle of the Holy Qur’an.
The Heretic’s Claim
“So whoever Allah wants to guide, He expands his breast to Islam. And whoever He wants to misguide, He makes his breast tight and constricted as if he were ascending into the sky.”
— Al-An‘am 6:125
The miracle-mongers claim that this verse has informed of the scientific truth that the higher a person ascends into the sky, the lower the atmospheric pressure and the less the amount of oxygen, which causes chest tightness and difficulty breathing.
As the huge change in atmospheric pressure that occurs when rapidly ascending into the sky causes chest tightness and constriction in a person.
Come, let us see what the alleged word really says: يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ.
Does it really mean ascending to the top?
The truth is that يَصَّعَّدُ فِي does not mean what the great scholar is trying to stick it to.
يَصَّعَّدُ.
And the thing is, the man made an effort and reached a scientific answer from him.
The Real Meaning of “Ascending”
The gist of the subject is that the heretic denies that the meaning of “ascends” means “ascend to the top.”
To establish the evidence for his words, he used one dictionary and did not quote what dozens of other dictionaries say.
There is no doubt that the author of this nonsense is a layman who has no connection to the Arabic language, because the meaning of “ascends” in Arabic dictionaries is “ascend to the top.”
Or he wanted to deliberately deceive to convince his brothers in religion based on the Almighty’s saying:
— Noble Qur’an
Lisan al-Arab and Taj al-Arus
Let us see what Lisan al-Arab said by Ibn Manzur on this subject:
“He ascended: he ascended the place and there is an ascent in it and he ascended and ascended: he climbed a high place.”
Then Al-Azhari said:
“Ascending, in my opinion, is like ascending. God Almighty said: As if he ascends in the sky. It is said: he ascended, ascended, and ascended, with one meaning.”
Al-Zubaidi also quoted the same words of Al-Azhari in Taj al-Arus:
“Al-Azhari said: Ascending, in my opinion, is like ascending. God Almighty said: As if he ascends in the sky. It is said: he ascended, ascended, and ascended, with one meaning.”
The meaning is to ascend higher.
Further Dictionary Evidence
And we continue to list the rest of the linguistic dictionaries.
— Al-Muhkam wa al-Muhit al-A‘zam, Ibn Sidah, 1/285, chapters ‘Ayn with Sad
— Asas al-Balagha, Al-Zamakhshari, 2/92
Up to here, the heretic’s claim has been dropped by dozens of dictionaries.
The Arabic Usage of Ascension for Hardship
And now let us educate ourselves in the Arabic language, which is exposed to war by the heretics alongside the Holy Qur’an.
Hardship is necessary for ascending mountains, so one of them is caused by the other, and the second is its origin.
The root is ascent, and its necessary consequence is hardship.
The dictionary of language standards states:
“The letters Sad, ‘Ayn, and Dal are a correct root, indicating elevation and hardship. From this is ascent — the opposite of descent — and it is said he ascended, he ascends.”
The Arabs borrowed the word yas‘adu to indicate hardship, and this does not prevent it from having the original meaning of ascent, which is rising, and this is what the Arabs know.
Take, for example, the word majd.
Its root is: the belly of an animal being full of fodder. Then it was borrowed to indicate elevation, because it is evidence of a person being full of praiseworthy qualities.
So the metaphor took the necessary consequence of majd, which is fullness. Whoever expresses it as the belly of an animal being full is not mistaken, because he mentioned its origin.
See: Al-Mu‘rab fi al-Qur’an al-Karim, Dr. Muhammad Balasi, p. 13.
Al-Tha‘alibi’s Tafsir of the Verse
We conclude with Al-Tha‘alibi’s interpretation of the noble verse.
Al-Tha‘alibi says in his interpretation Al-Jawahir al-Hisan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an regarding this verse:
“And His, the Most High, saying, ‘Then he ascends into the sky’ means as if this narrow-chested person, whenever he tries to believe or thinks about it, finds it difficult for him — God forbid — like the difficulty of ascending into the sky. Ibn Jurayj and others said that by the sky he means from the bottom to the top, and the verse may be a simile to someone ascending a difficult obstacle as if he is ascending through it into the air. ‘Ascends’ means ‘rises’ and ‘ascends’ means he undertakes what is difficult for him.”
The word indicates rising upward, and the image also carries the sense of hardship and constriction. This is exactly what the verse expresses.
Conclusion
So he brought one meaning for the word “ascends” and concealed from his friends what the rest of the language dictionaries say in order to deceive, then he accused the Muslim scholars of deception.
The dictionaries, the usage of the Arabs, and the tafsir all destroy his claim.