Why is the term “hot air” not used instead of the word “smoke” in verse 11 of the chapter of Fussilat?

- Somebody says: Why does the Quran not use the word “hot air” instead of the word “smoke” in verse 11 of the chapter of Fussilat?
- The phrase hot air exists in Arabic because there is hot air in the first gas phase of the universe. Unlike smoke, it has no particles and carbon; it is only a hot gas consisting of helium and hydrogen.
- Is the phrase hot not air more appropriate than the word smoke?

Dear Brother / Sister,

The one who knows best how to describe something and with what words is the one who does it. “The one who does knows and the one who knows speaks.”

Accordingly, the one who knows best about a subject about the creation of the universe is the one who made it:

“...Should He not know,- He that created? and He is the One that understands the finest mysteries (and) is well-acquainted (with them).“ (al-Mulk, 67/14)

Therefore, whatever the Creator explains and with whatever words He expresses it, it is the most correct, the most beautiful, the most beneficial, the wisest and the best.

Our duty is to try to understand the word and art of the Creator.

Besides, the Quran means to say thousands of things, not one. There are many things among what it means to say that are not yet known. So, the verse also mentions the things that are not yet understood.

On the other hand, the Quran was not sent to a certain time or to certain people, but to all times and all beings. All times and all beings will take their share from it. In that case, the Quran will also address those who have come and will come from the time it was revealed to the Day of Judgment, and will teach them lessons.

The translations of the verses in question are as follows:

“He Allah) set on the (earth), mountains standing firm, high above it, and bestowed blessings on the earth, and measure therein all things to give them nourishment in due proportion, in four Days, in accordance with (the needs of) those who seek (Sustenance). Moreover, He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth: ‘Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly.’ They said: ‘We do come (together), in willing obedience.’ So He completed them as seven firmaments in two Days...” (Fussilat, 41/10-12)

Although gases such as hydrogen and oxygen are invisible to the naked eye, a visible smoke or a gas mass that looks like smoke is mentioned here. At this stage, the first object in creation or the one immediately after it - which might be hydrogen, the major component of water - could have led to the formation of a wide variety of gases and possibly tiny particles of matter.

The interpretations of tafsir scholars on those verses are summarized as follows:

While Hz. Ali (d. 40 H / 661 AD), who is a man of science and wisdom, swore that the skies were created from water and smoke, some tafsir scholars interpreted the word “dukhan-smoke” in the verse as steam.

Some of them argue that smoke or, according to another interpretation, steam consists of the first substance “water”.

According to some others, when Allah first dried the water on whose upper part was the “Arsh (Throne)” and transformed it into ard (earth), He also created the skies from the smoke (or steam) arising from it.

Mujahid, one of the scholars of the second Islamic generation, actually believes that the ards were created from “water-ma”, which took place during the second creation after the Arsh. However, according to him, the smoke (nebula mass) did not come directly from the water, but separated from the mass of ard. According to Ibn Kathir (d. 774 H / 1372 AD), who seems to have adopted the same views, this smoke that forms the sky consists of water vapor.

Ibnul-Jawzi (508-597 H / 1114-1200 AD), who has various works in the field of Islamic sciences, states that there are two different views on the formation of the smoke in question while interpreting the verse mentioning the smoke stage of the sky:

1) When Allah created water, He sent winds over it. Thanks to this, smoke came out of it and rose. Therefore, He gave it the name “sama’-sky” meaning high.

2) When Allah created the earth, He exposed it to fire and hence smoke rose from it. Therefore, He gave it the name sama’.

According to the information given by Bayhaqi, Ibn Abbas (d. 68 H /687 AD) says that water and then “nun” were created after the Throne (Arsh), and the world was laid on “nun”. Then, the skies were created from the water vapor rising from there, by breaking apart. “Nun” is one of the letters in the Arabic language but it also means inkstand, sword blade and fish.

“Nun” constitutes the first formation of the earth as a core and the world is spread over it according to the information Bayhaqi gives. If the attribution of this information to Ibn Abbas is true, is what he means by “nun” really fish, as many people understand, or is it the first central core of the earth? If we look at the Arabic writing of the letter “Nun” or the shape of the inkstand, we can conclude that Ibn Abbas regarded it as a core.

Listing the views on this issue, the Andalusian scholar Qurtubi prefers the conclusion of Qatada (d. 118 H / 736 AD): The mass of smoke in which the skies were created was created before our world.

According to a view from Hz. Ali and Ibn Abbas, it is said that first the pen and then the inkstand called “nun” belonging to the pen was created. Again, Ibn Abbas says that the earth is laid on the “nun”.

The creation of the pen in the first place can only have a metaphorical meaning. It may be an explanation that creation began according to a predestination and arrangement. Accordingly, the first core of the universe would be formed.

Tabari (224-310 H / 838-922 AD), who is considered one of the first authors of tafsir and history, Ibn Masud (d. 32 H / 652 AD), the founder of the school of Kufa, and Suddi (d. 127 H / 744 AD), who also lived there and is understood to be interested in space issues, the smoke mass, from which the skies were created, formed with the aeration of water (breathing).

The prevailing view in the information we have given so far is the formation of the earth’s core or a mass belonging to it and whose laying and spreading have not been completed yet from water, and the creation of the skies as a result of an explosion and separation from the mass of smoke or steam rising from it.

The approaches that can be included in this main framework are the views conveyed by Zamakhshari (456-538 H / 1074-1143 AD) and Shaykh al-Islam Abussuud.

The view that Zamakhshari regards as a weak possibility and that originally belongs to Ibn Masud and some Companions is as follows. “Allah’s Throne was above the water before the creation of the skies and the earth. Allah produced smoke from the water and this smoke rose above the water and ascended to high places. Allah dried the water and created a single earth from it and then the other earths by blasting it into pieces (fatq) and then He created the skies from the smoke that ascended.”

According to this understanding, the earth was created from dried water while the skies were created from its smoke or vapor, but the smoke existed before the creation of both the earth and the sky.

According to Abussuud’s view, which deals with the issue slightly differently, the following is stated:

“Before the creation of the skies and the earth, the Throne was above the water. Then Allah the Almighty caused turbulence in the water and created foam. Smoke (or steam) separated from the water and rose; and the layer of foam remained on the water. Allah dried this foam and created first a single earth from it and then other earths from it by blasting and splitting it. As for smoke, it ascended and went up to high places, and Allah created the skies from it.”

According to this view, as in the book of Zamakhshari, before the earth and sky were created, water was transformed into smoke, and the earths were formed from the condensation of the foam layer that formed at the same time. The density that we can call a kind of central core that we have seen before was replaced by foaming and then its drying and solidification took place.

It is not possible not to remember a part of the glorification prayer that is performed by some imams in mosques after the morning prayer and that is attributed to Abu Hanifa (d. 150 H / 767 AD). The following is stated in that prayer; “Praise be to Allah, who spread the ground on frozen water.”

While interpreting the verse “Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke” (Fussilat, 41/11), Abussuud attributes the reason why this mass is called smoke to the fact that its substance is dark or it consists of very small particles or because it is a smoke rising from water.

We can say that this nebula mass will not emit light at such a stage, and that it will also be composed of a wide variety of gases and small particles, which is more realistic.

It will be useful to include the explanation made by the western scientist Maurice Bucaille based on the verse in question:

“The formation of the heavenly bodies and the Earth required two phases. If we take the Sun and its sub product the Earth as an example, science informs us that their formation occurred by a process of condensation of the primary nebula and then their separation. This is exactly what the Quran expresses very clearly when it refers to the processes that produced a fusion and subsequent separation starting from a celestial smoke.”

“The basic process in the formation of the universe lay in the condensing of material in the primary nebula followed by its division into fragments that originally constituted galactic masses. The latter in their turn split up into stars that provided the subproduct of the process, i.e., the planets.” (see Prof. Dr. Celal Yeniçeri, Uzay Ayetleri Tefsiri, Erkam Publications, 55-60)

As time gets older, the Quran gets younger and its realities are understood better. Science confirms the Quran. Scholars should not be left behind.

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