'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

"And We made in the earth firm mountains so it does not sway with them, and We made therein broad paths so that perhaps they may be guided." "And We made the heaven a protected canopy, and they are turning away from its signs." "And He is the One who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all in an orbit are swimming."

"The firm mountains" is the plural of "firm," meaning stable. It is said: "He anchored" means he became stable and settled. It is only used for large bodies such as mountains and ships and the like. It is narrated that the earth was swaying with its inhabitants until Allah, the Exalted, made it heavy with mountains, so it became stable. And "swaying" means movement. And "broad paths" are the wide ways in the mountains and elsewhere, and "paths" is the plural of "path." The pronoun in His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "in it" can refer to the firm mountains, and it can refer to the earth, and the latter is better. And "they may be guided" means: in their paths and dealings.

And "the canopy" is what is above, and the protection here is general in protection from devils and from revelation and falling and other calamities.

And "its signs" are its stars, its rains, thunder, lightning, and other things that resemble them. A group read: "from its signs" in the singular, which refers to the genus.

And "the orbit" is the circular body of the day and the night, so everything in that is swimming and moving.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And some of the interpreters spoke about what the orbit is, and some of them said: like the stone of the mill, and some of them said: like the millstone, and other than this which should not be imagined. However, we know that the orbit is a round body, and "they are swimming" means: they are moving. And a group said: the orbit is a restrained wave, and they understood His saying: "they are swimming" from swimming, which is swimming.