Commentary
The ships are the ones that sail. It has been read as 'the ships' by omitting the 'ya' and raising the 'ra'. Similar to: 'It has four beautiful incisors... and four, so they are all eight.' [The incisors are the front teeth, and the apparent meaning of the verse is that there are four above and four below, so all of its incisors are eight.
And it has been narrated: 'So its mouth is eight,' and this narration corresponds to what is commonly known that the incisors are two above and two below, making four. Following them are similar ones, the canines, and following them are similar ones, the premolars, and what remains are the molars. Then the wisdom teeth. And the defective noun is treated like the sound noun, so 'eight' is raised as a predicate for the subject, and the omitted 'ya' has become forgotten.]
And the elevated structures are the legal sails. [The saying 'and the elevated structures are the legal sails' in the correct narrations refers to 'the sails' of the ship. (A)] It has also been read with a kasra on the 'sheen': they are the sails that raise or create the waves by their movement. And the 'a'lam is the plural of 'alam', which means a tall mountain.
Explore Other Scholars on This Verse
Compare different scholarly perspectives on Surah Ar-Rahman verse 24