The Thunder
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE
[13:2]
It is God who has raised the heavens without any supports that you could see, and is established on the throne of His almightiness; and He [it is who] has made the sun and the moon subservient [to His laws], each running its course for a term set [by Him]. He governs all that exists.
Clearly does He spell out these messages, so that you might be certain in your innermost that you are destined to meet your Sustainer [on Judgment Day].


* v.2 : For an explanation of this phrase, see sūrah 7, note 43. As regards the “raising of the heavens without any supports” visible to man, it should be borne in mind that the noun samā’ denotes, primarily, “something that is above [another thing],” and is used – mostly in its plural form samāwāt – to describe (a) the visible skies (as well as, occasionally, the clouds), (b) the cosmic space in which the stars, the solar systems (including our own), and the galaxies pursue their course. and (c) the abstract concept of the forces emanating from God (since He is, in the metonymical sense of this word, “above” all that exists). To my mind, it is the second of these three meanings of samāwāt to which the above verse refers: namely, to the spatial universe in which all aggregations of matter – be they planets, stars, nebulae, or galaxies – are, as it were, “suspended” in space within a system of unceasing motion determined by centrifugal forces and mutual, gravitational attraction.
* This may refer either to the end of the world as we know it – thus indicating the finality of all creation – or, according to ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās (as quoted by Baghawī and Rāzī), to the “mansions” or stages through which the sun and the moon, like all other celestial bodies, move in time as well as in space.
* I.e., “so that you might realize that He who has created the universe and governs all that exists is equally able to resurrect the dead, and to judge you in the life to come in accordance with what you did when you were alive on earth.”