Surah 81 AL-TAKWEER-By spreading around revelation of God when listed things have been achieved by mankind they will have served purpose of God and ensured their own well being as a proper human community in kingdom of God with help and full support of each other, so all must adopt God advised way of life by giving up all other ways of life if they wish to reach the right destination properly.
This surah is named AL-TAKWEER from root KAAF, WOW and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is headgear or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose. Also turban or hat or cap or helmet or head-cover or head scarf or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, top or lid or cover or stopper or cork or bung or plug or crown or summit or peak or pinnacle or crest or brow or brink or ridge or mountaintop or tip or apex or vertex or acme or apogee or highest position or highest rank or highest degree or highest grade or something first rate or top quality or top class or top notch or ace or maximum or utmost or peerless or unsurpassed or unparalleled or best or unique or one of a kind or superior or superb or excellent or of highest status or topmost or uppermost or upmost or loftiest or furthest up or foremost or leading or top-tier or principle or preeminent or greatest or finest or worthiest or highest or cream of the crop or top part or section of something or ruling elite or leadership or monarchy or kingship or emperorship or command and control centre or central nervous system or central processing unit or brain or mind or focal point or centre of gravity or anchorage or something upon which something stands or is founded or anchored or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, chief or president or king or monarch or queen or leader or guide or teacher or instructor or trainer or master or pointer or director or head of department or head of government or head of state or head of an organisation or association or circle or society or company or centre of attention or someone around whom things revolve or upon whom things depend or low life or downtrodden or low class or working class or low caste or a wide but low in height person or someone alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, travel gear or bellows or succession of day and night or township or habitat or place of stay or rest or residence or lodging or dwelling or land or country of stay or origin or homeland or a kingdom or things and preparations needed for some sort of journey to some end or destination or succession of day and night phenomenon around the earth globe as the earth rotated on its axis under the beam of sunlight, a place wherein people have settled down or a city or a residential area, a headdress consisting of a long piece of cloth wound around a small cap or directly around the head or the lungs or the windbag or an apparatus for producing a strong current of air for some purpose or succession or something that rotates on its own axis like the earth and goes around something like the earth goes around the sun or the lifting of its tail by a horse during running or a ship full of grain or a large party or group or crowd or gathering or a herd of cattle or camels or a large number of things or a large amount of something or mood or habit or practice or behaviour or usual or normal conduct or character or a fire place or a heating apparatus or appliance that uses fire or furnace or hornets or hornet nest or camel litter or camel saddle or a clothe washer’s bundle of clothes or a pile of grain or a district or beehive in the ground or on the branch of a tree or fast running or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, soft or cuddly or fluffy or woolly or spongy or cushioning or shock absorbent or shock absorber or cushion or soft or comfortable seat or seat of power or control or influence or honour or wealth or riches or excellence or dignity or grace or something precious or highly valued or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, someone respectable or revered or graceful or gracious or kind or benevolent or compassionate or tender hearted or generous or noble or liberal or highly esteemed or valued or dignified or excellent or open minded or broadminded or the one open to new ideas or accommodating or obliging or cooperative or helpful or eager to help or adaptable or amenable or pliable or compliant or complaisant or indulgent or considerate or unselfish or civil or civilised or willing or polite or pleasant or kindly or hospitable or neighbourly or friendly or agreeable or decent or lavish or magnanimous or munificent or giving or open handed or free handed or bountiful or ungrudging or unstinting or unsparing or free or prodigal or benignant or rich or wealthy or overflowing or bountiful or magnificent or flush or inexhaustible or untiring or prolific or opulent or infinite or undefined or indefinite or unidentified or unfamiliar or unknown or unknowable or not famous or unrecognised or copious or great or big or huge or large or superabundant or beneficial or merciful or thoroughbred or noble-hearted or fertile or prone to doing favours or making sacrifices or costly or expensive or highly priced or dear or invaluable or priceless or beyond price or of incalculable worth or value or rare or irreplaceable or exquisite or inestimable or beloved or loved one or outstanding or unique or one of a kind or influential or effective or powerful or capable or high-minded or most exalted or the noblest or a free person or a highly productive or useful person or a nice person or gardener or care taker of a garden or a person of great character or a peaceful or peace loving person or a person who gives others their due respect or someone alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, addition or addendum or increase or growth or extension or enlargement or expansion or linkage or connection or contact or network or communication or transport or road network or bridging network or detail or explanation or elaboration or clarification or justification or explosion or manifestation or demonstration or protrusion or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to make plain or obvious or visible or manifest or clarify or expose or demonstrate or glorify or justify, to bring in the open or bring to light or uncover or discover or find out or search out or expand or detail or explain or blow or blow up or explode or open up or stretch or enlarge or extend or increase or grow or add or add up or extend or elaborate or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to form a network of people or things, to bridge the gaps, to bring things or people closer to each other, to create roads and transport systems, to bind or tie people or things together, to assemble or put together or combine, to be or become kind hearted, to be or become a soft touch, to provide with cushioning effect, to absorb a shock, to hook onto to something in some sense, to be or become linked or joined or connected or tied or bound to something in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to be gullible, to be taken for a fool or for a ride or made fool of, to not be disturbed easily, to take things easy or lightly, to be sincere or pure or genuine or original, to have heart of gold, to be stable minded or not disturbed easily, to be easy going, to be soft or cuddly or spongy or loveable, to cushion or cushion a shock or fall, to absorb a shock or be shock absorbent or shock absorber, to be happy or joyful, to be symbol of all that is good or be symbol of all goodness, to help someone without any thanks or favour in return, to help someone in such a way that the one helped does not feel burdened with favour, to be selfless, to live for ensuring well being of others, to take responsibility for, to accept liability for, to shoulder a responsibility or liability or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to carry a burden on one’s own back or shoulder one’s responsibility, to be ready to throw abuse at someone or prepare someone to name call someone or throw abuse at someone, to throw something on something else, to pass on the blame, to pass by or through very quickly or fast, to disgrace or disrespect or dishonour or debase, to deem weak or infirm or old or fragile or unstable or shaky, to weaken sunlight, to decrease strength of sunrays or sunbeam by using something as screen against sunlight or heat of the sun, to make one thing go into another, to interlace or make things go into each other, to lay down things in layers on top of each other, to throw someone down by thrusting spear in him, to walk or travel or move fast, to dig the ground, to put on a turban or headgear, to travel and go around places or wind up something eg an organisation or a mechanical clock or end something or put a stop to something or bring some ongoing process to a close or coil up or roll up something or conclude or make progress or regress or spiral up or spiral down or increase in size or value or decrease in size or value or complete a cycle or process, to trace a path on a rotating surface of an object like the sun beam traces a path on the surface of the earth to cause day and night phenomenon, to twist something like a piece of wool or fibre of some kind to turn it into a piece of thread or string or rope and to wind it around something like a turban is wrapped around the head or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to turn or circle or coil or circulate or wind or revolve or rotate or spin or twist or bend or cycle or go around and round or make rounds or go round and round around something or frequent or repeated or keep coming back or returning or make a circuit or complete a cycle or turn or reverse or keep reversing or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to try and catch or catch up with or go round and round around something in some way as if one thing is chasing the other to catch it, to coil up, to wind a clock, to overlap, to irritate or wind up someone to upset one’s mood, to provoke or enrage or make angry, to throw or throw down or throw down someone on one’s back, to flung, to hurl, to suffer reverse, to to defeat or humble or win over or triumph or be victorious, to force to submit or yield or accept defeat or give in or give up, to overcome or overpower or surround or encompass or cover or cover up or cover from all sides or everywhere or wrap up or envelop or hide or veil or conceal or shield or shelter or protect or screen or preserve or save or guard or defend or stand in for or stand in place of or take the place of or cover for or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to excel or surpass or outshine or outstrip or outdo or do better than or crown or cap or finish or coat or overspread, to alternate or change or vary or to move around or deviate or budge or shift or follow or pursue or go after or make something go round and round or go around or go about or gather around or cause to fall or fall down or tumble or move away or wrap up a piece of cloth around the head or wind a piece of cloth around the head to turn it into a turban or twist a turban around the head or roll up, to harvest or to wind up or conclude or wrap up an organisation or set up or end a task or complete a process or finalise something, to gather or gather together, to seek one another in quick succession around something, to try and catch each other around something or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to think or reflect or ponder or contemplate or plot or scheme or conspire or plan ahead or in advance, to understand or comprehend or grasp or come to grips with, to imagine or visualise or see or observe or look at or view or consider or estimate or evaluate or judge or examine or analyse or scrutinise or deem or have in sight or view or have insight into, to gossip or slander or backbite or spread rumours or accuse falsely or debate or discuss or dispute or differ or oppose or go against or give a talk or deliver a lecture or make a speech or teach or direct or point out or instruct or train or lead or guide or rule or administer or manage or handle or take care of or look after or control or overpower or overcome or take control of or take over or bring under control or deal with or put up with, to fold or fold up or shroud or enshroud or enshroud or wrap up or cover up in mystery or confusion or disorder or anarchy or darkness or darkness of ignorance, to eclipse, to efface, to fuel the fire or provide more and more oxygen for the fire to make it go hotter or burn fiercely or bellow the fire or blow at the fire or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, palm of hand or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, hook or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, head or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose etc etc.
This surah is named AL-TAKWEER not because word KUWWIR is used in this surah but because it is a surah that explains what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen and most importantly why it will happen. The whole Quran is full of longest to shortest lectures wherein it talks about all things mankind need to know for living in this world properly. However it is up to people to understand the Quran properly and adopt it faithfully or to live as they wish to live and suffer the consequences explained in the Quran. The Quran makes it absolutely clear that time will come when deen of Islam will become fully established in the kingdom of God regardless what opponents of the message of the Quran think or do. The Quran also talks about various stages of human development and progression from totally ignorant human beings to highly learned and knowledgeable human beings. It is made clear in the Quran that there are three ways open to mankind to learn knowledge. A)Personal life experience based learning through interacting with things. This is why people are told to use their brains, senses, bodies and all the rest that is provided for them for this purpose properly. B)The other source of information for mankind to learn knowledge from is revelation from God. However to understand revelation of God properly people need deepest and widest life experience based knowledge. It is due to the fact that one cannot make proper sense of revelation of God in isolation from real world realities and that is because God has sent his message for mankind to live in the real world properly so that the purpose for which God has created everything including mankind could become fulfilled, therefore if people have no idea about the real world and its realities then how can they live in it properly? This is why humanity has third option as well ie option c. C)This way of learning knowledge is based upon the idea of using both the options already told. This way one can test one’s knowledge about real world and its realities against one’s knowledge based upon revelation of God and one’s knowledge based upon revelation of God against one’s knowledge about the real world and its realities. If one has understood them both properly then one will see clearly that one’s proper understanding of real world and its realities will complement one’s proper understanding of revelation of God. However if one has made any mistakes in understanding them both or either of them then both will be seen at odds with each other ie they will be seen in conflict with each other. If this happens one should be ready to review one’s understanding to see what mistake has occurred, where, why or how etc. For the time being a lot of mistakes will occur because humanity is at the beginning end of learning things but as time goes on and people keep on refining things and keep on improving their knowledge about things and become better and better at learning things, the number of mistakes will become negligible or will reduced to a bare minimum. Mistakes should not be allowed by a person to dishearten oneself. As the saying goes Rome was not built in a day, so we should not expect to become learned or fully knowledgeable in one sitting or even in one day or in one week or in one month or even in one year rather learning is a lifelong process and it has taken many human generation for us to be where we are today and it will likewise take many more human generations to be where we need to be. All a person can do is, do one’s best according to one’s God given abilities and things will keep moving in the right direction, which God has set for things to move.
This surah is about signs or stages that will appear along the way of this missionary struggle before actual worldwide establishment of the way of life advised by God for mankind. It tells us everything will be done by mankind themselves for making this happen. There is a sequence of events eg first the mankind will spread the Quran worldwide. Next there will come about people who will know the message of the Quran properly. These proper scholars of the Quran will spread throughout the world and will help mankind understand the Quran properly. As people will become better and better in knowing things they will force changes in their own human societies in the right direction. This process will continue till mankind reach the destination the Quran has already told them already. There is going to be a lot of time involved in each of these events because the Quran cannot be distributed in one day nor the scholars who will know the Quran properly can be produced overnight. Not only that but it will take proper scholars of the Quran a lot of time to educate worldwide human population about the Quran properly. There is going to be resistance as well along the way by masters of this world who control bread and butter of humanity because that is the way human population has organised and regulated itself so things will remain as they are till that human population learns the proper way of doing things and reorganises and reregulates itself according to proper purpose based ideology or deen of Islam. Only and only then various kinds of negative divisions and discriminations will be gotten rid of and gap between rich and poor will disappear as people become one under God and learn to live as a proper human family in kingdom of their creator and sustainer. However the way people end dominance of a few over masses is up to the masses as well as up to the master of humanity themselves. This is why both options are mentioned in the Quran. Before worldwide establishment of way of life based upon the Quran we are told political landscape will be evened out. This could be done in three ways. a)Through education based revolution alone if people do not resist this movement and take part in it whole heartedly b)Through bloody revolution first and then education based revolution and c)Through evolutionary processes which involve bits of both here and there but not everywhere. Option a is the fastest way to get to the desired goal and option c is the slowest to get to the goal. However all this is up to people themselves to decide and do. Uprisings will keep on taking place here and there unless mankind stop doing to each other what they are doing to each other and reform. In this Surah the main thing is information about possible future events and situations and the fact that the Quran is not to be taken lightly because it is only and only for the benefit of mankind themselves. The proof of divine origin of the Quran is that it gives right information to people to educate them so that they could see where in lies their own well being in actual fact. This is never done by any selfish self interest motivated leadership because they are in the power game for themselves and not for helping others to do better for themselves as well as others. If any good is coming to anyone it is only an inevitable by product which they cannot avoid or stop. People try to keep their information a secret because to them knowledge is power and no one wants to share power with anyone if one wishes to be the sole person in power over others. Power secrets are guarded very jealously by rulers, mullahs and money lenders as well as rest of humanity through incentive of personal gains or coercion or peer pressure etc etc. The Quran however wants each and every bit of information to be shared by all with all without any restrictions of copyright. A clear evidence the Quran is revealed by God and that messenger sent by God is truly his messenger or why will he share such powerful information with others instead of using it to his advantage?
The Quran is very clear that harmful and destructive people will try their best to not to let this world become a paradise without a fight to the finish. So before this world becomes a beautiful place things may have to turn really ugly so that people get fed up with that situation and then look for ways to get out of it and then if they pay attention to message of the Quran they may turn the world around into a living paradise. It is because people just get used to living the way things happen to be till they get so bad that they must do something about it to bring about at least some desperately needed change. This is what triggers uprisings or bloody revolutions that the Quran reminds people about which ignorant people say are just made up tales of the ancient. Words and their meanings must also be paid attention because meanings depend on their roots and roots are based upon individual letters which have certain concepts attached to them because that is how human language developed. Originally people used to draw pictures of things they had in their minds and they used gestures for communications between themselves just like other animals from whom they learned their way of communicating with each other. That is because human beings learned things by observing other things which existed since before them. Since mental pictures were actually drawn to convey information to each other which was in peoples’ minds therefore those pictures and their related concepts became standardised over time and later pictures were changed into letters and then letters were modified for ease of writing so humanity ended up with what we have today. However original concepts remained intact that is how we know even today how human languages came to be. The main thing is humans used their languages as it suited them so most of the concepts and mechanisms whereby they were derived became specialised thing and masses became used to daily used languages. This is how dictionaries of languages came about wherein people simply put words and their frequently used meanings to help them communicate with each other. Later people also tried to trace origin of words and their meanings so new dictionaries came about. However now there is need for dictionaries that are written for understanding revelations of God. This type of dictionaries have to be based upon idea of mechanism used for development of human language so that then possible meanings of words could also be included which may have been used in the past but are no longer used today or that which may be used in time to come. This need arose due to concept of revelation of God because God could not use present form of language in the past because people of those times could not be familiar with later words and their meanings or uses which had not yet been invented and used by people of the past. Not only that God could not tell people about future things he wanted to tell them in the language of their daily use because people will have taken things the wrong way whereas purpose of revelation of God was to correct human concepts about things and not to reinforce their wrong understandings of things. This could only be done if words used by people could also have more meanings than used by people so that concepts conveyed by God could be understood by people when they reached that stage of realisation. Now that stage has been reached this is why there is need for this kind of works on the Quran. It is therefore vitally important that people become familiar with concepts relating language discussed in this study of the Quranic text. Humanity has been struggling with messages from God always and that will remain the case till people have invented or discovered what they need to know for proper understanding of the message from God. God did not start revealing his messages to mankind till they were able to make use of them at least to some degree. All this has been explained in detail already. In this surah word ASH-SHAMS means the Quran, the brilliant light of knowledge from God for the universal establishment of the way of life based upon it for ensuring well being of mankind through themselves as a proper human community in the kingdom of God. However as explained already the verses of the Quran have parallel complementary meanings as well so it also means the sun in the sky which orbits along with the rest of solar system within its own galaxy which is full of other solar systems as well. It is not possible for life to exist on the earth without the sun. Long before sun loses its light and heat, humanity will be gone either to some other place in this universe or be dead already. So the Quran is not describing the end of the world but the beginning of the new way of life whereby people will start living and judging their affairs ie a time will come when deen of Islam will becomes established in this world and that is what is meant by words YAUM AL QIYAAMAH. This Surah predicts big changes in the world to come after the revelation of the Quran till the time when humanity will accept living by guidance of Allah. All opposing elements will either become convinced therefore accept following guidance of Allah or they will have been eliminated by uprisings against such elements by the masses.
If we look at modes of learning then there are only three possible ways people can learn and do things. a)evolutionary b)revelation based and c)a bit of both. Ultimately humanity must reach stage of self organisation and self regulation in this world as a proper human community in a kingdom. To do so is not possible without proper knowledge of real world and its realities as well as proper knowledge of revelation of God. This could not be done through evolutionary learning alone, because as humanity grows with time each generation only makes a very limited progress in knowledge so accumulating the needed information for self organising and self regulating proper human community in a kingdom could take it forever yet it could not have reached that stage because it had no solid foundation to base itself upon hence the need for revealed guidance from God. The question is, how can evolution and revelation lead humanity to where it should be? The answer is, evolutionary interaction between individuals and groups is based upon conflicts and compromises. As people fight each other for their individual and group vested interests a bit of progress is bound to be made each time there is conflict and compromise. In other words such interaction leads to better skills for survival and that means better knowledge and better realisation of things. If this process continues for as long as it is needed then ultimately humanity will reach a stage whereat it could become confused about its origin, purpose and function at least. This is where in comes revelation of God to guide it to its God set destination. The difference the revelation of Allah can make to existence of humanity is the teaching ie the teacher teaches people what they will learn over many, many generations on their own through personal experiences in a very short time. This is what messengers of Allah and their supporters have proven by their examples. It is as if you take one human baby and leave him on his own to learn and do things all by himself and take another human baby and put him through an educational institution to learn and do the very same things and after a while compare them both to each other and see who has learned more and quicker and faced less troubles. So if people are educated about things they need to know then they can come to same point or goal very quickly as compared to not educating them at all. Not only that but people will also save themselves from a lot of unnecessary effort and painful suffering as well. It is easier to learn fire burns through teaching with less pain and effort as compare to jumping into the fire to find out, it burns. The third option is life experience as well as learning through teaching here and there. This also cuts down the time and the suffering but it depends on how much is learned through teaching rather than through personal experience. In short we are talking about development of human mindset, attitude and behaviour fit for self organised and self regulated proper human community in a kingdom and the time it can take for it if it is put through various modes of learning and doing things to reach that stage. So the Quran keeps all these options open for mankind to the very end. In other words Allah has given life and death of people in their own hands so it is up to people themselves to choose what they want out of their lives as individuals and as groups just like other animals in a jungle but with sense and his revelation to turn this jungle into a living paradise for themselves.
This surah is named AL-TAKWEER from root KAAF, WOW and RAA. Concrete meaning of this root is headgear or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose. Also turban or hat or cap or helmet or head-cover or head scarf or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, top or lid or cover or stopper or cork or bung or plug or crown or summit or peak or pinnacle or crest or brow or brink or ridge or mountaintop or tip or apex or vertex or acme or apogee or highest position or highest rank or highest degree or highest grade or something first rate or top quality or top class or top notch or ace or maximum or utmost or peerless or unsurpassed or unparalleled or best or unique or one of a kind or superior or superb or excellent or of highest status or topmost or uppermost or upmost or loftiest or furthest up or foremost or leading or top-tier or principle or preeminent or greatest or finest or worthiest or highest or cream of the crop or top part or section of something or ruling elite or leadership or monarchy or kingship or emperorship or command and control centre or central nervous system or central processing unit or brain or mind or focal point or centre of gravity or anchorage or something upon which something stands or is founded or anchored or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, chief or president or king or monarch or queen or leader or guide or teacher or instructor or trainer or master or pointer or director or head of department or head of government or head of state or head of an organisation or association or circle or society or company or centre of attention or someone around whom things revolve or upon whom things depend or low life or downtrodden or low class or working class or low caste or a wide but low in height person or someone alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, travel gear or bellows or succession of day and night or township or habitat or place of stay or rest or residence or lodging or dwelling or land or country of stay or origin or homeland or a kingdom or things and preparations needed for some sort of journey to some end or destination or succession of day and night phenomenon around the earth globe as the earth rotated on its axis under the beam of sunlight, a place wherein people have settled down or a city or a residential area, a headdress consisting of a long piece of cloth wound around a small cap or directly around the head or the lungs or the windbag or an apparatus for producing a strong current of air for some purpose or succession or something that rotates on its own axis like the earth and goes around something like the earth goes around the sun or the lifting of its tail by a horse during running or a ship full of grain or a large party or group or crowd or gathering or a herd of cattle or camels or a large number of things or a large amount of something or mood or habit or practice or behaviour or usual or normal conduct or character or a fire place or a heating apparatus or appliance that uses fire or furnace or hornets or hornet nest or camel litter or camel saddle or a clothe washer’s bundle of clothes or a pile of grain or a district or beehive in the ground or on the branch of a tree or fast running or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, soft or cuddly or fluffy or woolly or spongy or cushioning or shock absorbent or shock absorber or cushion or soft or comfortable seat or seat of power or control or influence or honour or wealth or riches or excellence or dignity or grace or something precious or highly valued or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, someone respectable or revered or graceful or gracious or kind or benevolent or compassionate or tender hearted or generous or noble or liberal or highly esteemed or valued or dignified or excellent or open minded or broadminded or the one open to new ideas or accommodating or obliging or cooperative or helpful or eager to help or adaptable or amenable or pliable or compliant or complaisant or indulgent or considerate or unselfish or civil or civilised or willing or polite or pleasant or kindly or hospitable or neighbourly or friendly or agreeable or decent or lavish or magnanimous or munificent or giving or open handed or free handed or bountiful or ungrudging or unstinting or unsparing or free or prodigal or benignant or rich or wealthy or overflowing or bountiful or magnificent or flush or inexhaustible or untiring or prolific or opulent or infinite or undefined or indefinite or unidentified or unfamiliar or unknown or unknowable or not famous or unrecognised or copious or great or big or huge or large or superabundant or beneficial or merciful or thoroughbred or noble-hearted or fertile or prone to doing favours or making sacrifices or costly or expensive or highly priced or dear or invaluable or priceless or beyond price or of incalculable worth or value or rare or irreplaceable or exquisite or inestimable or beloved or loved one or outstanding or unique or one of a kind or influential or effective or powerful or capable or high-minded or most exalted or the noblest or a free person or a highly productive or useful person or a nice person or gardener or care taker of a garden or a person of great character or a peaceful or peace loving person or a person who gives others their due respect or someone alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, addition or addendum or increase or growth or extension or enlargement or expansion or linkage or connection or contact or network or communication or transport or road network or bridging network or detail or explanation or elaboration or clarification or justification or explosion or manifestation or demonstration or protrusion or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to make plain or obvious or visible or manifest or clarify or expose or demonstrate or glorify or justify, to bring in the open or bring to light or uncover or discover or find out or search out or expand or detail or explain or blow or blow up or explode or open up or stretch or enlarge or extend or increase or grow or add or add up or extend or elaborate or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to form a network of people or things, to bridge the gaps, to bring things or people closer to each other, to create roads and transport systems, to bind or tie people or things together, to assemble or put together or combine, to be or become kind hearted, to be or become a soft touch, to provide with cushioning effect, to absorb a shock, to hook onto to something in some sense, to be or become linked or joined or connected or tied or bound to something in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to be gullible, to be taken for a fool or for a ride or made fool of, to not be disturbed easily, to take things easy or lightly, to be sincere or pure or genuine or original, to have heart of gold, to be stable minded or not disturbed easily, to be easy going, to be soft or cuddly or spongy or loveable, to cushion or cushion a shock or fall, to absorb a shock or be shock absorbent or shock absorber, to be happy or joyful, to be symbol of all that is good or be symbol of all goodness, to help someone without any thanks or favour in return, to help someone in such a way that the one helped does not feel burdened with favour, to be selfless, to live for ensuring well being of others, to take responsibility for, to accept liability for, to shoulder a responsibility or liability or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to carry a burden on one’s own back or shoulder one’s responsibility, to be ready to throw abuse at someone or prepare someone to name call someone or throw abuse at someone, to throw something on something else, to pass on the blame, to pass by or through very quickly or fast, to disgrace or disrespect or dishonour or debase, to deem weak or infirm or old or fragile or unstable or shaky, to weaken sunlight, to decrease strength of sunrays or sunbeam by using something as screen against sunlight or heat of the sun, to make one thing go into another, to interlace or make things go into each other, to lay down things in layers on top of each other, to throw someone down by thrusting spear in him, to walk or travel or move fast, to dig the ground, to put on a turban or headgear, to travel and go around places or wind up something eg an organisation or a mechanical clock or end something or put a stop to something or bring some ongoing process to a close or coil up or roll up something or conclude or make progress or regress or spiral up or spiral down or increase in size or value or decrease in size or value or complete a cycle or process, to trace a path on a rotating surface of an object like the sun beam traces a path on the surface of the earth to cause day and night phenomenon, to twist something like a piece of wool or fibre of some kind to turn it into a piece of thread or string or rope and to wind it around something like a turban is wrapped around the head or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to turn or circle or coil or circulate or wind or revolve or rotate or spin or twist or bend or cycle or go around and round or make rounds or go round and round around something or frequent or repeated or keep coming back or returning or make a circuit or complete a cycle or turn or reverse or keep reversing or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to try and catch or catch up with or go round and round around something in some way as if one thing is chasing the other to catch it, to coil up, to wind a clock, to overlap, to irritate or wind up someone to upset one’s mood, to provoke or enrage or make angry, to throw or throw down or throw down someone on one’s back, to flung, to hurl, to suffer reverse, to to defeat or humble or win over or triumph or be victorious, to force to submit or yield or accept defeat or give in or give up, to overcome or overpower or surround or encompass or cover or cover up or cover from all sides or everywhere or wrap up or envelop or hide or veil or conceal or shield or shelter or protect or screen or preserve or save or guard or defend or stand in for or stand in place of or take the place of or cover for or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to excel or surpass or outshine or outstrip or outdo or do better than or crown or cap or finish or coat or overspread, to alternate or change or vary or to move around or deviate or budge or shift or follow or pursue or go after or make something go round and round or go around or go about or gather around or cause to fall or fall down or tumble or move away or wrap up a piece of cloth around the head or wind a piece of cloth around the head to turn it into a turban or twist a turban around the head or roll up, to harvest or to wind up or conclude or wrap up an organisation or set up or end a task or complete a process or finalise something, to gather or gather together, to seek one another in quick succession around something, to try and catch each other around something or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, to think or reflect or ponder or contemplate or plot or scheme or conspire or plan ahead or in advance, to understand or comprehend or grasp or come to grips with, to imagine or visualise or see or observe or look at or view or consider or estimate or evaluate or judge or examine or analyse or scrutinise or deem or have in sight or view or have insight into, to gossip or slander or backbite or spread rumours or accuse falsely or debate or discuss or dispute or differ or oppose or go against or give a talk or deliver a lecture or make a speech or teach or direct or point out or instruct or train or lead or guide or rule or administer or manage or handle or take care of or look after or control or overpower or overcome or take control of or take over or bring under control or deal with or put up with, to fold or fold up or shroud or enshroud or enshroud or wrap up or cover up in mystery or confusion or disorder or anarchy or darkness or darkness of ignorance, to eclipse, to efface, to fuel the fire or provide more and more oxygen for the fire to make it go hotter or burn fiercely or bellow the fire or blow at the fire or do something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, palm of hand or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, hook or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose, head or something alike in some sense in some way for some reason or purpose etc etc.
This surah is named AL-TAKWEER not because word KUWWIR is used in this surah but because it is a surah that explains what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen and most importantly why it will happen. The whole Quran is full of longest to shortest lectures wherein it talks about all things mankind need to know for living in this world properly. However it is up to people to understand the Quran properly and adopt it faithfully or to live as they wish to live and suffer the consequences explained in the Quran. The Quran makes it absolutely clear that time will come when deen of Islam will become fully established in the kingdom of God regardless what opponents of the message of the Quran think or do. The Quran also talks about various stages of human development and progression from totally ignorant human beings to highly learned and knowledgeable human beings. It is made clear in the Quran that there are three ways open to mankind to learn knowledge. A)Personal life experience based learning through interacting with things. This is why people are told to use their brains, senses, bodies and all the rest that is provided for them for this purpose properly. B)The other source of information for mankind to learn knowledge from is revelation from God. However to understand revelation of God properly people need deepest and widest life experience based knowledge. It is due to the fact that one cannot make proper sense of revelation of God in isolation from real world realities and that is because God has sent his message for mankind to live in the real world properly so that the purpose for which God has created everything including mankind could become fulfilled, therefore if people have no idea about the real world and its realities then how can they live in it properly? This is why humanity has third option as well ie option c. C)This way of learning knowledge is based upon the idea of using both the options already told. This way one can test one’s knowledge about real world and its realities against one’s knowledge based upon revelation of God and one’s knowledge based upon revelation of God against one’s knowledge about the real world and its realities. If one has understood them both properly then one will see clearly that one’s proper understanding of real world and its realities will complement one’s proper understanding of revelation of God. However if one has made any mistakes in understanding them both or either of them then both will be seen at odds with each other ie they will be seen in conflict with each other. If this happens one should be ready to review one’s understanding to see what mistake has occurred, where, why or how etc. For the time being a lot of mistakes will occur because humanity is at the beginning end of learning things but as time goes on and people keep on refining things and keep on improving their knowledge about things and become better and better at learning things, the number of mistakes will become negligible or will reduced to a bare minimum. Mistakes should not be allowed by a person to dishearten oneself. As the saying goes Rome was not built in a day, so we should not expect to become learned or fully knowledgeable in one sitting or even in one day or in one week or in one month or even in one year rather learning is a lifelong process and it has taken many human generation for us to be where we are today and it will likewise take many more human generations to be where we need to be. All a person can do is, do one’s best according to one’s God given abilities and things will keep moving in the right direction, which God has set for things to move.
This surah is about signs or stages that will appear along the way of this missionary struggle before actual worldwide establishment of the way of life advised by God for mankind. It tells us everything will be done by mankind themselves for making this happen. There is a sequence of events eg first the mankind will spread the Quran worldwide. Next there will come about people who will know the message of the Quran properly. These proper scholars of the Quran will spread throughout the world and will help mankind understand the Quran properly. As people will become better and better in knowing things they will force changes in their own human societies in the right direction. This process will continue till mankind reach the destination the Quran has already told them already. There is going to be a lot of time involved in each of these events because the Quran cannot be distributed in one day nor the scholars who will know the Quran properly can be produced overnight. Not only that but it will take proper scholars of the Quran a lot of time to educate worldwide human population about the Quran properly. There is going to be resistance as well along the way by masters of this world who control bread and butter of humanity because that is the way human population has organised and regulated itself so things will remain as they are till that human population learns the proper way of doing things and reorganises and reregulates itself according to proper purpose based ideology or deen of Islam. Only and only then various kinds of negative divisions and discriminations will be gotten rid of and gap between rich and poor will disappear as people become one under God and learn to live as a proper human family in kingdom of their creator and sustainer. However the way people end dominance of a few over masses is up to the masses as well as up to the master of humanity themselves. This is why both options are mentioned in the Quran. Before worldwide establishment of way of life based upon the Quran we are told political landscape will be evened out. This could be done in three ways. a)Through education based revolution alone if people do not resist this movement and take part in it whole heartedly b)Through bloody revolution first and then education based revolution and c)Through evolutionary processes which involve bits of both here and there but not everywhere. Option a is the fastest way to get to the desired goal and option c is the slowest to get to the goal. However all this is up to people themselves to decide and do. Uprisings will keep on taking place here and there unless mankind stop doing to each other what they are doing to each other and reform. In this Surah the main thing is information about possible future events and situations and the fact that the Quran is not to be taken lightly because it is only and only for the benefit of mankind themselves. The proof of divine origin of the Quran is that it gives right information to people to educate them so that they could see where in lies their own well being in actual fact. This is never done by any selfish self interest motivated leadership because they are in the power game for themselves and not for helping others to do better for themselves as well as others. If any good is coming to anyone it is only an inevitable by product which they cannot avoid or stop. People try to keep their information a secret because to them knowledge is power and no one wants to share power with anyone if one wishes to be the sole person in power over others. Power secrets are guarded very jealously by rulers, mullahs and money lenders as well as rest of humanity through incentive of personal gains or coercion or peer pressure etc etc. The Quran however wants each and every bit of information to be shared by all with all without any restrictions of copyright. A clear evidence the Quran is revealed by God and that messenger sent by God is truly his messenger or why will he share such powerful information with others instead of using it to his advantage?
The Quran is very clear that harmful and destructive people will try their best to not to let this world become a paradise without a fight to the finish. So before this world becomes a beautiful place things may have to turn really ugly so that people get fed up with that situation and then look for ways to get out of it and then if they pay attention to message of the Quran they may turn the world around into a living paradise. It is because people just get used to living the way things happen to be till they get so bad that they must do something about it to bring about at least some desperately needed change. This is what triggers uprisings or bloody revolutions that the Quran reminds people about which ignorant people say are just made up tales of the ancient. Words and their meanings must also be paid attention because meanings depend on their roots and roots are based upon individual letters which have certain concepts attached to them because that is how human language developed. Originally people used to draw pictures of things they had in their minds and they used gestures for communications between themselves just like other animals from whom they learned their way of communicating with each other. That is because human beings learned things by observing other things which existed since before them. Since mental pictures were actually drawn to convey information to each other which was in peoples’ minds therefore those pictures and their related concepts became standardised over time and later pictures were changed into letters and then letters were modified for ease of writing so humanity ended up with what we have today. However original concepts remained intact that is how we know even today how human languages came to be. The main thing is humans used their languages as it suited them so most of the concepts and mechanisms whereby they were derived became specialised thing and masses became used to daily used languages. This is how dictionaries of languages came about wherein people simply put words and their frequently used meanings to help them communicate with each other. Later people also tried to trace origin of words and their meanings so new dictionaries came about. However now there is need for dictionaries that are written for understanding revelations of God. This type of dictionaries have to be based upon idea of mechanism used for development of human language so that then possible meanings of words could also be included which may have been used in the past but are no longer used today or that which may be used in time to come. This need arose due to concept of revelation of God because God could not use present form of language in the past because people of those times could not be familiar with later words and their meanings or uses which had not yet been invented and used by people of the past. Not only that God could not tell people about future things he wanted to tell them in the language of their daily use because people will have taken things the wrong way whereas purpose of revelation of God was to correct human concepts about things and not to reinforce their wrong understandings of things. This could only be done if words used by people could also have more meanings than used by people so that concepts conveyed by God could be understood by people when they reached that stage of realisation. Now that stage has been reached this is why there is need for this kind of works on the Quran. It is therefore vitally important that people become familiar with concepts relating language discussed in this study of the Quranic text. Humanity has been struggling with messages from God always and that will remain the case till people have invented or discovered what they need to know for proper understanding of the message from God. God did not start revealing his messages to mankind till they were able to make use of them at least to some degree. All this has been explained in detail already. In this surah word ASH-SHAMS means the Quran, the brilliant light of knowledge from God for the universal establishment of the way of life based upon it for ensuring well being of mankind through themselves as a proper human community in the kingdom of God. However as explained already the verses of the Quran have parallel complementary meanings as well so it also means the sun in the sky which orbits along with the rest of solar system within its own galaxy which is full of other solar systems as well. It is not possible for life to exist on the earth without the sun. Long before sun loses its light and heat, humanity will be gone either to some other place in this universe or be dead already. So the Quran is not describing the end of the world but the beginning of the new way of life whereby people will start living and judging their affairs ie a time will come when deen of Islam will becomes established in this world and that is what is meant by words YAUM AL QIYAAMAH. This Surah predicts big changes in the world to come after the revelation of the Quran till the time when humanity will accept living by guidance of Allah. All opposing elements will either become convinced therefore accept following guidance of Allah or they will have been eliminated by uprisings against such elements by the masses.
If we look at modes of learning then there are only three possible ways people can learn and do things. a)evolutionary b)revelation based and c)a bit of both. Ultimately humanity must reach stage of self organisation and self regulation in this world as a proper human community in a kingdom. To do so is not possible without proper knowledge of real world and its realities as well as proper knowledge of revelation of God. This could not be done through evolutionary learning alone, because as humanity grows with time each generation only makes a very limited progress in knowledge so accumulating the needed information for self organising and self regulating proper human community in a kingdom could take it forever yet it could not have reached that stage because it had no solid foundation to base itself upon hence the need for revealed guidance from God. The question is, how can evolution and revelation lead humanity to where it should be? The answer is, evolutionary interaction between individuals and groups is based upon conflicts and compromises. As people fight each other for their individual and group vested interests a bit of progress is bound to be made each time there is conflict and compromise. In other words such interaction leads to better skills for survival and that means better knowledge and better realisation of things. If this process continues for as long as it is needed then ultimately humanity will reach a stage whereat it could become confused about its origin, purpose and function at least. This is where in comes revelation of God to guide it to its God set destination. The difference the revelation of Allah can make to existence of humanity is the teaching ie the teacher teaches people what they will learn over many, many generations on their own through personal experiences in a very short time. This is what messengers of Allah and their supporters have proven by their examples. It is as if you take one human baby and leave him on his own to learn and do things all by himself and take another human baby and put him through an educational institution to learn and do the very same things and after a while compare them both to each other and see who has learned more and quicker and faced less troubles. So if people are educated about things they need to know then they can come to same point or goal very quickly as compared to not educating them at all. Not only that but people will also save themselves from a lot of unnecessary effort and painful suffering as well. It is easier to learn fire burns through teaching with less pain and effort as compare to jumping into the fire to find out, it burns. The third option is life experience as well as learning through teaching here and there. This also cuts down the time and the suffering but it depends on how much is learned through teaching rather than through personal experience. In short we are talking about development of human mindset, attitude and behaviour fit for self organised and self regulated proper human community in a kingdom and the time it can take for it if it is put through various modes of learning and doing things to reach that stage. So the Quran keeps all these options open for mankind to the very end. In other words Allah has given life and death of people in their own hands so it is up to people themselves to choose what they want out of their lives as individuals and as groups just like other animals in a jungle but with sense and his revelation to turn this jungle into a living paradise for themselves.