Verse 2
The Overthrowing • makkah
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Important Words:
کورت (wrapped up) is derived from کور. They say کور العمامة i.e. he wound round the turban upon his head. کورت الشمس means, the light of the sun became folded up or became dim or it disappeared or the sun became eclipsed (Aqrab). اذا الشمس کورتmeans, when the sun shall be wound with darkness like a turban; or when it shall be wrapped up and have its light taken away or shall lose its light; or shall be divested of its light; or shall be cast away. These are some of the meanings of the verse given by Jalalain, Qatadah, ‘Ikrimah and Mujahid as quoted by Lane.
Commentary:
It is generally said that this Surah deals with the Resurrection, when the laws and processes of nature as we know them, will cease to operate. But this does not appear to be plausible, the whole trend and tenor of the Surah speaks so patently of the conditions which obtain in the physical world that some of the verses will lose all sense if they are taken as referring to the Final Resurrection. In fact, the Surah speaks of the great changes that have taken place in the material world and in human life since the time of the Holy Prophet, particularly in our own time. The Surah thus makes a special reference to the present era—the era of the Promised Messiah. Some verses may equally be interpreted literally as well as metaphorically.
The Holy Prophet is described in the Quran as the Bright Sun (25:62). The verse, therefore, may mean: When there will be spiritual darkness all over the world—the light of the Spiritual Sun having become dim or having disappeared altogether. Or the verse may refer to the eclipse of the sun and the moon, which according to a well-known saying of the Holy Prophet, was to take place in the time of the Mahdi, a phenomenon that the world had never witnessed before (Qutni, p. 188). A reference to this is also to be found in 75:10. This predicted eclipse of the sun and the moon took place in 1894 in the month of Ramadan.
It is generally said that the Surah deals with the Final Resurrection, when the laws and processes of nature as we know them will cease to operate. But its whole trend and tenor speak so clearly of the conditions which obtain in the physical world that some of the verses will lose all sense if they are taken as referring only to the Final Resurrection. In fact, the Surah speaks of the great changes that have already taken place in the material world and in human life since the time of the Holy Prophet, particularly in our own time. The verse may mean: When there will be spiritual darkness all over the world—the light of the Spiritual Sun (The Holy Prophet) having become dim or disappeared altogether. Or, it may refer to the eclipses of the sun and the moon, which according to a well-known saying of the Holy Prophet, were to take place in the time of the Mahdi, in the month of Ramadan, a phenomenon which the world had never witnessed before (Qutni, p. 188). These eclipses of the sun and the