Surah Ar-Rahman 55:37
سُورَةُ الرَّحۡمَٰن · Medinan · Verse 37 of 78
فَإِذَا ٱنشَقَّتِ ٱلسَّمَآءُ فَكَانَتْ وَرْدَةًۭ كَٱلدِّهَانِ
Translation
When the sky is torn apart and turns crimson, like red hide.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And when the heaven is split open and becomes rose-red like oil.' Ibn Ashur and al-Biqa'i note the strange, vivid image of that Day, the sky itself tearing and flushing a molten rose colour, the most stable canopy of my world coming undone. Ask yourself: the sky is my very picture of permanence and calm, 'the heavens' are what I look to when I want to feel how fixed the world is. This verse shows even that splitting and changing colour. If the most reliable ceiling of existence is not exempt from that Day, then nothing in my life is the immovable anchor I treat it as. What am I trusting to always 'hold up', that this verse says will one day tear like the sky?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i, al-Saadi.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ar-Rahman 55:37 is discussed in 3 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ar-Rahman 55:37 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.