Tafsir of As-Saffat 37:6

"We have adorned the lowest heaven" — meaning the heaven closest to the people of the earth. Al-dunya is the feminine of adna (closer/closest), which is the superlative form.

"With an adornment" — meaning a wondrous and marvelous one.

"The stars" (al-kawakib) — in the genitive case as a substitution (badal) for "adornment." It is a substitution of the whole for the whole, based on the understanding that what is intended here is the noun—that is, the things with which one is adorned—not the verbal noun (masdar). For the stars themselves, and their positions relative to one another, are an adornment—and what an adornment! It is as if the celestial bodies, shining, are pearls scattered upon a blue carpet.

It is permissible for it to be an explanatory apposition (‘atf bayan). Most scholars recited it as bi-zinati al-kawakib (in the genitive construct/idafa), treating it as an explanatory genitive (bayaniyya), because "adornment" is ambiguous and applies to anything one is adorned with, so "stars" serves to clarify it. It is also possible that the idafa indicates possession, meaning the adornment belongs to the stars—their lights or their positions. Interpreting it as "their lights" is narrated from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both).

It is also possible that "adornment" is a verbal noun like al-nisba (attribution), and the addition of the verbal noun to its object, meaning: "We adorned the lowest heaven by Our adorning the stars within it." Or, it could be an addition of the verbal noun to its subject, meaning: "We adorned it because the stars adorned it."

Ibn Wathab, Masruq (with a difference of opinion regarding them), al-A‘mash, Talha, and Abu Bakr recited bi-zinatin (indefinite, with tanwin) followed by al-kawakib in the accusative. This allows for zinah to be a verbal noun and al-kawakib to be its direct object, similar to the Almighty’s saying: "Or feeding in a day of severe hunger an orphan." This is not a verbal noun of instance (wahda)—like darba (a single strike)—such that it could be claimed its governing power is invalid, as Ibn Malik stated; rather, it is established with the ta marker, like kitaba (writing) and isaba (hitting). Not every ta in a verbal noun denotes the singular instance, nor is this form the form of the singular instance.

It is also possible that al-kawakib is a substitution of inclusion (badal ishtimal) for "the heaven." The requirement for a pronoun linking the substitute to the substituted when they are not clearly connected—as they established regarding the Almighty's saying, "Perished were the people of the trench, [containing] the fire"—is met here, or it is said the lam is a substitute for it. It is also permissible that it is a substitute for the location of the prepositional phrase or the governed noun alone, based on both views, or that it is in the accusative because of an implied "I mean" (a‘ni).

Zayd ibn Ali (may Allah be pleased with them both) recited bi-zinatin (with tanwin) followed by al-kawakib in the nominative, based on it being the predicate of an omitted subject—meaning, "They are the stars"—or as the agent of the verbal noun. The Basrans permitted the nominative case for the agent, though rarely, while al-Farra’ claimed it is not heard.

The outward meaning of the verse is that the stars are in the lowest heaven, and there is no obstacle to that, even if their movements differ and their speeds vary. It is permissible that they are in their spheres, and their spheres are in the lowest heaven, which is stationary and possesses such thickness that it can contain those spheres moving with varying movements, with some positioned above others.

Al-Naysaburi, in his explanation of Surah al-Takwir, narrated from al-Kalbi that the stars are in lanterns suspended between heaven and earth by chains of light, and those chains are in the hands of the angels (peace be upon them). This is something contradicted by the manifest text, and I see it as nothing but a fable.

As for the view held by most philosophers—that the moon alone is in the lowest heaven, Mercury in the second, Venus in the third, the Sun in the fourth, Mars in the fifth, Jupiter in the sixth, Saturn in the seventh, and the fixed stars in a sphere above the seventh, which is the Kursi in the language of the Law—it is something for which there is no proof that yields certainty. Even if we assume its correctness, it does not disparage the verse, because for the lowest heaven to be adorned with stars, it is sufficient that they appear so to the eye.