Tafsir of Al-Mursalat 77:33

"As if it were": That is, the sparks.

"Jamālah" (camels): With a kasrah on the jīm, as recited by Hamzah, al-Kisā’i, Hafs, and Abu ‘Amr (in the narration of al-Asma‘i and Harun from him). It is the plural of jamal (camel), with the tā’ added to feminize the plural, as stated in al-Bahr. It is said: jamal, jamāl, and jamālah. Or, it is a collective noun for it, as is said regarding hajar (stone) and hijārah (stones). The tanwīn is for the purpose of intensification.

"Yellow": For the sparks, due to their fiery and airy nature, appear yellow. Thus, "yellowness" is taken according to its well-known meaning. It has also been said that they are black, and the expression "yellow" was used because the blackness of camels often tends toward yellowness. The sparks are likened to them when the fire separates in its greatness, in terms of height, and when it begins to rise and spread, because it splits into countless numbers, resembling camels in their shape, abundance, yellowness, and specific movement. The order of the comparison was observed to account for the order of existence, suggesting that the castles and the camels resemble one another. From this is the saying:

I halted my she-camel in it, as if it were A tent, without fulfilling the need of the hesitant one.

The second comparison serves to clarify the first. It is as if, when the comparison to "palaces" was made, the only thing immediately understood was greatness; therefore, it was said, "as if it were yellow camels," which acts as a specification for the "palaces." It is as if it were said: "It is as if it were a palace, the nature of which is such and such." The comparison to camels signifies abundance, succession, and speed of movement. The first view is the verified one, according to what is in al-Kashf. On both interpretations, the second comparison is not an afterthought, nor is there any need in any of this to consider the pronoun in "as if it were" to refer to the "palaces."

Some of the beauty of the metaphors in this verse was grasped by Abu al-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri in his elegy for one of the noblemen of Marqad: The fire of the guest-houses, at eventide And dawn, in the valleys and on the mountain tops, Red, with soaring tresses in the darkness, Throwing out every spark like a tent-pole. If he intended by this to contest the Qur’anic verse, then Allah has blinded his insight to the superiority found within it, just as He (Glorified be He) blinded his physical sight.

The majority, including ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), read it as "Jamālāt", with a kasrah on the jīm and an alif and tā’, as the plural of jamāl or jamālah. Thus, it is the plural of the plural or the plural of the collective noun, and the meaning is as you have heard.

Ibn ‘Abbas, Qatadah, Ibn Jubayr, al-Hasan, and Abu Raja’ (with a different narration from them) read it the same way, except that they vocalized the jīm with a dammah, treating it as the plural of jamālah, as stated in al-Kashshāf. In al-Bahr, it is said that it refers to the ropes of ships, the singular of which is jumlah because it is an assembly of strands, then it is pluralized to jumal and jamāl, then jamāl is pluralized a second time as a sound plural, so they said jamālāt. It is also said that they are the thick ropes of bridges, meaning the ropes by which they are fastened. This is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas and Ibn Jubayr, who said: "When they gather, circling one another, they form massive bodies."

It is also narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas that they are large pieces of copper. The apparent meaning is that the comparison, in this case, is based on color, whereas in the previous one, it was based on extension and folding.

Ibn ‘Abbas, al-A‘mash, Abu Haywah, Abu Bahriyyah, and Ibn Abi ‘Ablah—and it is also narrated from ‘Asim—read it as "Jamālah", like the reading of Hafs and those with him, except that they vocalized the jīm with a dammah. According to al-Zamakhshari, this is a singular noun meaning a rope, and "yellow" is pluralized to signify the generic category. Others read it as "sufur" with a dammah on the fā’.