إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُمْسِكُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ أَن تَزُولَا وَلَئِن زَالَتَآ إِنْ أَمْسَكَهُمَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِّنۢ بَعْدِهِۦٓ
"God holds the heavens and the earth lest they pass away. And if they were to pass away, none could hold them after Him."
In the second verse imsāk and irsāl had been used of mercy (fa-lā mumsika lahā). In the forty-first verse the same root comes for the universe itself.
| Verse | What is held |
|---|---|
| 2 | Mercy — what is opened cannot be held back, what is held cannot be released |
| 41 | The heavens and the earth — lest they pass away |
This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and it binds the two ends of the sūra together.
I record this as my own reading: the verse relates the standing of the universe not as a balance but as an act of holding. That is: continuance is not of itself; it is being sustained. And in al-Baqara at 2/255 the two-sided description of the name al-Qayyūm (the one who stands by Himself / the one who keeps everything standing) was treated — this verse is that name in the form of a verb.