وَإِذَا ٱلْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ
1. To fill an oven and light it, to set it ablaze. Sajara't-tannūra — he lit the oven. مَسْجُور — kindled, made red-hot. Sujūr — the fuel thrown into an oven. 2. To fill, to make overflow. Sajara'l-ināʾa — he filled the vessel.
How do the two stand together? They join in the image of the oven: a tannūr is first filled (with fuel), then lit. The idea beneath the root may be the filling of a vessel to its capacity with something — whether fuel or water.
"And by the filled sea (وَٱلْبَحْرِ ٱلْمَسْجُورِ)" (al-Ṭūr 52/6)
There too there is the same word and the same dispute: is masjūr "filled" or "set ablaze"? In both places the word comes together with the sea, and in both places both senses are possible.
| View | How it is understood | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| They were set ablaze, they became fire | The seas catch fire | The commonest sense of the root; the usage "to light the oven" supports it |
| They filled, overflowed, mingled together | The barriers between the seas are lifted and the waters join | al-Infiṭār 82/3: "When the seas are made to burst forth" (fujjirat) supports this direction |
| Their water went, they dried up | It is rested on a usage of the word connected with emptying | Weak; this is not the principal sense of the root |
No preference is adopted. The word carries both senses and the Qurʾān does not explain. This much, however, can be recorded: the first and the second view do not exclude one another — what fills overflows, what overflows mingles, and in the image of the oven the two are together already.
And a caution: on the strength of this verse claims are advanced that rest on the composition of sea water, on the flammability of hydrogen and oxygen, and the like. These are things the verse does not say, and per the method (Method) they are not made in this commentary. The image of the verse is an oven; an oven the hearer knows.
Its place in the context. The seas are the last item of the first group. And it is a striking close: the sūra sets the dry thing moving (the mountains) and sets the wet thing ablaze (the seas). Everything turns into the contrary of its own nature. The first group closes with the suspension of the laws of nature.