{Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, "Come [into being], willingly or by compulsion."} [Surat Fussilat: 11]. And the directing (istiwāʾ) was after He had created it as smoke, and before He fashioned them into seven heavens.

Some of them said: He only said, "He directed Himself to the heaven," while there was no heaven, just as a man says to another, "Make this garment," while he only has yarn.

As for His statement "and fashioned them (fa-sawwāhunna)", it means He prepared them, created them, arranged them, and made them upright. Fashioning (taswiya) in the speech of the Arabs is making upright, rectifying, and smoothing, as it is said: "So-and-so fashioned (sawwā) this matter for so-and-so," when he makes it upright, rectifies it, and smooths it for him. Likewise is the fashioning of His heavens by God, majestic be His praise: His making them upright according to His will, His arranging them according to His volition, and His parting them after they were joined together (1).

589- Just as: I was told from 'Ammar, who said: Ibn Abi Ja'far narrated to us, from his father, from al-Rabi' b. Anas: "and fashioned them into seven heavens," he says: He fashioned their creation, "and He is Knowing of all things" (2).

And He, majestic be His mention, said: "and fashioned them (fa-sawwāhunna)," so He expressed their pronoun in the form of a plural pronoun (3), whereas He had said before: "Then He directed Himself to the heaven (al-samāʾ)," expressing it in the singular form. He only expressed their pronoun in the form of a plural pronoun because "heaven" (samāʾ) is a collective noun whose singular is samāwa, so the form of its singular and plural is like the form of baqara (a cow) and baqar (cows), and nakhla (a palm tree) and nakhl (palm trees), and the like. For this reason, it is feminized at times, so it is said: "This is a heaven (hādhihi samāʾ)," and it is masculinized at other times (4), so it is said: {The heaven will break apart therefrom} [Surat al-Muzzammil: 18],