And He, Glory be to Him, swore by 'the sky with its returning rain and the earth with its cracks.'
So He swore by the sky and its returning rain, and by the earth and its splitting for plants.
Al-Farāʾ said: It appears with rain and then returns every year.
Abu Ishaq said: The returning is the rain because it comes and returns repeatedly.
And likewise, Ibn Abbas said: It appears with rain and then returns with it every year.
The correct understanding is that this is by way of analogy.
The returning of the sky is the provision of good that comes from it from time to time over the ages.
It returns repeatedly, meaning it grants it time after time.
And all good comes from the sky because evident good is primarily the rain.
Thus, 'returning' was interpreted as rain, and its counterpart was the earth splitting for plants.
And the 'splitting' was interpreted as the plant, because it splits the earth, that is, it cracks it.
So He, Glory be to Him, swore by the sky with rain and the earth with plants.
And each of these is a sign of the signs of Allah, the Exalted, indicating His Lordship.
And He swore that the Quran is true and real, saying, 'Indeed, it is a decisive word, and it is not light talk.'
As He swore at the beginning of the surah regarding the human condition in its beginning and end.
The decisive word is what distinguishes between truth and falsehood, discerning this from that, and it differentiates between people in their disputes.
