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Is the smoke from which the heavens were created water vapor?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Vapor may be called smoke (dukhan), and from this comes the Almighty's saying: {Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke} [Fussilat: 11]. Commentators - such as Al-Tabari, Al-Baghawi, Ibn Kathir, and Al-Shawkani - interpreted it as water vapor, and that the heavens were created from it. Al-Hakim reported in Al-Mustadrak from Ibn Abbas that the heavens were split from the water vapor that rose from the water upon which Allah's Throne rested. Abdul Razzaq narrated from Ibn Abbas that water was on the back of the wind before anything was created, then vapor, like the vapor of rivers, ascended from it.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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