سجل

Core meaning

The binder: the holder in which writings are kept, and which closes over them.

Uses

1. ٱلسِّجِلّ → "a binder" : the object that closes over what it holds; it serves as the image of the folded sky.

   • «يَوْمَ نَطْوِى ٱلسَّمَآءَ كَطَىِّ ٱلسِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ» — "The day We fold up the heaven as a binder closes over the writings it holds" (21:104)

Evidence from the text

The word has only one use, and the verse defines it by the comparison itself: the sky will be folded as a binder closes over its writings. What follows gives the sense of the image: "just as We began the first creation, We shall remake it" (21:104). What is folded is not lost: it is put away, like a writing, for the creation that begins again.

Distinctions

• كتب — the writing: what the binder holds

See also

طوى (to fold)