The Quran - A Miracle

[pocaracas]

Sorry I should of clarified. In the bible when you die it says you go to heaven.

The Heaven used in the Quran isnt the place where one goes to die. That is Jannah or Paradise.


assamaa' [السّماء] is the singular form of the word samaawaat [السّموت]. The latter is a plural, used to refer to the 'heavens', or the 'saba'a samawaat' (the seven heavens). The former means basically what is high/above, and is attributed to 'everything above', it's a generic term that includes everything in one category.
Hence, the singular term actually encompasses more than the plural, by virtue of including 'everything above' under one term, rather than meaning only the heavens. So the 'arsh cannot be included in samawaat, but is included in assamaa'. assamaa' is limited only when used in conjunction to another word (such as assamaa'-ad-dunya - meaning the 'sky of the world', but not anything beyond this).

In the ayah of 51:47, no restriction is placed on the term samaa', it is used without conjunction that imposes a limit. Hence, it means 'everything above', including the whole universe.

Ah, so... At that time, this heaven thing was understood as what is above the sky, above the clouds, right?

This would match pretty well with the firmament understanding of outer space that people had at that time.
Maybe... the people who wrote it meant that, but, as time passes, the meaning of the word grew to encompass those other notions.

It's like the word "assumption".
"Word story
The word assumption is a great example of how a word can take on new dimensions of meaning over time, while staying true to some aspect of its original sense.
assumption has been in the language since the 13th century, and was initially confined to a specific ecclesiastical meaning in the Catholic Church. The Latin word on which it is based literally means “the action of being taken up or received,” and in English assumption referred to the taking up into heaven of the Virgin Mary. That meaning still exists today, and in all the meanings it has assumed since then, one can see the common thread running through them is the sense of taking.
One early sense meant “arrogance,” as in this 1814 quote from Sir Walter Scott: “his usual air of haughty assumption.” Arrogance is a taking upon oneself a conviction of self-importance. Later senses arose having to do with the taking on of power or other responsibilities, as in “the assumption of command.”
Probably the most common meaning of assumption in use today is for indicating a supposition, an estimate, a conjecture—that is, something taken for granted. And as any schoolkid knows, presuming to assume can be dangerous, leading us to make, as the saying goes, “an ASS of U and ME!” "
in
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assumption?s=t

So, can we get a similar etymology for that word that means heaven in arabic, but not the same heaven that the latin world came to use.

Speaking of latin... the word used for heaven, in (at least) most latin descendent countries, is the exact same word that is used for sky.
spanish: cielo
portuguese: céu
italian: cielo
french: ciel
romanian: cer

Clearly, today, sky and heaven are two very distinct concepts. However, 2000 years ago they meant pretty much the same.
Being the arabic language a descendent of aramaic/hebrew, and given the proximity that existed (at the time) between the romans with their latin and the palestinians/israelis with their aramaic, it would make sense if the original concept of heaven in both languages was included in the word for sky.
Then the evolution of the language brings forth some new meanings... and some of them are what you expose here. Or can you tell me that this word already had these multiple meanings 1400 years ago?

Forgive me for going into so much detail over one single word... but it seems to be the key word for this whole argument.
You interpret "assamaa'" as the Universe.... when all it meant was probably the sky, or the paradise, or some inner soul space, like nirvana...