Commentary ...

The verse speaks about those whose entity is 'layer upon layer of darkness'; in contrary to the believers whose life and thoughts are 'light upon light'. Here the word is about individuals who are after mirage instead of water in the dry and hot desert of life and then lose their life because of thirst, while the believers have found the clear spring of guidance under the auspices of faith and have settled beside it.

At first, the verse says: "And (for) those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert,,..." Then it continues saying: "... which the thirsty one supposes to be water until when he comes unto it he finds it naught, and finds Allah with him Who pays him his reckoning in full; and Allah is swift in taking account."[^1] The Arabic word /sarab/ is derived from the word 'Saraba', which means: 'walking in a slope', and the word 'Sarb' means: 'an inclined way'.

Therefore, 'Sarab' is applied to a shine that appears from a distance in deserts and slopes and it seems that there is water over there, while it is nothing but a reflection of sunlight. The Arabic word /qi'ah/ means 'a vast area and ground that has no water and plant', and, in other words, it is applied to arid deserts in which mirage is often seen.

Commentators of the Qur'an and lexicologists consider this word singular and its plural form is /qi'an/ or /qi'at/.[^2] Physicists say that when the air gets warm, the layer of air, that is directly above the earth, gets less dense and becomes different than the adjacent layer, then the waves of light are broken and mirage is because of this.