27أَأَنتُم أَشَدُّ خَلقًا أَمِ السَّماءُ ۚ بَناهاMuhammad Asad[O MEN!] Are you more difficult to create than the heaven which He has built?1Lit., "or the heaven. . . ", etc. The "heaven" is here, as in many other places in the Qur'an, a metonym for "cosmic system" (cf. note 20 on 2:29). The above verse is an echo of an earlier, more explicit passage - namely, 40:56-57, which should be read together with the corresponding notes 40 and 41. Both these passages refute the "man-centred" view of the universe by pointing out man's insignificance as compared with the vastness and complexity of the whole God-created universe.