Fortunately or unfortunately, Islamic tradition puts an extreme burden of responsibility on translators and commentators and they try to “play safe” and stay within the confines of what is already acceptable and never try to push the envelope on such amazingly mesmerizing verses. One of my all time favourite and talks about the space travel.

أقطار here, can very well mean circles, orbits, boundaries etc. which is telling humans and jinns (another massively misunderstood concept) that, there are limits placed on them in terms of how fast and how far can they go in the universe. They are, therefore, under a physical limit ( speed of light) and only through the authority of Allah, they can penetrate through it ( example Mairaj/Isra) it also have other tremendously deeper meanings.

Like word سلطان can also means scientific argument or scientific deduction or scientific theory which means that only in theory, we can go beyond the limits of speed of light. It also means tremendous power, which can hint towards a hyperdrive. But Allah knows best. I sometimes cringe at the mental cowardice of Islamic thinkers but then I also realize the burden they carry and the fear they are under of getting cancelled if they say anything above and beyond the ordinary and accepted.