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wa-la-qad zayyannā s-samāʾa d-dunyā bi-maṣābīḥa wa-jaʿalnāhā rujūman li-sh-shayāṭīni wa-ʾaʿtadnā lahum ʿadhāba s-saʿīri
We have certainly adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and made them [the means of pelting] missiles against the devils, and We have prepared for them a punishment of the Blaze.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Mulk – Verse 5
5. And indeed We have adorned the heaven of the world with lamps and We have made such lamps as means of driving away the devils and have prepared for them the blazing torment.
The Arabic nominal form misbah denotes something like a lamp that sheds light at night and makes it as brilliant as the day. Three expressions are to be found in the blessed Verse concerning the stars:
1. Lamp;
2. Adornment;
3. Driving away the devils.
Treating of the sky, the blessed Verse makes mention of brilliant and beauteous stars, saying that God Almighty has adorned the nearest heaven with brilliant lamps and has placed arrows in them to drive away the devils and has prepared for them the torment of Hellfire. A glance at the dark but starry night and being attentive toward the remote dream-like worlds and reflection upon the systematicity and organicism prevailing in them and meditation on the beauty, delicacy, majesty, and the mysterious and awe-inspiring silence casting its shadow on them admits man to a world brimming with the knowledge and light of Truth and thereby lead him to reflect upon the profundity of the worlds created by God Almighty whose depiction is beyond the reach of expression.
The blessed Verse lays further emphasis on the point that all the stars visible to us constitute elements of the nearest heaven from amongst the seven heavens. The Arabic nominal phrase
is indicative of the same. The Arabic plural noun
connotes meteors cast like arrows from one of side of the heaven to the other. The Arabic plural noun shuhub alludes to the remnants of shattered stars. Thus, the blessed Verse is saying that God Almighty has made stars like arrows driving away the devils. The manner of shooting such arrows, namely the shooting stars, which are wandering in the heavens is treated in details above under 15:18 and 37:20.
Finally, it is worthy of note that although the Holy Qur’an was revealed in the backward milieu of pre-Islamic age of ignorance in the Arabian Peninsula, but emphasis is oftentimes laid on the point that Muslims are supposed to reflect upon the secrets of the majestic world of existence, something inconceivable to the Arabs living in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance which explicitly reflects that the Holy Qur’an was revealed from a Divine Source and the more scientific advancements are made, further greatness and majesty are reflected by Qur’anic emphases in this respect.
It is common knowledge that the earth, despite its colossal size is too small compared to the sun as the focal point of the solar system such that the size of the sun is equal to one million and two hundred planets the size of the earth. On the other hand, our solar system is merely one constituent element of an immense galaxy referred to as the Milky Way.4 Furthermore, the galaxies in the cosmos are innumerable and as soon as astronomical telescopes get further sophisticated, further galaxies are being discovered. How Exalted is the Lord Who has created such colossal and well-measured plan. Greatness belongs to Allah, the One, the All-Mighty.
Footnotes