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Meteors as stars fired at devils

Technical definitions used throughout^[1]:

Meteoroids are the somewhat small, rocky or metal-based objects flying around space, typically unseen except with sophisticated equipment. They are often fragments of asteroids or comets.

Meteors are the meteoroids that enter Earth’s atmosphere, where they often burn up—meaning they can often be seen with the naked eye. This is what we sometimes call a shooting star. When there are a lot of them at once, we call it a meteor shower.

Meteorites are the meteoroids that have made it all the way to Earth’s surface (though these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably).

Asteroids are rocky objects that vary in size, but on average they’re between the size of a meteoroid and a planet. Asteroids are mostly found within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Comets are made up of mostly ice and dust and are known for the tail of gas and dust that gets blown away from them when they’re near the sun. Some, like asteroids, orbit the sun and come around in regular intervals.

Stars^[2] are a luminous ball of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, held together by its own gravity. Nuclear fusion reactions in its core support the star against gravity and produce photons and heat, as well as small amounts of heavier elements. The Sun is the closest star to Earth.

Introduction

Local folklore around stars, before our modern understanding of them as gigantic balls of gases, creating light energy via nuclear fusion,^[3] has been extremely creative and varied.

Due to their similar size and appearance, many ancient people have confused meteors, which are small rocky masses or grains of debris which burn up after entering the earth's atmosphere as stars streaking across the sky, which is why they were often called shooting stars (as we do in English) or falling stars. Large increases in meteors occur on a predictable schedule each year as the Earth's orbit passes through the stream of particles and debris left in the wake of a number of comets (or in a few cases, of asteroids). The most visible is usually the annual Perseid meteor shower in August.

Ancient beliefs of stars and meteors pre-Islam

Meteors as stars:

For example, in Ancient Egypt civilisation, we see a strong resemblance of a shooting star by the author of ‘The Shipwrecked Sailor’ (c. 2000-1900 BC), which recounts a series of many adventures fantastic adventures, including a star falling to Earth:

The relevant section can can be found here on page 51, a PDF of Literature of Ancient Egypt : An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. William Kelly Simpson, ed., The Literature of Ancient Egypt (Cairo, 2003), p. 51.

For a discussion of a theoretically catastrophic impact in ancient Egypt, see Aly Barakat, ‘Did the Kamil Meteorite Fall Contribute to the Downfall of the Old Kingdom?’, The Ostracon: Journal of the Egyptian Study Society, XXIV (Fall 2013), pp. 12–21.^[4]

A further discussion of this as being a meteorite can be found here^[5] (“Then a Star Fell:” Folk-Memory of a Celestial Impact Event in the Ancient Egyptian Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor? Dr Lloyd D. Graham. 2022).^[6]

Biblical motifs

Though there is no direct stories of the functions of star in this way in the bible (or biblical literature), Dr Julien Decharneux notes in book exploring the connections between the cosmology of the Qur’ān and various cosmological traditions of Late Antiquity, with a focus on Syriac Christianity,^[7] there are some general motifs that link to this imagery. However he notes it is much more likely rooted in Iranian mythology:

Weapons against demons:

Many cultures had mythology surrounding meteors and meteorites, with some believing they were weapons, such as in ancient Africa and Mesopotamia:

And for example in Zoroastrianism, (which was a prominent religion in the Persian (Iranian) empire both before and during the time of the prophet Muhammad/beginning of Islam)), we see the link between stars and meteors:

Arabs understanding

Meteor showers were of unknown cause to 7th Century Arabs, as the later (than the Quran's writing) historian and geographer Al-Ya'qubi reports several meteor showers that happened just before and during Muhammad's lifetime (In 571 AD and 609 AD), attributing them to shooting stars (and planets) striking devils^[8], with the multitude of them potentially leading to the idea they are 'pelted from every side'. Further Muslim historians such as Ibn 'Idhari and Ibn al-Jawzi confirm this understanding, with a summary of their assessment of meteor showers held in this Royal Astronomical Society publication.

Islamic literature:

In the Qur'an

The Qur'an states that stars (kawakib ٱلْكَوَاكِبِ) and/or lamps (masabih مَصَٰبِيحَ) adorn the heavens and guard against devils.

The Qur'an further asserts that Allah has made them (the stars/lamps) flaming missiles to ward away devils (or in some verses, jinn), who attempt to listen in on heavenly meetings (known as the Exalted Assembly). The Quranic concept has a close parallel in an earlier Jewish development from Zoroastrian mythology. Such myths are best understood as pre-modern attempts to explain the common phenomenon of meteors streaking across the night sky.

While stars are giant balls of gas thousands of times larger than the earth, meteors are small rocky masses or grains of debris which burn up after entering the earth's atmosphere. Many ancient people confused the two, as meteors look like stars that are streaking across the sky; this is why they were often called shooting stars or falling stars. Large increases in meteors occur on a predictable schedule each year as the Earth's orbit passes through the stream of particles and debris left in the wake of a number of comets (or in a few cases, of asteroids). The most visible is usually the annual Perseid meteor shower in August.

The same Arabic words are used at the start of Quran 67:5 as in Quran 37:6 (زَيَّنَّا ٱلسَّمَآءَ ٱلدُّنْيَا), except that in Quran 67:5 the word lamps is used instead of stars. The lamps that 'beautify the heaven' must refer to stars (and perhaps also the 5 visible planets), which are always there. Meteors, on the other hand, are now known to be distinct from the distant stars. They are often not much larger than grains of sand and only become visible for a second when they burn up, generating light in the Earth's atmosphere.

Quran 37:5 And verily We have beautified the world's heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles for the devils, and for them We have prepared the doom of flame.

The word translated "missiles" is rujūman (رُجُومًا), which are things that are thrown, especially stones.^[9]

Other relevant verses are Quran 55:33-35 (flame of fire and smoke, though a slightly different context) and Quran 72:8-9 .

In the Hadith

A hadith in Sahih Muslim confirms that the 'pursuant flames / missiles' in the two verses refer to meteors which they saw shooting across the sky.

This is confirmed in a hadith in Sunan Ibn Majah's collection:

Vs the science

If the flaming missiles mentioned by the Quran are to be identified with meteors burning up in the Earth's atmosphere, this would locate the eavesdropping devils (or jinn) in the upper atmosphere too, which leaves no way for the (extremely distant) stars to serve as guards in this process as outlined in the verses.

Stars are an average 5 light years away from each other in our galaxy.^[10] For context, a light year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles/9.46 trillion kilometres.^[11] This again makes them an odd choice for a protection/guard, with trillions of miles/kilometers of mostly empty space between them.

However, these verses would of course fit a relatively small universe as imagined by 7th century Arabs, in which a heavenly firmament is adorned with stars able to pelt shooting stars at any devils or jinn in their vicinity, seeming to cover interstellar distances in a flaming streak across the sky. This is further supported by Quran 21:32 which describes the heaven as a guarded ceiling.

Modern Apologists - meteors come from stars

Those making the claim

For example, the highly influential Ala-Maududi (d. 1979 AD) writing in light of much more modern science in his modern tasfir wrote:

And:

Problem - this is a distortion of the text that simply isn't what being said

However, the Qur'an simply does not state that the shooting stars 'come from stars' (mostly many billions of years ago), which would be very easy (and arguably pointless as they have nothing to do with the story - not to mention every element and therefore 'thing' in the universe comes from stars, so again it would be pointless and confusing to mention, let alone without specifying) to write, as they need not mention stars/lamps at all but rather only the flame - but rather they are themselves the missiles.

Meteors do not even come directly from stars, only the elements that make them up (as they do for everything else in the universe) once are likely to have passed through a star before it 'died'. (See section below 'Further Science and the argument of meteors'.

This interpretation involves twisting the text to state something it it does not.

And Qutb (d. 1966) in his modern tasfir wrote:

Other interpretations

Two alternative interpretations popular in modern times are that the Quran is referring to coronal mass ejections (large eruptions of charged matter from the sun or other stars), or cosmic rays (high energy, sub-atomic particles travelling through interstellar space). However, coronal mass ejections move slowly in cosmic terms, disperse over distance and do not come from surprise directions (Quran 37:8 states that the devils are pelted from every side, and pursued by a piercing flame if they escape with anything they overheard). Cosmic rays do not emit light as they travel through space and therefore nor could these be the flaming missiles of fire and smoke in the Quran.

On a separate note, though stars are described as an ornament or beauty for the sky in Quran 37:6, and Quran 67:5, there are an estimated minimum c.100 septillion stars in the known universe,^[12] but only a few thousand are actually visible to the naked eye.^[13]

Further Science and the argument of meteors

Although not the main argument of this page, which is to show the conflation of stars and meteors (shooting stars), it is worth noting the absurdity of meteors being used as weapons.

Meteors, meteorites and asteroids:

Clarifying the technical definitions again: Asteroids are rocky bodies in space found in space.^[14]

Meteors are objects that enter Earth’s atmosphere from space, which are typically pieces of dust no larger than a grain of rice, burn up before reaching the ground, though can be larger (meteorites refer to rocks that survive left over on Earth). As they vaporize, they leave behind the fiery trails sometimes called “shooting stars,” even though meteors are not really stars.

The source of meteors are asteroids, either directly by them being pulled out of the belt by Jupiter's gravity, then moving to the inner solar system where they collide with Earth (99.8% of them),^[15] or indirectly as they collide with other rocky objects, i.e. the moon or Mars (0.02% of them) which then come into Earths gravitational tug.^[16]

Other than the fact that these asteroids are not stars or 'star-like', but just rocks and metal with no light source, and therefore cannot accurately be said to match the description of 'lamps' - the most densely populated space for these is the asteroid belt.

This is problematic as despite there being many millions of objects in the asteroid belt, the average distance between them is ~600,000 miles (about 1 million km).^[17] Making them very difficult to use for a protection as the angels could only be close to a maximum of one at a time, having to move millions of miles to pick up more, leaving them unable to ward off one if they miss just once, or one coming after another at different points in time, or multiple using any flanking method. DELETE (The plural (devils) implies there are multiple devils/jinns. And this is supported by the fact they repeatedly come to the meetings, with the jinns being successful at stealing information in Quran 37:6-10, but unsuccessful in 72:8-9.) DELETE?

Another problem arises in that they are said to be pursued with flame, however there is no oxygen in space,^[18] so you can't start a fire (or get smoke).^[19] Let alone by throwing a rock through space. They only burn in Earths atmosphere due to friction from travelling extremely fast in a vacuum which takes no energy, to being compressed by air in the atmosphere, rising the temperature and setting fire where there is oxygen.^[20] (Stars like our sun create heat through nuclear fusion, which is a completely different process to chemical burning that creates flame) (SOURCE)

The distance between Earth and the closest edge of the Belt is approximately a minimum ~179.5, to 329 million km (111.5 to 204.43 million mi). But of course, at any given time, part of the Asteroid Belt will be on the opposite side of the Sun relative to us as well, far, far further than that.^[21]

Therefore, for them to make a 'clear flame' by turning into meteors, this would have to be thrown a minimum ~179.5 million km / 111.5 million miles while the jinn are still in the Earths atmosphere, with the flame 'pursuing them' for only a tiny fraction of the process (<0.01%), adding to the problematic nature of these verses.

Stars:

Stars are an average 5 light years away from each other in our galaxy. For context, a light year is the distance light travels in one year, which at 186,000 miles/300,000 kilometres per second equals 5.88 trillion miles/9.46 trillion kilometres. This again makes them an odd choice for a protection/guard, with trillions of miles/kilometers of mostly empty space between them.

However these verses and story would of course fit a relatively small universe as imagined by 7th century Bedouins, with the stars appearing visible distances away from each other, and were assumed to be the same thing as 'shooting stars'/meteors, as it was interpretated at the time (including by many other cultures), and backed up by 'sahih' (authentic) hadith.

On a separate note, though stars are described as an ornament or beauty for the sky in Quran 37:6, and Quran 67:5, there are an estimated minimum c.100 septillion stars in the known universe, but only a few thousand are actually visible to the naked eye.

Islamic Commentators:

For verse 67:5

Ibn ‘Abbas says:   (And verily We have beatified the world’s heaven) the first heaven (with lamps) with stars, (and We have made them) i.e., the stars (missiles for the devils) such that some of them become bewitched, some are killed while others are burnt, (and for them) for the devils (We have prepared) in the Hereafter (the doom of flame).   

Al-Jalalayn say:   And verily We have adorned the lowest heaven the one closest to the earth with lamps with stars and made

Ibn Kathir says:   To those who ponder and look repeatedly at the dazzling signs and wonders that are to be seen in the creation, Allah mentions His creation of the heavens, with their immense height, and both the fixed and moving heavenly bodies with which He has adorned it... Allah made the “shooting stars’’ to guard it against the evil devils who try to listen to information conveyed at the highest heights. If any devil breaches it and advances hoping to listen, a clear “shooting star’’ comes to him and destroys him. He may already have passed on whatever he heard before the fire hit him, to another devil below him; the latter will then take it to his friends (among humans), as is stated in the Sahih.

For verse 72:8-9:

Ibn ‘Abbas says: “( And we used to sit on places (high) therein) in heaven (to listen) before the advent of Muhammad (pbuh). (But he who listened now) after the advent of Muhammad (pbuh) (findeth a flame) a shining star (in wait for him) from the angels in order to prevent them from listening;”   

Al-Jalalayn say:   The jinn say: ‘And we made for the heaven we desired to listen by stealth but we found it filled with mighty guards from among the angels and meteors; scorching stars. This was at the time of the sending of the Prophet. And we used to, that is to say, before his Mission, sit in certain places therein to listen in; but anyone listening now will find a meteor lying in wait for him aimed at him ready to strike him.   

Ibn Kathir says:   Allah informs about the Jinns when He sent His Messenger Muhammad and revealed the Qur’an to him. Among the ways He protected it (the Qur’an) was by filling sky with stern guards guarding it from all of its sides. The devils were then expelled from the places where they used to sit prior to that. This was so that they could not steal anything from the Qur’an and tell it to the soothsayers, thereby causing matters to be confused and mixed up. If this happened it would not be known who was being truthful. Allah did this out of His kindness to His creation, His mercy upon His servants and His protection of His Mighty Book (the Qur’an). This is why the Jinns said, and we have sought to reach the heaven; but found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. And verily, we used to sit there in stations, to (steal) a hearing, but any who listens now will find a flaming fire watching him in ambush. Meaning, whoever would like to steal some information by listening, he will find a flaming fire waiting in ambush for him. It will not pass him or miss him, but it will wipe him out and destroy him completely.

Conclusion