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Shooting Stars in the Quran: Difference between revisions
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{{Quote|Golia, Maria. Meteorite: Nature and Culture (Earth) Reaktion Books. p. 57|..an understanding of the stars set men apart, as evidenced in the emergence of the prophet Zoroaster around 1100 BC. An early Christian text suggests that Zoroaster, ‘a very great observer of the stars’, used his wisdom to his advantage: ‘wishing to be regarded as a divine being [he] began to elicit sparks from the stars and show them to people’. This brief passage and a story recorded in the first century AD have been interpreted as describing a meteor shower that Zoroaster may have anticipated. The oldest portions of Avestan scripture, thought to record Zoroaster’s words, say the sky is made of ‘hardest stone’ and worn as armour by Ahura Mazda, god of creation and cosmic order. Avestan texts contain many astronomical references, and the word asana means both ‘sky’ and ‘stone’. On one occasion, Zoroaster was said to have defeated demons with ‘a massive stone received from God’...}}Patricia Crone and other Islamic scholars examine these relationships further in the [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110445909/html?lang=en 2012-13 Qur'an Seminar Commentary] (a series of academic conferences) in pages 305 - 317 and 385 - 398. | {{Quote|Golia, Maria. Meteorite: Nature and Culture (Earth) Reaktion Books. p. 57|..an understanding of the stars set men apart, as evidenced in the emergence of the prophet Zoroaster around 1100 BC. An early Christian text suggests that Zoroaster, ‘a very great observer of the stars’, used his wisdom to his advantage: ‘wishing to be regarded as a divine being [he] began to elicit sparks from the stars and show them to people’. This brief passage and a story recorded in the first century AD have been interpreted as describing a meteor shower that Zoroaster may have anticipated. The oldest portions of Avestan scripture, thought to record Zoroaster’s words, say the sky is made of ‘hardest stone’ and worn as armour by Ahura Mazda, god of creation and cosmic order. Avestan texts contain many astronomical references, and the word asana means both ‘sky’ and ‘stone’. On one occasion, Zoroaster was said to have defeated demons with ‘a massive stone received from God’...}}Patricia Crone and other Islamic scholars examine these relationships further in the [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110445909/html?lang=en 2012-13 Qur'an Seminar Commentary] (a series of academic conferences) in pages 305 - 317 and 385 - 398. | ||
'''Pre-Islamic poetry''' | |||
Nicolai Sinai notes that stars are seen as driving off devils in pre-Islamic poetry, providing a more contemporary Arabian source for this folklore. | |||
{{Quote|Sinai, Nicolai. <i>Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 184).</i> Princeton University Press. <i>Entry for jinn, jinnah coll. {{!}} demons, jinn jānn {{!}} demon, jinni majnūn {{!}} jinn-possessed</i>|2=...according to b. Ḥag. 16a, demons have wings like ministering angels, enabling them to fly from one end of the world to the other, and possess knowledge of the future since they “listen from behind the curtain, like ministering angels.”15 The Qur’an presupposes this idea, but additionally holds that demonic attempts to overhear God’s decrees will always fail, since the divine creator has secured the celestial realm against any unauthorised interlopers by chasing the latter away with shooting stars (HCI 89). <i>This is not to say that the view that shooting stars serve to dispel demons from the upper reaches of heaven is necessarily a Qur’anic creation, for it appears in two lines of poetry attributed to Umayyah ibn Abī l-Ṣalt that fit the rhyme and metre of an extended poem about God’s creation of the heavens and the earth (Schulthess 1911a, no. 25:27–28, corresponding to al-Saṭlī 1974, no. 10:27–28): “And you see devils turning aside, forced to take refuge (tarūghu muḍāfatan), scattered apart when they are driven away (idhā mā tuṭradū). // Upon them are cast (tulqā ʿalayhā) disgrace in heaven and stars (kawākib), by which they are pelted (turmā bihā), causing them to flee (fa-tuʿarridū).”</i>16 Incidentally, the inaccessibility of the seventh heaven is also evoked in another verse of the same poem (Schulthess 1911a, no. 25:15 = al-Saṭlī 1974, no. 10:15), though without explicit reference to the fending off of inquisitive demons.}} | |||
==Islamic literature== | ==Islamic literature== | ||
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In {{Quran|67|5}}, the word translated "missiles" is rujūman (رُجُومًا), which are things that are thrown, especially stones.<ref>رُجُومًا - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000214.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 1048]</ref> | In {{Quran|67|5}}, the word translated "missiles" is rujūman (رُجُومًا), which are things that are thrown, especially stones.<ref>رُجُومًا - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000214.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 1048]</ref> | ||
In {{Quran|15|16}} the phrase translated "zodiacal signs" is [https:// | In {{Quran|15|16}} the phrase translated "zodiacal signs" is Burūj بُرُوجًا, meaning great stars or constellations;<ref>Lanes Lexicon [https://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000217.pdf Vol 1 p217 - برج Burūj] </ref> Surah 85 (Al-Burūj) is called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Burooj The Great Star]. | ||
This term also means towers/forts/castles, which a smaller number of mufassirūn have understood it as (towers on the firmament) in their commentaries on the Quran.<ref>E.g. ''[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Abbas/15.16 Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs on verse 15:16.]'' | This term also means towers/forts/castles, which a smaller number of mufassirūn have understood it as (towers on the firmament) in their commentaries on the Quran.<ref>E.g. ''[https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Abbas/15.16 Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs on verse 15:16.]'' | ||
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{{Quote|[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279378884_Islamic_Folk_Astronomy <i>Islamic Folk Astronomy.</i> Varisco, Daniel. Astronomy Across Cultures, 2000, pp 615 - 650. <i>(pp. 627 - 628)</i> DOI:10.1007/978-94-011-4179-6_21]|The zodiacal constellations were referred to in Arabic as <i>burūj</i>, a term used for fortifications and castles. Quranic usage (15: 16, 25: 61, 85: 1) is in the generic sense of a constellation rather than for the specific twelve zodiacal constellations (Table 5) later recognised in the astronomical texts.}} | {{Quote|[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279378884_Islamic_Folk_Astronomy <i>Islamic Folk Astronomy.</i> Varisco, Daniel. Astronomy Across Cultures, 2000, pp 615 - 650. <i>(pp. 627 - 628)</i> DOI:10.1007/978-94-011-4179-6_21]|The zodiacal constellations were referred to in Arabic as <i>burūj</i>, a term used for fortifications and castles. Quranic usage (15: 16, 25: 61, 85: 1) is in the generic sense of a constellation rather than for the specific twelve zodiacal constellations (Table 5) later recognised in the astronomical texts.}} | ||
Satans are often called 'rajīm' as an attribute, which can mean both pelted/stoned or accursed in different verses;<ref>[https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/10_r/053_rjm.html ''rā jīm mīm'' (ر ج م)] - Quranic Research Lane's Lexicon | |||
rajīm - Lane's Lexicon Book 1 Page [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_1048.pdf 1048] & [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_1049.pdf 1049]</ref> though in these contexts meaning they are pelted/stoned, or deserving to be pelted.<ref name=":02">''rajīm'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 333). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Talmudic evidence suggests that late antique Jews also sometimes employed language implying “that Satan could be warded off by throwing things at him”.<ref name=":02" /> | |||
Other relevant verses are {{Quran|55|33-35}} (flame of fire and smoke, though a slightly different context): | Other relevant verses are {{Quran|55|33-35}} (flame of fire and smoke, though a slightly different context): | ||
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These also seem to reinforce the incorrect idea of stars being shooting stars, and give us yet a fourth word for stars. | These also seem to reinforce the incorrect idea of stars being shooting stars, and give us yet a fourth word for stars. | ||
In both cases we see the word (najm/نجم) is used to describe the shooting star. Literally: رُمِيَ was thrown<ref>رمي - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000327.pdf Lane's Lexicon page 1161]</ref> بِنَجْمٍ a star<ref>نجم - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000282.pdf Lane's Lexicon Supplement page 3028]</ref> فَاسْتَنَارَ then it flamed<ref>نار - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000119.pdf Lane's Lexicon page 2865]</ref> (نار in Arabic form X, derived from نور light). It is sometimes said that a najm (نجم) could refer to any kind of celestial body and not necessarily a star, but it is at least clear that these hadiths refer to what we now understand are visible meteors. | In both cases we see the word (najm/نجم) is used to describe the shooting star. Literally: رُمِيَ was thrown<ref>رمي - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000327.pdf Lane's Lexicon page 1161]</ref> بِنَجْمٍ a star<ref>نجم - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000282.pdf Lane's Lexicon Supplement page 3028]</ref> فَاسْتَنَارَ then it flamed<ref>نار - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000119.pdf Lane's Lexicon page 2865]</ref> (نار in Arabic form X, derived from نور light). It is sometimes said that a najm (نجم) could refer to any kind of celestial body (without any reference to a classical Arabic dictionary)<ref>[https://islamqa.info/amp/en/answers/243871 Meteorites and shooting stars may be called “stars” (nujoom) and “heavenly bodies” (kawaakib) in Arabic.] IslamQA. 2016. | ||
See Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary of [https://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000282.pdf Najm, Volume 8, pages: 282] </ref> and not necessarily a star, but it is at least clear that these hadiths refer to what we now understand are visible meteors. | |||
A hadith in Sunan Ibn Majah's collection also conveys the concept, though without clarifying the nature of the shihab (the word translated as "burning flame" in the Quran verses quoted above): | A hadith in Sunan Ibn Majah's collection also conveys the concept, though without clarifying the nature of the shihab (the word translated as "burning flame" in the Quran verses quoted above): | ||