WikiIslam:Sandbox/EDIT THIS PART: Difference between revisions

{{underconstruction}}

Humans have always looked up at night and seen the stars lighting the sky. Folklore around stars, before our modern understanding of them as gigantic balls of gases, creating light energy via nuclear fusion,<ref>[https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-earthscience/chapter/nuclear-fusion/#:~:text=The%20Sun%20is%20Earth's%20major,all%20stars%20is%20nuclear%20fusion. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-earthscience/chapter/nuclear-fusion/#:~:text=The%20Sun%20is%20Earth's%20major,all%20stars%20is%20nuclear%20fusion.]</ref>  has been creative and varied.  

On a typical night it means you might see just a few meteors an hour streaking randomly across the sky. These are called sporadic meteors. At certain times of the year these numbers can increase to around 100 meteors an hour in events called meteor showers, as Earth ploughs through denser streams of particles on its orbit around the Sun.<ref>https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/what-causes-meteor-shower</ref>

'''Meteors as stars:'''

{{Quote|Golia, Maria. Meteorite: Nature and Culture (Earth) (p. 57). Reaktion Books.|..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’...}}

The Qur'an states that stars (kawakib ٱلْكَوَاكِبِ), lamps (masabih مَصَٰبِيحَ) and/or great stars/constellations (burūj بُرُوجًا) adorn the heavens and guard against devils (shayāṭīn شياطين).

The Qur'an further asserts that Allah has made them (the stars/lamps) missiles to ward away devils (who are believed to be [[jinn]] in Islam), 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. The relevant verses are below:{{Quote|{{Quran|37|6–10}}|Surely We have made the sky of this world appear enticing by means of the splendor of <b>the stars [al-kawākibi],</b> and (We have made them) a (means of) protection from every rebelling satan [wa-ḥifẓan min kulli shayṭānin māridan]. They do not listen to the exalted Assembly, but they are pelted from every side, driven off – for them (there is) a punishment forever – except for the one who snatches a word, and <b>then a piercing flame pursues him [fa-’atbaʿa-hu shihābun thāqibun]. </b>}}{{Quote|{{Quran|67|5}}|Surely We adorned <b>the lower heaven [al-samā’a l-dunyā] with lamps [bi-maṣābīḥa], and made them missiles for the satans [wa-jaʿalnā-hā rujūman li-l-shayāṭīni]</b> – and We have prepared for them the punishment of the blazing (Fire).}}{{Quote|{{Quran|15|16-18}}|<b>Certainly We have made constellations in the sky [laqad jaʿalnā fī l-samā’i burūjan],</b> and made it appear enticing for the onlookers, and protected it from every <b>accursed satan [shayṭānin rajīmin]</b> – except any who (may) steal in to overhear, <b>then a clear flame pursues him [fa-’atbaʿa-hu shihābun mubīnun].</b>}}{{Quote|{{Quran|72|8-9}}|And that we touched the sky and found it filled with <b>harsh guards [ḥarasan shadīdan] and piercing flames [wa-shuhuban].</b> And that we used to sit there on seats to listen (in), but whoever listens now finds a piercing flame lying in wait for him [yajidu la-hu shihāban raṣadan].}}

Stars and visible planets were often called the same thing ([https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=kwkb#(82:2:2) kawakib ٱلْكَوَاكِبِ]) due to their similar appearance, with stars appearing 'fixed' and planets notably 'moving', usually differentiated by astronomers by labelling them respectively. This is confirmed by astrologists such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Rahman_al-Sufi Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi] who around 964 wrote the astronomical [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Fixed_Stars book of fixed stars] كتاب صور الكواكب kitāb suwar ''al-kawākib''. As professor David Cook notes, '<nowiki/>''Eventually in Arabic, najm generally came to mean “a fixed star” while kawkab “a planetary body” but there are plenty of exceptions to this rule. Planets were believed to be moving stars.'''<ref>https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-7747-7_8525</ref>  

"We were with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), while he was sitting with a group of his Companions, when they saw a glowing shooting star. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: 'When you saw the likes of this during Jahiliyyah, what would you say about it?' They said: 'We would say that a great man died, or that a great man has been born.' The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: 'It is not shot due to the death of anyone, nor his coming into life. Rather when our Lord [Blessed is His Name and Most High] decrees a matter, He is glorified by the bearers of the Throne. Then He is glorified by the inhabitants who are below them, then those below them, until such glorification reaches this Heaven. Then the inhabitants of the sixth Heaven ask the inhabitants of the seventh Heaven: "What did your Lord say?" He said: 'So they inform them; then the inhabitants of each Heaven seek the information, until the news is conveyed to the inhabitants of the Heavens of the earth. The Shayatin try to overhear so they are shot at, so they cast it down to their friends. Whatever they came with is true, as it is, but they distort it and add to it.'"}}Showing this reinforcing the incorrect idea of stars being shooting stars and gives us yet a fourth word for stars as confirmation.

Meteor showers were of unknown cause to 7th Century Arabs, as the later (than the Quran's writing) historian and geographer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya%27qubi 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/planets striking devils<ref name=":0">https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1992QJRAS..33....5R&db_key=AST&page_ind=6&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF&classic=YES</ref>, with the multitude of them potentially leading to the idea they are 'pelted from every side'. Further Muslim historians such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_%27Idhari Ibn 'Idhari] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Jawzi Ibn al-Jawzi] confirm this understanding, with a summary of their assessment of meteor showers held in this Royal Astronomical Society [https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1992QJRAS..33....5R&db_key=AST&page_ind=6&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF&classic=YES publication].  

As mentioned in the introduction, while stars are giant balls of gas thousands of times larger than the earth, meteors are now known to be distinct from the distant stars, being small rocky masses or grains of debris which burn up after entering the earth's atmosphere. 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. 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. (see final section 'Further science on meteors' for full explanation of this topic).

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.  

Some apologists, for example, the highly influential [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_A'la_Maududi Ala-Maududi] (d. 1979 AD) writing in light of much more modern science in his modern tasfir wrote:{{Quote|{{cite web| url=https://myislam.org/surah-al-mulk/ayat-5/#:~:text=Ala%2DMaududi,9. | title= Tasfir Ala-Maududi 67.5}}|This does not mean that the stars themselves are pelted at the Satans, nor that the meteorites shoot out only to drive away the Satans, <b>but it means that the countless meteorites which originate from the stars and wander in space at tremendous speeds and which also fall to the earth in a continuous shower prevent the Satans of the earth from ascending to the heavens.</b> Even if they try to ascend heavenward these meteorites drive them away. This thing has been mentioned here because the Arabs believed about the soothsayers, and this also was the claim made by the soothsayers themselves, that the Satans were under their control, or that they had a close contact with them, and through them they received news of the unseen, and thus, could foretell the destinies of the people. That is why at several places in the Quran, it has been stated that there is absolutely no possibility for the Satans ascending to the heavens and bringing news of the unseen. For explanation, see (Surah Al-Hijr, ayat 16-18) note 9-12, (Surah As-Saaffat, ayat 7-10) note 6,7. As for the truth about meteorites, man’s information in this regard is still without a scientific basis. However, the theory which seems best to account for all the facts known today and the information gathered from the examination of the meteorites fallen on the earth, is that meteorites originate from the disintegration of one or more planets and wander in space and sometimes fall to the earth under its gravitational pull. (See Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. XV, under Meteorites).}}

'''Objections to this claim'''

In other words, this has involved twisting the text into something that isn't there.  

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_A'la_Maududi Ala-Maududi] (d. 1979 AD) also wrote:{{Quote|{{cite web| url=https://myislam.org/surah-al-hijr/ayat-18/ | title= Tasfir Ala-Maududi 15.18}}|In Arabic the word shihab-i-mubin literally means a fiery flame. In Surah (Surah As-Saffat, Ayat 10), the same thing has been called shihab-i-thaqib (flame that pierces through darkness). <b>This may or may not necessarily be a meteor for it is just possible that it may be some type of rays such as cosmic rays or even a stronger type which we have not been able to discover as yet. </b>Anyhow, if the fiery flame that pursues Satans may be taken to be a meteor, a countless number of these can form a fortification around our sphere of the universe. Scientific observations made with the help of the telescope have shown that billions of these meteors are rushing from space in a mass of rainfall. towards the earth’s atmosphere. Such a scene was witnessed in an eastern pan of North America on November 13, 1833. This is so strong a fortification that it can prevent Satans from passing through any fortified sphere.}}''Note the meteor shower being referred to here Leonid Meteor Storm, where fragments of ice, rock, and dust left behind by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. About every 33 years, the Leonid meteor shower intensifies, increasing the possibility of a dazzling display of lights.<ref>https://blog.newspapers.com/november-12-13-1833-the-night-the-stars-fell/</ref> This comes from a predictable pattern of material left behind by the comet entering earths atmosphere and burning up,<ref>https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/leonid-meteor-shower-when-and-where-see-it-uk</ref> they do not actually form a flame in space which is impossible due to there being no oxygen.<ref>https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733000-900-lighting-fires-in-space-is-helping-us-make-greener-energy-on-earth/#:~:text=Fires%20can't%20start%20in,in%20strange%20and%20beautiful%20ways</ref>''

Two alternative interpretations popular in modern times<ref>https://www.facebook.com/100PROOFSGODEXISTS/photos/are-meteors-or-shooting-stars-used-as-missiles-for-the-devilsjinn-answer-no1-qur/1438650339514784/</ref> are that the Quran is referring to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection coronal mass ejections] (large eruptions of charged matter from the sun or other stars), or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray 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 ([https://quran.com/en/as-saffat/8 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.

''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.

''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.

''Stars''<ref>[https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/what-is-a-star/#:~:text=But%20just%20what%20is%20a,the%20closest%20star%20to%20Earth. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/what-is-a-star/#:~:text=But%20just%20what%20is%20a,the%20closest%20star%20to%20Earth.]</ref> 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.

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 issues of meteors being used as weapons as many apologists claim, in light of modern science, and clarify the differences for the casual reader.

Meteors showers are what the later Muslim historians such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya%27qubi Al-Ya'qubi] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_%27Idhari Ibn 'Idhari] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Jawzi Ibn al-Jawzi] understood to being blocking jinn from listening to the exalted assembly.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuhtSEY91kU The Exalted Assembly] ''- YouTube Video''

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