Refuting the Doubt About Meteors and Shooting Stars in the Quran — Are Stars Used to Pelt Devils
The Quran did not speak about meteorites — it spoke about meteors, and the distinction is precise. This doubt was raised by the heretics in the Abbasid era and has been answered. It has nothing new to offer.
The doubter quotes a definition of meteorites as follows:
The Quran, however, did not speak about meteorites (nayazik) — it spoke about meteors (shuhub). There is a difference between the two. The Quran is very precise in its words and meanings. When it speaks about meteors, it speaks about meteors, not meteorites. Even if we were to assume the difference between them is not great — we will not speak about the doubter’s definition, but rather about what the Holy Quran itself mentioned.
Second — What the Doubter Misread
The doubter claims that the Quran “explained the words of Muhammad” on the tongue of the jinn. This is backwards. The Quran is not explained by Muhammad ﷺ — the words of the Messenger ﷺ are what the Quran is explained with. The doubter will not explain as he pleases in order to delude the reader with things that have no basis except in his own imagination.
The doubter also quotes the Quranic verses about the jinn:
“And indeed, we have sought the heaven but found it filled with stern guards and meteors. And indeed, we used to sit therein in stations to listen. But whoever listens now will find a meteor lying in wait for him.”
The doubter then claims: “the meteor or meteors are not a vanishing star, but rather a projectile directed by Allah at a spy who eavesdrops on the jinn.”
What prevents God from using meteors — regardless of the origin of the meteor, whether it is the result of the disintegration of a star or a planet — for any other function that He wills? Is God not capable of everything? Is there anything preventing Him from doing so? The doubter’s conclusion that this verse negates the scientific truth of meteors is deliberate and clear deception.
The doubter also asks: “How does burning matter affect a spirit?” This is a fraudulent question. Does the doubter know the composition of the jinn and what harms and benefits them? What does “spiritual beings” mean — that nothing affects them? Are the jinn heavenly beings? Let this doubter tell us the composition of the spirit and the results of his tests on it. What prevents the powerful God, the Creator of all things, from punishing one of His creatures with another of His creatures? The doubter forgot that he worships a crucified Jesus — a God who could not overcome one of His creatures (Jacob), who forced Him to do something He did not want. This God cannot protect Himself from being beaten or crucified — so how does he speak of what God can and cannot do with spiritual beings?
The Quranic Verses on Meteors and Their Correct Understanding
Allah says, narrating on the tongue of the jinn:
“And indeed, we have sought the heaven but found it filled with stern guards and meteors. And indeed, we used to sit therein in stations to listen. But whoever listens now will find a meteor lying in wait for him.”
The meaning is that Allah has appointed angel guards over the heaven, and created for them tools of punishment that are appropriate for the bodies of devils. These are meteors. If a devil comes, one of the angels throws a meteor at him. Meteors are not planets like the moon and the sun — they are tools of punishment like the sword in the hand of a warrior soldier.
This has a parallel in the Christian scriptures as well. In the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, when God expelled Adam from the Garden of Eden, He placed angels called cherubim to the east of the Garden and placed in their hands a flaming sword turning every turn to guard the way to the tree of life:
The commentators say: “The cherubim are among the angels who are brought near. In Persian it means guard.” Their job at the time of Adam’s expulsion was to guard Paradise, lest man return to it.
The Key Distinction — It Is the Flame, Not the Planet
In the Quran, meteors are interpreted as sparks of fire. In the Almighty’s saying:
“O company of jinn and mankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not pass except by authority. Which of the favours of your Lord will you deny? He will send upon you flames of fire and copper, and you will not be able to defend yourself.”
God has given the jinn tools of punishment — shuwaz meaning meteors. He did not make planets for the jinn to be thrown at like the moon and the sun, but made for the jinn shuwaz — meteors.
“And We have certainly placed in the heaven great stars and have beautified it for the observers. And have protected it from every accursed devil. Except for one who steals a hearing and is pursued by a clear flaming fire.”
Note: the stars remained in their place. What moved and pursued the devil was the flaming fire — not the star itself.
“Indeed, We have beautified the nearest heaven with an adornment of stars. And as protection from every rebellious devil. They do not listen to the highest assembly, and they are pelted from every side. Driven away, and for them is a lasting punishment. Except for him who snatches a snatch, and a piercing flame pursues him.”
The one who pursued the rebellious devil is not the planet mentioned in verse 6, but rather the flame mentioned in verse 10.
The Four Functions of Stars in the Holy Quran
First: The noble verses speak of the heat resulting from the burning of a celestial body — a meteor, which does not have to be a star — as a pelting for the devils. The Quran never mentioned that the pelting tool is a complete star. What is in the verse is that there are fiery bodies that strike the devils, and it did not mention that a star falls on the devil or that the angels throw it at him. Modern science and astronauts speak of meteors seen in vast space as luminous comets, among them fiery ones that are extinguished and disintegrate in their path, and some reach the earth — similar to volcanic projectiles. These projectiles are pieces that separate from the planets and move in space, especially if the star or planet is close to the earth. God Almighty strikes with them whomever He wills and protects with them whomever He wills. [Source: Encyclopedia of Response to Doubts, footnote 5]
Second: The world of demons is unseen, and it is not permissible to measure the unseen with scientific research tools used for the tangible.
Third: The stars in the Holy Quran have other benefits — adornment and signs by which people find directions. See: Al-An’am 6:97, Al-Hijr 15:16, Al-Nahl 16:16, As-Saffat 37:6.
Fourth: It is not necessary for the stars mentioned in the Holy Quran to be the same as what people have agreed upon in modern terminology — that is, a huge, gaseous, self-luminous cosmic body like the sun. It is possible that what is meant by a star — linguistically, not technically — is every solid body floating in space. It is stated in Al-Ayn: “A star is a name that falls on the Pleiades, and every house of the moon’s houses is called a star. Every planet of the planetary signs is called a star, and the stars include all the planets.” [Footnote 7]
This Doubt Is Not New — Al-Jahiz Responded to It in the Abbasid Era
This doubt was raised by the heretics in the Abbasid era, and Al-Jahiz responded to them. The following is quoted from the Encyclopedia of Response to Doubts [footnote 8]:
It was said to them: It has been said: A person moves his hand, eyebrow, or finger, and that movement is added to the whole, so they do not doubt that the whole is the agent of that movement. And when a meteor separates from a planet, and burns and illuminates all lands, then every person has ruled that that burning is added to the planet — and this is a close and easy answer, praise be to God.
And no one has said: It is necessary in his saying ‘And We made them missiles for the devils’ that he means all of them. So it is correct that he only meant the stars of the galaxy, and the stars that appear on the nights of the nights — because it is impossible for an eye to fall on that particular planet at the time of its disappearance, so that if God Almighty were to annihilate that planet from among all the planets that are orbiting, this contemplator would know its location and would feel the touch of its loss. And whoever thinks in his ignorance that he can comprehend the number of stars, then when he contemplates them in the darkness, and contemplates the galaxy and what is around it, he will not strike an example of the great number except with them, without the sand and dust and the drops of clouds.
And some of them said: The meteor approaches close, and we see it coming in a wide way, not swooping down. And if it were the planet that swoops down, it would not be seen like a fine thread, and it would illuminate the entire world and burn everything on the face of the earth. So you cannot decide that the one directly hitting the body of Satan is the planet until it is nothing else, and you hear God Almighty say: ‘Then a piercing meteor pursued him’ [As-Saffat: 10].
What is meant is that what affects the body of Satan is the effect of the heat of the fire resulting from the friction of the celestial body with the Earth’s atmosphere — and we see it in the form of light, not the essence of the body located in its centre. The effect is of the accident, not the substance.
He added another benefit: And some of them challenged from another side and said: You claimed that God Almighty said: ‘And as a protection from every rebellious devil. They do not listen to the highest assembly, and they are pelted from every side, driven away, and for them is a lasting punishment’ — and he said according to the rules of speech: ‘Except for he who snatches a snatch, and a piercing flame pursues him’ [As-Saffat: 10]. He said: So how can the snatch be from a forbidden place?
It was said to him: He is not forbidden from snatching, since he was inevitably pelted with a flame and killed — although if he had been saved by the snatch, he would not have benefited at all.”