DEVILS ARE DRIVEN AWAY BY SHOOTINGِSTARS (VERSE NO. 16 - 18)

      In the first verse, reference is made to the apparent constellation which is a spot on the face of heavens, to give us some account of how great the universe is; and how greater is the Creator and designer of the billions of million celestial bodies that exist.

      The Arabic, ``BORJ'' literally means appearance and tower; and the towers of the sky is a technical term which refers to the 12 constellations of the path of sun which is called the, ``ZODIAC'':ِ (for more information about the ZODIAC please refer to the translator's note at the end of this article)

      ``And verily We have set the 12 constellations of Zodiac in the sky, and adorned it for those who behold.''

      In a dark night, have a look at the sky and see the beautiful twinkling stars that are scattered in groups, and constellations and configurations, united in one luster throughout the sky overhead. The configurations of stars are so arrayed and arranged that one like the great mystic, ATTAR NISHÄBURI may think they have held a meeting, and are staring at us and whispering to each other! Just like the Sufis in robe, calm and quiet they are wandering day and night in search of their own Creator. Some of them seem to be inviting us to themselves, and some others are so shining that we may think they are coming toward us. Some of them also dimly cry from the depth of the heavens, as if they want to say; ``O, Man we are here!''

      This attractive and poetical scenery that may seem something ordinary and natural in the sight of some people due to repetition of view, is far more fascinating and bewitching that one may think of! In times when the moon appears among them with all its beauty and glory, it gives new aspect to the view. After the sun-set they begin to appear one after the other, as if they come on the stage from behind a curtain, and finally they conceal themselves at the sun rise. The face and feature of the sky is so beautified that for centuries it has attracted the eye and attention of Man, specially the learned man of wisdom and knowledge!

      The next verse points to God's care for the sky:ِ

      ``And We have guarded them against all accursed Satans, except those who eavesdropped, then pursued him a clear shootingِstar!''

HOW THE DEVILS ARE WARDED OFF?

      The last verse is one of those about which the commentators have discussed a lot:ِ

1ِ Some of them like author of, ``Al-ZALÄL'' have by-passed it saying; We cannot apprehend the meaning of the verse now. So they have abstained from commenting it, and say; What is Satan? How does he want to eavesdrop? And what does he want to listen to it secretly? All these are among the Divine Unseen and applying to it will come to no result; and will only occupy our mind and thought in vain!

      But we are of opinion that Qurän is a Book, revealed to develop man spiritually as well as physically. Therefore, nothing is written in this Book which is not related some how to Man's life and fate. So taking such positions in relation to Qurän is not right.

2ِ Some of the commentators of Qurän, specially the pristine writers, have taken the apparent literal denotation of the words as true. To them the sky here is the high blue ceiling which is held overhead the globe, and by SHAHÄB the real shootingِstar is meant, which is a transient celestial body that enters the earth's atmosphere with great velocity, incandescent with heat generated by the resistance and friction of the air. And also Satan is the famous accursed Jinn who is Man's avowed enemy, willing to eavesdrop, or stand under the eaves to listen to whispers or talks to misuse them.

      Science has already proved that, all the speeches and conversations of man may go up through sound waves at the upper sections of the atmosphere. So is the case with the light waves or photons, which take with them all the actions and features of man and animal, and all. Therefore, if an intelligent living creature could go up having the necessary equipments or faculties, he would be able to hear and see, or in other word, to detect what men over the earth say or do! But the task is not so easy and the eavesdropper is unfortunate for being encountered with great showers of meteors that turn into shootingِstars when they enter the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere. (More about the METEORS, we have written in V.3ِP.124ِ126)

      To explain the verse allegorically; the characters are taken as symbols. Then the sky might be the spiritual heavens wherein the angels live, and the shootingِstars are the truthful believers like the prophet's companions. Then the evil-doers and the followers of Satan try to make mischief and cause disorder and confusion in the spiritual matters, but the godly men like the shootingِstars rush upon them, their weapons being logic and reason, and render their efforts ineffective.

THE ZODIAC

      Like the other celestial bodies in the heavens, the sun seems to be moving constantly and besides its daily rise and set it also seems to be changing its position with respect to other stars. This is because our earth moves around the sun at a speed of 18 miles a second in an elliptical path, and it takes about a year to complete its journey. Since we are not conscious of the fact that the earth is moving around the sun, the sun seems rather to us to be moving around the sky to the east little by little each day. So in the course of one year, the sun completes its eastern circuit, and the stars that becomes visible in this way are always changing because of the sun's steady eastward motion. This apparent path of the sun is a great circle of the celestial sphere, which is divided into 360 degrees. Since our year is about 365 days long, the sun appears to move toward the east approximately one degree a day. The yearly path of the sun around the heaven is known as the, ``ECLIPTIC.''

      Inclined at an angle of 23(( ))1(( ))2(( )) degrees to the celestial equator, the ecliptic crosses it at two points 180 degrees apart. At these two points where the ecliptic and equator meet, our day is equal to our night in length.

      The ecliptic is the central line of a band of 16 degrees in width in the heavens, and it is known as ZODIAC. It is divided into twelve parts or signs of 30 degrees each. They are named as follows:ِ

1ِRam 2ِBull 3ِTwins 4ِCrab 5ِLion 6ِVirgin 7ِScale 8ِScorpion 9ِArcher 10ِGoat 11ِWaterCarrier 12ِFish
      It will be noted that the eleven of the twelve names we have just given, refers to members of the animal kingdom; and hence the name ZODIAC which means in Greek, ``the circle of animals.''

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE)