وَٱلنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَىٰ
ٱلنَّجْم comes with the definite article: "the star" — not just any star. And the verb هَوَىٰ, by definition, can be applied not to a single star but to every body in the sky.
| View | What it says | Its ground | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| A generic noun: the stars | The definite article conveys the genus; "when the thing called a star sets" | In Arabic al- is widely used for the genus — as in "man was created anxious" (al-Maʿārij 70/19) | The widest in scope, the reading requiring the fewest assumptions |
| A particular star | The Pleiades, or Sirius, named at the end of the sūra | rabbu'l-Shiʿrā occurs at verse 49; a link within the sūra can be made | Possible; but the sūra does not give the name at verse 1 |
| The Qurʾān itself / the portions of the revelation | Nujūm means "instalments"; it points to the piecemeal descent of the revelation | The tanjīm sense of the root | The root-datum is correct, but the verb's being hawā makes this reading difficult: a text does not set |
I do not impose a preference. This much can be said: the verb (hawā — to fall, to set) carries the first reading most easily, because falling and setting are facts that hold for every star and are confirmed by observation. The third reading has a firm ground in the root but a weak ground in the verb.
And there is this, which is a datum within the sūra: verse 49 says "and He is the Lord of Sirius". The sūra addresses directly, that is, a party who worshipped a star. That the sūra opens with a star and closes with the Lord of a star is an arrangement not to be counted accidental. I record this as an observation; I do not turn it into the claim that the najm of the first verse must be Sirius.
Root: ه-و-ي. This root was treated in detail in the section al-Qāriʿa and analysed once more in al-Nāziʿāt; I do not repeat it. In counting the root's occurrences in the Qurʾān, the section on al-Qāriʿa gave precisely this verse as its first example.
The summary: هَوَىٰ — to fall from a height; هَاوِيَة — the place fallen into, one of the names of Hell; ٱلْهَوَىٰ — the desire of the soul, what pulls a person downward.
On the choice of the verb. The verse does not say gharaba (it set), nor afala (it vanished) — and the Qurʾān does use the word ufūl of the stars in the story of Abraham (al-Anʿām 6/76-78). It says هَوَىٰ: it fell.
The difference is real. Ufūl is a vanishing; hubūṭ is a coming down; hawā, though, is a fall drawn by weight. The word says that what falls is not coming down by its own will.
And this is the ground of the contrast the second verse will establish: an oath is sworn upon something that falls, and a man who has not fallen is to be spoken of.
The general structure of the oaths in the Qurʾān has been treated in several places in this commentary (the sections on al-Takwīr, al-Ṭāriq, al-Shams, al-Fajr). Briefly: an oath is used not to make something sacred but to put forward, as evidence, a fact standing before the eyes of the one addressed.
The fact put forward here is: even the things in the sky that look most fixed fall. The star is what you find your direction by all night, what you tie your calendar to; and it too goes below the horizon at some point.
And the answer to the oath — the second verse — will say the exact opposite: "your companion has not gone astray." The heavenly bodies appear to leave their courses; this man did not leave his.
I record this as my own reading. The relation of meaning between an oath and its answer has been established in different ways in the classical commentaries and there is no single right one; the above is a reading resting on the two verbs the text gives (hawā / mā ḍalla).