وَلَقَدْ زَيَّنَّا ٱلسَّمَآءَ ٱلدُّنْيَا بِمَصَٰبِيحَ وَجَعَلْنَٰهَا رُجُومًا لِّلشَّيَٰطِينِ ۖ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابَ ٱلسَّعِيرِ
Wa laqad zayyanna'l-samāʾa'l-dunyā bi-maṣābīḥa wa jaʿalnāhā rujūman li'l-shayāṭīn, wa aʿtadnā lahum ʿadhāba'l-saʿīr "We have adorned the nearest sky with lamps and made them things to be hurled at the satans. And We have prepared for them the punishment of the blaze."
Root: د-ن-و. This root was treated in the discussion of al-Baqara: to be near and to be low. And as was recorded there, dunyā (this life) is also from this root — the name of this life is "the near one", and adnā from the same root means "nearer / lower".
In the discussion of al-Baqara this reservation was also entered: the badness of this world is not in its quality but in its price — the near has been exchanged for the lasting.
In the use here the word comes with its full lexical sense and this is instructive. Al-samāʾu'l-dunyā — "the near sky", that is, the one seen by the eye, the lowest. The same word, carrying no moral load at all, conveys only distance.
This shows how the word "world" is to be understood: the word is not the name of a bad thing but the name of what is near. The badness is not in nearness but in preferring the near to the far.
And the construct says one thing more: to say "the nearest sky" requires that there be further skies. Two verses earlier "seven heavens" was said; here the lowest of them is spoken of. The two verses complete each other.
Root: ص-ب-ح. Morning, brightness, shining. Ṣubḥ — morning; aṣbaḥa — he entered upon the morning, he came into a state; miṣbāḥ — a lamp with a wick and oil.
The choice of word calls for attention. The Qurʾān uses the words nujūm and kawākib for the stars too. Here neither of the two has been used; lamp has been said.
The difference is this: najm and kawkab name the body, miṣbāḥ names the function. A lamp is a thing that gives light; a lamp that gives no light is not a lamp.
That is, when the verse speaks of the bodies in the sky it says not what they are but what they are for. This is on the same line as the finding recorded in the discussion of al-Baqara 2/22 for the sky's being called a "building": the word chosen conveys function.
The link with al-Nūr 24/35 is worth recording: the same word is used in one place for the lights in the sky and in another for the representation of divine light. What both have in common is the function of showing the way in darkness.
And there is a fine point here: adornment is what is not necessary. A lamp is hung in order to give light; its being an adornment is a separate thing. The verse names the lights of the sky first as adornment.
This is akin to the expression at al-Kahf 18/7: "We have made what is on the earth an adornment for it" — there too adornment was mentioned as the material of the test.
As my own reading I add this: that there is in the universe a beauty beyond function connects quietly with the measure of aḥsan in the second verse. If the measure is "the best deed", then the work of the one who set the measure also contains beauty. The difference between what has to be done and what has been done beautifully is looked for both in the universe and in the human being's own deeds.
Root: ر-ج-م. To stone, to throw stones. Rajm — stoning; rajīm — stoned, driven off (an attribute of the satan). Rujūm is a plural: things hurled, missiles.
- "We adorned the nearest sky with stars and guarded it from every rebellious satan. They cannot listen to the highest assembly and are pelted from every side" (around al-Ṣāffāt 37/6-8; the expressions are within this frame).
- "We touched the sky and found it filled with strong guards and flames. We used to sit there in places to listen; but now whoever wishes to listen finds a flame watching for him" (al-Jinn 72/8-9).
| View | Explanation |
|---|---|
| On the apparent sense | There is a guarding in the sky; the satans' attempt to reach knowledge is blocked; this blocking takes place with flames that are hurled |
| The lamps and what is hurled are separate | The lamps that adorn and what is hurled at the satans are not the same bodies; the verse mentions two functions together and does not reduce them to one object |
| A representation | The expression is a representation conveying that knowledge of the unseen is protected; it is framed so as to block claims of soothsaying and of announcing the unseen |
What I shall not do is clear: I shall not match this verse with meteors and construct a scientific miracle out of it. This matching is very widespread; but what the stones falling from the sky are is not the subject of the verse, and the link that is set up says more than the verse says. The rule written in the method is applied here.
The function of the verse within its context, by contrast, is beyond dispute and it is this that should be recorded: the sūra says that every channel claiming to bring news from the sky is closed. In Mecca there were soothsayers, and it was being put forward that revelation too came from such a source. In Sūrat al-Qalam we shall meet another form of this claim (the accusation of majnūn). Here the source is cut off at the outset.
At the end of the verse it says "and We have prepared for them the punishment of the blaze". To whom does the pronoun لَهُمْ refer?
There are two possibilities: the satans (those mentioned most recently) or the deniers (those who will be mentioned in the next verse). Most of the classical exegetes refer it to the satans; since the next verse will frame a separate sentence for the deniers, this seems reasonable. I record it as a preference; it is not binding.
أَعْتَدْنَا — root ع-ت-د. To prepare, to keep ready. ʿAtīd — the one that is ready. The verb is in the perfect: the punishment has been prepared, not is to be prepared. This form is often used in the Qurʾān for scenes of the hereafter and its effect is this: what is to come is mentioned, at the level of language, as already done and finished.
ٱلسَّعِير — root س-ع-ر. The flame's catching and rising, the fire's blazing up. Saʿara'l-nār — he made the fire blaze. From the same root comes siʿr (price) — the mentioning of price by way of its "blazing" is an old usage in Arabic. Saʿīr is fire that does not go out, that has been made to blaze.