12. Surah Yusuf
12: 4
Asad Lo! Thus spoke Joseph ……I saw [in a dream] eleven stars,
Yusuf Ali Behold Joseph said to his father: "O my father! I did see eleven stars and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrate themselves to me!"
Pickthall When Joseph said unto his father: O my father! Lo! I saw in a dream eleven planets and the sun and the moon, I saw them prostrating themselves unto me.
Transliteration Iz qa_la ya_sufu li abihi ya_ abati inni ra'aitu ahada'asyara kaukabaw wasy syamsa wal qamara ra'aituhum li sa_jidin(a).
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14. Surah Ibrahim
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَسَخَّر
لَكُمُ الشَّمْسَ
وَالْقَمَرَ
دَآئِبَينَ...
14: 33. And He hath made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses:
C1909. The sun gives out heat, which is the source of all life and energy on this planet, and produces the seasons of the year, by utilizing which man can supply his needs, not only material, but immaterial in the shape of light, health, and other blessings.
The sun and the moon together produce tides, and are responsible for atmospheric changes which are of the highest importance in the life of man.
The succession of Day and Night is due to the apparent daily course of the sun through the skies; and the cool light of the moon performs other services different from those of warm day-light.
Because there are laws here, which man can understand and calculate, he can use all such things for his own service, and in that sense the heavenly bodies are themselves made subject to him by Allah's command.
...وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ ﴿٣٣﴾
and the Night and the Day hath He (also) made subject you.
14: 33
Asad and has made the sun and the moon, both of them constant upon their courses, ………
Pickthall And maketh the sun and the moon, constant in their courses, to be of service unto you, and hath made of service unto you the night and the day.
Transliteration Wa sakhkhara lakumusy syamsa wal qamara da_'ibain(i), wa sakhkhara lakumul laila wan naha_r(a).
[Asad note: Almost all classical commentators agree that God’s having made the natural phenomena “subservient” to man is a metaphor [majaz] of His having enabled man to derive lasting benefit from them: hence my explanatory interpolations, In the same sense the night and the day are spoken of in 10:67, 27:86, or 40:61 as having been “made for you”…..]
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37. As-Saffat (Those Ranged In Ranks)
Mecca 56 [182 verses]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّا
زَيَّنَّا
السَّمَاء
الدُّنْيَا
بِزِينَةٍ
الْكَوَاكِبِ
﴿٦﴾
37: 6. We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars --
C4035. Cf. 72:8-9. (Eds.).
C4036. 'Stars' may be taken here in the popular sense, as referring to fixed stars, planets, comets, shooting stars, etc.
On a clear night the beauty of the starry heavens is proverbial. Here they are meant to illustrate two points:
- their marvelous beauty and their groupings and motions (apparent or real) manifest and typify the Design and Harmony of the One true Creator: and
- the power and glory behind them typify that there is a guard against the assaults of Evil (see verse 7 below).
وَحِفْظًا
مِّن كُلِّ
شَيْطَانٍ
مَّارِدٍ ﴿٧﴾
37: 7. (For beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious evil spirits.
C4037. Verses 7-11 seem to refer to shooting stars, Cf. 15:17-18, and notes 1951-53.
The 'heavens typify not only beauty but power. The Good in Allah's world is guarded and protected against every assault of Evil. The Evil is not part of the heavenly system: it is a thing in outlawry, merely a self-willed rebellion,- "cast away on every side, repulsed under a perpetual penalty" (verses 8-9).
Asad’s Version:
37:6 Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with the beauty of stars, (37:7) and have made them secure against every rebellious, satanic force, 3
[[ Ruby’s note - Star in Arabic is Najm, here instead of Najm the word Kawakib is used, this same word is used when Prophet Yusuf mentioned eleven planets, sun and the moon bowing before him, see below]]
[[Asad’s note - 3 For an explanation of this passage, see note 16 on 15:17.
Note 16 on 15:17: The term shaytan ("satan") - derived from the verb shatana ("he was [or "became"] remote") - often denotes in the Qur'an a force or influence remote from, and opposed to, all that is true and good (Taj al-'Arus, Raghib): thus, for instance, in2:14 it is used to describe the evil impulses (shayatin) within the hearts of "those who are bent on denying the truth". In its widest, abstract sense it denotes every "satanic force", i.e., every impulsion directed towards ends which are contrary to valid ethical postulates. In the present context, the phrase "every satanic force accursed (rajim)"- like the phrase "every rebellious (marid) satanic force" in a similar context in 37:7 - apparently refers to endeavours, strongly condemned in Islam, to divine the future by means of astrological speculations: hence the preceding reference to the skies and the stars. The statement that God has made the heavens "secure" against such satanic forces obviously implies that He has made it impossible for the latter to obtain, through astrology or what is popularly described as "occult sciences", any real knowledge of "that which is beyond the reach of human perception" (al-ghayb).]]
Yuksel’s Version:
37:6 We have adorned the lowest heaven with the decoration of planets.
37:7 To guard against every rebellious devil.
37:8 They cannot listen to the command up high; and they are bombarded from every side.
37:9 Outcasts; they will have an eternal retribution.
37:10 Any of them who snatches something away, he is pursued by a piercing flame.