Surah An Najm

Episode 2 :
So, before I get into the surah itself, I need to give you a couple more preliminary concepts that I need
you to be aware of...

You remember that LEGOs analogy I gave you... I am gonna give you this picture, there is no text... There
is just this picture...

The idea is that there are strands with in a surah.. So, I am going to list some strands for you, some of
the more common strands in Makkan surahs.... and they all get stitched together..

So, one of those strands are “the signs of Allah”..... that’s one of the strands that you find a lot in
Makkan Surahs... So the signs of Allah could be in the mountains, the signs could be inside of ourselves,
the signs could be in history, etc... This is number one strand..

The second is “prophetic history”.... Now prophetic history, I am not talking about “nations and their
destructions”, that is separate.. Prophetic history is like, you know when the angels came and spoke to
Ibrahim alahisalam that he is gonna have a child,... that is a small episode of prophetic history...

Or when Musa alahisalam spoke to Allah on the mountain, that is prophetic history... So, this is the
second strand...

Now, a third strand is “judgement day and the after life”...

Number four strand is going to be “the fall of Nations”... Like the fall of firaun’s nation, the fall of the
nation of the aad and samud and so on...

Then number five strand is “comforting the prophet”... This is a very important strand that us in the
Makkan Quran.... So the prophet salallahualahiwasallam will be told – “ignore what they are saying”....
“be patient with what they are saying”... “Allah is with you”.... etc.... So, comforting the prophet is a
constant strand that’s going on inside of these surahs...

These are the main ones... There are some smaller ones... Like for example, you can call it “spiritual
morality”... Let me explain what that means...

You know like, how in Islam we have technicalities... Like “how do you make wudhu???”... right???... We
have technicalities for ghusul,... We have technicalities for “how do you slaughter an animal???”.......
Those are very technical and specific things but honesty, kindness, being fair to one another, being good
to parents,.... those are not technical......that’s a part of “spiritual morality”..... so, the technical, the
Sharia, that stuff came mostly in Madina.. But, in Makkah, when the Quran was talking about good
deeds, it was basically in the realm of this spiritual morality... that’s what it was talking about...

So, “spiritual morality” is the number six strand...

Another strand is “the Quran” itself... Or, actually let’s make it broader... “revelation” itself... And let me
explain what this means....

Revelation is three things...

  The angel who delivers it.... is part of the machinary of Revelation..
 What is the Angel delivering “the message”.... that’s part of revelation...
 And who is receiving it “the messenger” salallahualahiwasallam, that’s also part of revelation...

So, there is three pieces to revelation... There is the..

 The deliver, the angel...

 The message or the book...
 And the messenger, the recipient...

All three... That is one of the subjects, one of the strands in Makkan Quran... Dealing with that in one
way or the other...

The reason I brought this up right now is I want you to know something about Surah Najm from the
outside before we go inside...

Surah Najm belongs to a group of surahs between 50 and 56...you should know that... These are all
Makkan surahs.. All of them... And they all have strands that build on each other... So, Allah will give you
a little bit of ‘one of the strands’ in “Surah Qaf” and he will give you some extra, the same strand will
come up somehow again in “Surah Jariyah”... then it will come again in “Surah Toor”... And then it will
come again in “Surah Najm”.. then in “Surah Qamar”.. then in “Surah Rahman” and then in “Surah
Waqiah”.... 50 all the way to 56...

Now, I am going to talk to about one of those strands...

One of those strands is “the Quran” itself... “Revelation”... “the Quran” itself... This is one of the strands
that you will find in Surah number 50.... It comes again in Surah number 51.. It comes again surah
number 52... It comes again surah number 53 and we are in 53 right now...

So, I want to show you what is happening with this strand...

Why do i want to show you this strand and not the other strands because we are dealing with section
number one of this surah...

And section number one of this surah is actually about “the Quran”, “revelation” itself...

So, let me tell you what happens...

In “Surah Qaf” Allah swears –

ِ ْ‫َوالقُر‬
‫ٓان ال َم ِج ْي ِد‬

He swears by the Quran full of majesty.. the glorious Quran, the majestic Quran… He doesn’t explain
what makes it majestic… you should ponder that yourself…. But he is dropped an idea in “Surah Qaf”
that he is describing the Quran is “majestic”….

In Surah Jariyah he says – “this Quran is as true as your ability to speak…”

He is basically saying if you contemplate the human ability to speak, you will realize it (the Quran) wasn’t
given as a product of evolution and you will also realize it’s limits and the more you contemplate human
speech, the more you will become clear that this can not be human speech…
‫ِٕا َّن ُه َل َح ٌّق م ِّْث َل َما َٔا َّن ُك ْم َت ْنطِ قُ ْو َن‬

It is a pretty remarkable statement…

So, theirs is a proof for the Quran in my own tongue… my own tongue is proof for the Quran if I
contemplate it… that is in Surah Jariyah…

Now, Surah Toor takes a few extra steps… the surah Toor now says – “here are all the things they say, to
say ‘this is not from Allah’….”

All the allegations against the Quran, all collected in one place in “Surah Toor”…

ٍ ‫ِن َواَل َمجْ ُن‬

)52:29( ‫ون‬ ٍ ۢ ‫ك ِب َكاه‬ َ ‫ت َر ِّب‬ِ ‫َف َذ ِّكرْ َف َمٓا َأنتَ ِبنِعْ َم‬
)52:30( ‫ون َشاعِ ۭ ٌر‬ َ ُ‫َأ ْم َيقُول‬
)52:33( ‫ون‬َ ‫ون َت َق َّولَهُۥ ۚ َبل اَّل يُْؤ ِم ُن‬َ ُ‫َأ ْم َيقُول‬
۟ ‫َف ْل َيْأ ُت‬
ٍ ۢ ‫وا ِب َحدِي‬
)52:34( ‫ث م ِّْث ِلهِۦ‬

“you are not a mind reader… you are not a sorcerer… you are not insane… are they saying ‘he is a
poet???’… are the saying ‘he is a crafting it and editing it himself???’… Well, you know what…

If this is a human speech and it is one of these categories, why don’t you just bring something like it…
then should do it… they should produce something like it…..”

So, what you are seeing now is a progression, the proof…

Surah Jariyah was proving the Quran… Surah Toor is proving the Quran….

But Surah Qaf was not proving the Quran… Surah Qaf is just saying that it is full of majesty… it was
describing the beauty of the Quran…

And what is happening in Surah Najm is – we are going to see a tafseer of “Al Quran Al Majeed”…

 What makes it so majestic…..

 What are some things that you can think about and I can think about that make it majestic…

So, keeping track of these strands is helpful because Allah is building an Idea, and other strands will
built, but this is the first one that we are going to dive into…

Now, this is another important concept… before we get into this surah, I need you to understand this
concept –

‫ = ”"اسْ ت ِْداَل ُل ْال َمعْ قُ ْول ِب ْال َمحْ س ُْوس‬spiritual truths taught through imagery…

I will explain what this means…

A lot of the given in Makkah will start making more sense to you if you understand this concept… it is a
very important concept in the Quran…

So, today in this surah, Allah will talk about the star….. You can see the star with your eyes…
In Surah Jariyah, he (Allah) will talk about the wind… can you feel the wind??? Yeah, you can totally feel
the wind..

In Surah Toor, he will talk about the mountain of Toor… did people see the mountain of Toor??? Did
they experience the mountain of Toor???

Yes.. They saw it…

Allah will talk about things that you can experience from the five senses, that is ‫( ْال َمحْ س ُْوس‬Al Mahsus) –
imagery you can imagine it, you can feel it, you can experience it, but he is talking about it and he is
using it to teach you something that is beyond the five senses… he is teaching you something about the
unseen through it… he is teaching you something powerful like we will take this surah as the example
itself…

Allah will be talking about the stars but he is using the example of the star to talk about something much
more spiritual… so, actually the star is just a stepping stone, it is just a device for something much
larger… so, that’s how we are going to understand… when you see one of the physical phenomena in the
Quran, any science of Allah, you should ask _

 “why is that there???”

 “what is the significance of it???”
 “what spiritual truth is connected to this image???”
One of my favorite example is –

ِ ‫ٱلز ْي ُت‬
)95:1( ‫ون‬ ِ ‫َوٱل ِّت‬
َّ ‫ين َو‬

“By the fig and the olive”…

The fig and the olive which is a reference to the “Mount of olives” in Jerusalem, which reminds of the
ِ ‫ٱلز ْي ُت‬
legacy of JESUS…. But you don’t have to say “jesus”, you can just say - ‫ون‬ ِ ‫… َوٱل ِّت‬. Especially with
َّ ‫ين َو‬
zaitun , the entire history of Jesus comes up…

)95:2( ‫ِين‬
َ ‫ور سِ ين‬ ُ
ِ ‫ – َوط‬that’s the history of Moses (Musa alahisalam)…

ِ ‫ ِد ٱَأْلم‬HHَ‫ – َو َه ٰـ َذا ْٱل َبل‬that’s Makkah which is the history of Ibrahim alahisalam and Rasulullah
)95:3( ‫ِين‬
salallahualahiwasallam…

So, prophets are being talked about by just a few images… and their entire legacy, that entire spiritual
truth is encapsulated in just a couple of words….

That’s part of the style of the Quran… It is sophisticated… It is rich… and that’s we have to pay attention
to if we are going to make sense of this surah…

Now, we are get into the surah itself..

First things first…

The reports we have about this surah, they are not conclusive ( conclusive meaning it applies to
reasoning or logical proof that puts an end to debate or questioning.) but most likely or high
likelihood, this was given to the prophet salallahualahiwasallam in the fifth year.. So, he has been a
prophet for five years,when this surah came... And by this time, they have started to become very
hostile...

Some Seerah historians argue that the first three years or two years, the prophet
salallahualahiwasallam was giving dawah but he was giving it one on one.... He wasn’t going in
public and he wasn’t out in the marketplace and things like that, it was one-on-one people were being
talked to about Islam and it was underground..

And then from three, four and five, things started becoming more public.. And as they started
becoming more public, the responses of Makkah started becoming more and more and more
aggressive...

So, we are now in the middle of “the early part of the aggression of Makkah” when this surah came,
an interesting event happened...

Now, one of the things that the Quraish used to do – when the prophet used to recite the Quran, they
used to start making noise...

Lalalalalallallalalal.... I do wanna hear it... I don’t wanna hear it...

Or, somebody would start singing a song... Or they would pay women to start a concert while the
Quran is going on...

)41:26( ‫َان َو ْٱلغَ ْو ۟ا فِ ْي ِه‬ ۟ ‫اَل َتسْ َمع‬

ِ ‫ُوا لِ َه ٰـ َذا ْٱلقُرْ ء‬
So, in the middle of the market, women would start dancing and singing and all the crowd would go
over there..

“Don’t listen to this Quran and create distraction when it is being recited….”

)41:26( َ‫“ – لَعَ لَّ ُك ْم َت ْغلِبُون‬so you can win….”

So, the Quran was being ignored… and if somebody hears the Quran, they are like – they start making
noise, so you don’t hear it…

But then… two years into this aggression, Allah gave the prophet salallahualahiwasallam surah
Najm…

١ ‫َوٱل َّنجْ ِم ِإ َذا ه ََو ٰى‬

٢ ‫ح ُب ُك ْم َومَا غَ َو ٰى‬
ِ ‫مَا ضَ َّل صَ ا‬
٣ ‫َومَا يَنطِ ُق عَ ِن ْٱله ََو ٰ ٓى‬

And something strange happened…

The prophet salallahualahiwasallam was reciting this surah, the whole surah, at one time… it is a
long surah… he recites the whole surah… and nobody stops him… nobody stopped him… nobody
made noise…..they were all like “huhhhh 😲😲😲….. What!!!! ”

And they started listening and check this out….

‫ َٔانَّ ال َّن ِبيِّ ﷺ سَجَ دَ ِبال َّنجْ ِم‬: ‫َّاس‬
ٍ ‫ْن عَ ب‬
ِ ‫ = عَ ِن اب‬Ibnu Abbas reports that Rasul salallahualahiwasallam did sajda at
the end of Surah Najm… because the last ayah of Surah Najm is a sajda… so, he fell into prostration…

‫ = َو َس َج َد َم َع ُه المُسْ ِلم ُْو َن‬and the Muslims did sajda with him…

‫ = َوال ُن ْش ِر ُك ْو َن‬and the mushriqun fell into sajda… The quraish fell into sajda…

ُ‫ = َو ْالحِنُّ َوإِاْل ْنس‬and jinns and human beings…

Anybody who heard the surah, fell into sajda… even the mushriqoon who used to make noise…

This happened in the fifth year…

‫ = َو َعنْ َع ْب ِد هّٰللا ِ َٔانَّ ال َّن ِبيَّ ﷺ قَ َرَٔا سُوْ َرةَ النَّجْ ِم فَ َس َج َد لَهَا فَ َما بَقِ َي َٔا َح ٌد ِمنَ القَوْ ِم ِٕااَّل َس َج َد‬the rasulu salallahualahiwasallam
recited surah Najm, he did sajda himself, no one was left in all of Makkah that in the audience except that
they fell into sajda except one guy… one guy didn’t do Sajda..

ٍ ‫ = فََٔاخَ َذ َر ُج ٌل ِمنَ ْالقَوْ ِم َكفَّا ِم ْن َحصْ بَا َء َٔاوْ تُ َرا‬Instead of doing sajdah, he took some dirt and he put it
‫ب فَ َرفَ َعهُ ِٕالَی َوجْ ِه ِه‬
on his head and said that’s enough for me… “I am not gonna put my head down on the dirt… the dirt will
come up to my head…”… that was his reaction.. But everybody else felt it…. even people who don’t
believe, fell into sajdah momentarily…
So now…
‫ يَ ْكفِ ْينِ ْي هَ َذا‬: ‫ = َوقَا َل‬he says : this is enough for me…
‫هّٰللا‬
َ ُ‫ فَلَقَ ْد َرل َٶ ْيتُهُ بَ ْع ُد ق‬: ِ ‫ = قَا َل َع ْب ُد‬Some say this was Ummaiyya Ibnu Khalf, other say other
ٌ َ‫تِل َك افِرًا ُمتَّف‬
‫ق َعلَ ْي ِه‬
things…. Then we saw that this person was killed later on, he died a violent death…..
Anyway….
This is a big problem….
Because the Quraish, the elders if Quraish, keep spreading – “don’t listen to this Quran… this man is
insane… this man is wasting your time…. He is just a poet…”
And now, everybody has done what????
Sajdah…
They can’t keep campaigning against Islam, when they all sort of Islamed for a few minutes… this is
looking pretty bad… this is very bad.. So, they had to come up with a solution to this incident… because
this is not just one person or two people… this is everybody…
So, here is what happens and this is my understanding of this events… you are free to disagree but to the
best of my ability this is how I understand this events…
They had to come up with a solution to this problem, and in this surah later on Allah will say –
)53:19( ‫َٔافَ َرَٔا ْيتُ ْم الاَّل تَ َو ْال ُع َّز ٰی‬
)53:20( ‫َو َمنَاةَ الثَّالِثَةَ أُاْل ْخ َری‬
Allah will say – Have you seen your false God’s???
They had different idols, right???
Three of those God’s were named in the Quran –
ْ ‫اَل‬
‫ت‬
ْ ‫َمن‬
‫َات‬
‫ُع َّزة‬
Three of them Allah named them… and said – you think these are Allah’s daughters???
And you know what they did???
They want around and they said – no no no no… we didn’t do sajda because of the Quran… the prophet
ْ ‫ت َمن‬
salallahualahiwasallam was saying ‫َات ُع َّزة‬ ْ ‫ اَل‬are good…. He said – ‫ ِٕا َّن َشفَا َعتَهُ ْم تُرْ ت ََجی‬meaning their
intersession will work… they can save you on judgement day… so, the prophet compromised and he was
okay with three of our gods…. He even mentioned them in Surah Najm..
Did Allah mention thoes three gods in Surah najm???
Yes…
Did he say that they are going to intercede on your behalf???
No… they made that up…
And this became famously known as THE SATANIC VERSES…
ْ ‫اَل‬
This became – ohhhhh, the prophet salallahualahiwasallam momentarily agreed with ‫ َمنَاة‬، ‫ت‬
He never agreed…
They had to come up with an alternative campaign, alternative facts campaign…
They took three if the words in the surah… made up their own ayat, spread them, and rumor spread far
and wide to some of the Muslims who were living in Abyssinia, heard the rumor… that’s how good their
rumor machine was… and they said – ohhh, the prophet salallahualahiwasallam has compromised with
the Quraysh…. You can come back now… he has made a deal with them if you accept some of their gods,
you made a deal…
So, some of them started coming back because of the rumor…
That’s how powerful the rumor machine was…
And I won’t dignify the idea of the Satanic verses and whether it is legitimate or not… because for any
real academic, not even a believer, any real academic that studies the subject, looks at the text, looks at
what they are claiming, it doesn’t add up at all…
The most plausible explanation which is absolutely convincing is – this incident was too big of an
embarrassment for them… so, they had to create a smear campaign against the Quran, and that’s what
they came up with…
So, this is one incident that you should know about that was related to Surah Najm….
Now, by the way. Something I didn’t tell you, I should have told you…
These notes, they are like in Arabic, because I want you to feel bad…
No, no, no… there are in Arabic in a box… the box is usually for me, not for you… I will explain it…
But sometimes there are things in English and they are not in box… thoes things, they are for you… so,
don’t feel bad about this… well, feel a little bad… but that’s okay… this is for me… but for you in sha
Allah that is coming.. Okay???

Now, let’s begin with the first ayah of this surah… By the way, my goal today is to try to reach ayah
number six… let’s see how far we get…
Ayah 1 :
١ ‫َوٱلنَّجْ ِم ِإ َذا ه ََو ٰى‬
Allah says – I swear by the star, as it falls…
I swear by the star as it falls… that’s the easy translation so far…
I am going to share first with you, what did the Muslims say about this ayah historically… this is in
Qurtubi, tabari, ibn – kathir, different tafseer, these are some of the opinions about this ayah…
‫َت فِ ْي ْال َع َد ْد نُجُوْ ًما‬
ْ ‫ت َم َع ْالفَ َجرْ َوال َع َربْ تُ َس ِّم ْي الثُ َريَّا نَجْ ًما َوِٕا ْن َكن‬
ْ َ‫ َوالثُ َريَّا ِٕا َذا َسقَط‬: ‫ُم َجا ِه ْد‬

This is gonna be important… he is saying – By ‫ثُ َريَّا‬..

‫ ثُ َريَّا‬is not the name of an Arab khala (aunty)..
‫ ثُ َريَّا‬is a cluster of stars in the sky… in English we call them the “Pleiades” (plee.uh.deez)…. The Pleiades
constellation or the Pleiades cluster of stars… the Arab used to call it ‫ثُ َريَّا‬. And they are saying – “By the
constellation or the cluster of stars called ‫ ثُ َريَّا‬as they fall…”
So, I am not gonna explain this yet, just keep this in your head.. It is referring to a specific star or a
specific group of stars as they fall… we will figure out what that mean soon….
Mujahed says – “ Nooo… ‫ َوٱلنَّجْ ِم‬is actually referring, it is saying star, but it is talking about the
Quran....”
‫ َو ْالقُرْ ٓا ِن ِٕا َذا نُ ِّز َل َٔاِلنَّهُ َكانَ يُنَ َّزل نُجُوْ ًما‬: ‫ُم َجا ِه ْد‬
‫ نَ َج َم‬or ‫ نَ َّج َم‬or ‫ نُ ِّج َم‬actually in Arabic means “to give something in installments”……
So, Quran came in what???
In installments…
So, each installment is like a star shooting in the sky… like each installment is a star of falling…
That’s how Mujahed saw it…
You see the beautiful contrast/ comparison between those two???

ِ ‫“ – فَٓاَل ُأ ْق ِس ُم بِ َم ٰ َوقِ ِع ٱلنُّج‬I

It is similar oath that you find in Surah Al – waqiah, when Allah says – )56:75 ( ‫ُوم‬
swear by the falling and the replacement of the stars…”
So, that’s a very powerful beautiful image because the stars are the only light in the middle of darkness,
and the revelation of Allah is light in the middle of a world that’s full of darkness…
And Allah controls every star and it’s movement and Allah determined every ayah and it’s revelation and
when it came..
So, that was the opinion of Mujahed…
ُ‫ نُحُوْ ُم ال َّس َما ِء ُكلُّهَا ِح ْينَ تَ ْغرُب‬: ‫الفَرَّء‬
This is all of the stars and the sky, when they fall or when the star disappearing from the horizon…
Hassan says something similar – Allah swears by the star as they disappear….
Hassan also said – this might be reffering to stars on judgement day when they all start falling…
I swear by the star as it falls or as it will fall meaning – I am swearing by the time, when all stars are
going to start dropping out of the universe…
Because Allah will describe –
ْ ‫ َوِإ َذا ْٱل َك َوا ِكبُ ٱنتَثَ َر‬in other places in the Quran… All the stars are going to disperse… and ‫ت‬
)82:2( ‫ت‬ ْ ‫– طُ ِم َس‬
they are going to be erased and wiped out…
So, that could be a reference to that… these are early opinions…
‫ – ِٕا َّن النَّجْ َم هَاهُنَا ال َّز ْه َرة َٔاِل َّن قَوْ َم ِمنَ ْال َع َربْ كَانُوْ ا يَ ْعبُ ُدوْ نَهَا‬some say this is a star, specific star called “zahra”…. And
the Arabs used to worship it..
So, Allah is swearing by it as if he owns it… “that’s not your God… it has a God….”
So, that’s what it is a reference to….
And, finally, this is actually the weakest of the opinions…

َ ‫ت اللَّ ِذي لَي‬

ِ ‫ْس لَهُ َس‬
‫اف‬ ْ َ‫النَ َج ْم هُنَا هُ َو النَّب‬

Najm is also used in Arabic for grass or low plants… but as the wind makes them go down… so, the
grass as it goes down… BUT that’s not really viable in coming up with the rest of it…
Interesting opinion, very rare opinion, sometimes among our muffassirun, there were those who really
love the prophet salallahualahiwasallam, and their love of the prophet influenced their tafseer, their
thoughts about the Quran… So, they would see – “ohhh… Allah is talking about the star as it falls…”…
this must be talking about the prophet Muhammad salallahualahiwasallam as he came down from the
Mi’raj… the star as it falls…
So, that was also one of the opinions that was further anticipated - Jafar ibn Muhammad Ali ibn Hussain
said this…
Now, this is where I need you to use your imagination a little bit.. So, don’t worry about the screen right
now… just listen to me…
The ancient Arabs before Islam, they were really in touch with the sky… obviously they lived in the
desert and in the dessert the sky looks very different than the sky looks like now with the world full of
lights and electronics and pollution….
You know, there are photographers around the world that come to Texas, there is a certain spot in Texas
that has the best night sky in the world… and they come there and there are no lights allowed and no
flashes allowed and they come to just take pictures of the sky…
But, that was the normal sky for the Arabs back in the day…
And we see a few stars here and there….but actually if you go in the dessert sky, there is not a place
where you don’t find stars…
It is actually very different night sky than the one that we see….
So, we actually the tragedy of modern technology is that – for the most part we have not experienced the
night sky…
So, when Allah is talking about the star as it falls, we have much less of a connection to that than the
ancient Arabs did…
Now, I want you to just imagine – you live in that time… before Islam… back in ancient Arabia… not a
lot of cities… people… not a lot of lights… people love coming out at night because the days
excruciatingly hot… and the only real beauty they have to stare at is what???
THE STARS…
And they love travelling at night because it is safer, because you are cloaked (covered or disguised)… and
because it is cooler and they can move faster….so, they travelled quite a bit at night too…
)16:16( َ‫ = َوبِٱلنَّجْ ِم هُ ْم يَ ْهتَ ُدون‬And they used to use the stars for navigation..
Now, the thing is, you might not know this, and I didn’t know this because we are not in touch with
nature….
But the stars actually move through the seasons… they actually move… and over the course if you are
looking at…. remember I told you Pleiades, the constellation… that one part of the year as soon as
Maghrib happens, you can see it at eye level… and as the year progresses through the night, it moves
above your head… and another part of the year, the first time you see it is right above your head and it
moves down slowly over the season to eye level…
So, actually this constellation rises and it also falls…
Interestingly, the word ‫ هَ َو ٰى‬actually means “RISING AND FALLING”…

ٍ ‫ َذهَابٌ فِي ال ْن ِحد‬: ُّ‫اله ُِوي‬

‫َار‬

ٍ َ‫ َذهَابٌ فِي ارْ تَف‬: ُّ‫والهَ ِوي‬

‫اع‬
‫ رفعه في الهَ َوا ِء ؤا ْسقَطَه‬: ‫ؤاهواه‬،
‫ والمٔوتفكة ٔاهوی‬: ‫قَا َل تَ َعالی‬
Linguists argue that ‫ ه ُِوي‬from ‫ه ََو ٰی‬, the same letters is actually something going down..
And, ‫ ه َِوي‬is actually something going up.. So, movements downwards and upwards is captured inside ‫ه ََو ٰی‬
…..
And, what is really cool is these stars, half of the year they were rising and the other half of the year, they
were falling…
This is why even the idea of falling really fast, is also used in the word ‫ هَ َو ٰی‬like they use it for the eagle
when it swoops down…
ْ ‫ = ه ََو‬The eagle swooped down on its prey…
َ ‫ت ال ُعقَاب عَلی‬
‫صيْد‬

Like the eagle jumps down from the mountain, and it dives down to capture it’s prey and then it gets
up… the eagle when it does that, that is actually called ‫ هَ َو ٰی‬also…

Okay… so that’s a little bit about the meaning of the word ‫…ه ََو ٰی‬.
But now, let’s dig a little deeper..
I want you to know something that happened in ancient Arabia called “THE ‫ اَ ْن َوا َع‬SYSTEM”
The ‫ اَ ْن َوا َع‬was poetry before Islam…. all of it was about the stars… like there was an entire music
department dedicated songs and poems about what???
The Stars…
And, in thoes poems, they used to use the word “Najm” a lot…
Which word???
NAJM…
And they used it for ‫ثُ َريَّا‬, they used it for Pleiades all the time…
Sometimes they would say – ‫نَجْ ُم الثُّ َريَّا‬, sometimes they would say ‫…نَجْ م‬..but they used it all the time… and
you need to know that…
So, when the Arabs heard the Quran say – ‫وٱلنَّجْ ِم‬,
َ they were thinking…
“He is talking about pleiades!!!!”…
“He is talking about the constellation!!!”…
And the reason they developed this literature is – they used to pay attention to where they can find
Pleiades because it will tell them which season is coming…

Is rain coming??? Ohhhhh, pleiades is above our head…

Is winter coming??? Ohhh, it is right down here… etc… etc…

So, they would actually keep track of it in their poems and pay close attention to it..

And Allah is using that culture that they had in the opening ayah also…

We will see why he does that but right now, I need you to know – if you were an ancient Arab…. and you
never heard about Islam… and you heard - ‫َوٱل َّنجْ ِم ِإ َذا َه َو ٰى‬

You are like – yeahhh… I do that… yeah I know that… I know what is that about… yeah..
So, there would be a connection to you… it is not a spiritual connection to you yet… it is just something
that is part of your culture, that Allah is drawing on….right???
ً we will skip this quickly… but I do get you
These are just examples of the word Najm being used as ‫…ث َريَّا‬
to the summary…

Summary :

In the summer, Najm rises..

So, when they see it rising, they see it at the horizon, at the sunset and then they see it rising… that
means it is summer coming…

And when it is falling that means what is coming???

Winter..

So, the poet will say – ohhhhh, I see ‫ ُث َريَّا‬falling… it is making ‫ه َو ٰی‬,
َ you better tell the boy to get the
axe…

You know what that means???

What is he going to do with the axe???

What do you think???

He is going to cut wood which means – he is going to make fire because it is going to get cold…

You get it???

So, they would actually consider “this connection” to “the change of seasons”….

And they would make preparations for the future based on - ‫َوٱل َّنجْ ِم ِإ َذا َه َو ٰى‬

Now, this is really awesome… because Allah is also saying – “you are so used to preparing for the coming
season because you look at the sky… and now this revelation has come from the sky and it is time for you
to prepare for the coming season of the afterlife….”

So, the physical image of ‫ َوٱل َّنجْ ِم ِإ َذا َه َو ٰى‬is now being tied to what is –

 This revelation is not a joke…

 You have to take it very seriously…

So, he is tying the revelation together to this cultural phenomenon of the Arabs..

The End of episode 2

‫َج َزا ُك ُم هّٰللا ُ َخيْرً ا‬