Islams view on space

[ardianto]

Perhaps "lamps" denotes different celestial objects that share the property of giving off light .. Stars that can be used in navigation. Stars that cannot be used in navigation (I'm not an astronomer, I'm not sure if every star can be used in navigation, if not, those can be used as an adornment) and comets.

At the past, all ship navigators used stars in navigation.

See, history of nautical navigation.

 

[Muhammad]

The issue though is that what we know of the stars or shooting stars in astronomy, they do not seem to be acting as missiles for anything ... My issue is the current gap between Quranic understanding of this verse and the cosmic reality of what is happening in the lowest heaven as we can detect/observe it.

I'd like any Muslim astronomer to throw light on this contentious issue.

There is no contradiction between the interpretation of the verse and the cosmic "reality". As we have limited knowledge of both the cosmic reality as well as the Jinn and angels, the exact nature of this phenomenon is unknown to us and we should leave it at that, instead of rejecting its tafseer by the Mufassireen and trying to re-interpret the verse based upon conjecture.

Once again, I would like to remind us that we must be very cautious against interpreting the Qur'an without proper knowledge, which is a very serious matter.

Once, the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wasallam) passed by a group of people arguing over the Qur'an. He commanded them,

"Verily the nations before you were destroyed by this action of yours; they would try to contradict part of the Book of Allaah with other parts. Indeed, the Book of Allaah came to confirm its verses with each other (and not to contradict them). Therefore do not reject its verses due to other verses. When you know something from it (the Qur'an), say it, and if you do not know it, then leave it to one who does know!"

Reported by Ahmad and An-Nasaa'ee; cf. Mishkaat #237
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Moreover, the Companions were very strict when it came to speaking about the Qur'an without knowledge. For example, Aboo Bakr one time said, "What earth would give me place to live and what sky would shade me if I should speak about the Qur'aan with my opinion or by something I do not know." And `Umar ibn al Khattaab, he also said, "Beware of using your opinion in religious matters."... (More)



May Allaah (swt) forgive us for our mistakes, Aameen.

Thread closed.