Home > Stories of the Prophets > The creation of the heavens and the signs they contain
The story of The creation of the heavens and the signs they contain in the Quran and the Islamic tradition: verses, hadiths and the views of the exegetes, faithfully translated from Arabic.
Updated on 06 September 2026 at 3:41 AM
A chapter on what relates to the creation of the heavens and the signs they contain.
We have mentioned that the earth was created before the heaven, as the Most High said: « It is He who created for you all that is in the earth; then He turned to the heaven and made them seven heavens. And He is Knowing of all things » (al-Baqara, 29). And the Most High said: « Say: do you indeed disbelieve in Him who created the earth in two days, and do you set up equals to Him? That is the Lord of the worlds.
And He made in it firm mountains above it, and blessed it, and ordained in it its sustenance in four days, alike for the seekers. Then He turned to the heaven while it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth: come both, willingly or unwillingly. They said: we come obedient. So He ordained them seven heavens in two days, and revealed in each heaven its command.
And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as a guard: that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing » (Fussilat, 9-12). And the Most High said: « Are you the harder to create, or the heaven which He built? He raised its vault and made it perfect. And He darkened its night and brought out its morning light.
And the earth, after that, He spread it » (an-Nazi'at, 27-30). We have answered His word « and the earth, after that, He spread it »: the spreading is not the creation, and it came after the creation of the heaven. And the Most High said: « Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion, and He is Powerful over all things. He who created death and life to test you: which of you is best in deed; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving.
He who created seven heavens in layers: you do not see in the creation of the Merciful any inconsistency. So return your sight: do you see any flaw? Then return your sight again: your sight returns to you humbled, while it is weary » (al-Mulk, 1-5).
And the Most High said: « And We built above you seven firm ones, and We made a blazing lamp » (an-Naba, 12-13). And the Most High said: « Do you not see how Allah created seven heavens in layers, and made the moon therein a light, and made the sun a lamp? » (Nuh, 15-16). And the Most High said: « Allah is He who created seven heavens, and of the earth the like of them: the command descends between them, that you may know that Allah is Powerful over all things, and that Allah has encompassed all things in knowledge » (at-Talaq, 12).
And the Most High said: « Blessed is He who placed constellations in the heaven, and placed therein a lamp and a moon giving light. And it is He who made the night and the day in succession, for whoever wills to be mindful or wills to be grateful » (al-Furqan, 61-62). And the Most High said: « We adorned the nearest heaven with an adornment: the stars, and as a guard against every rebellious devil. They cannot listen to the exalted assembly: they are cast away from every side, repelled; and theirs is a lasting punishment.
Except him who snatches a fragment: then a piercing flaming star pursues him » (as-Saffat, 6-10). And the Most High said: « We did set constellations in the heaven, and adorned it for the beholders, and guarded it from every stoned devil, except him who steals a hearing: then a clear flaming star pursues him » (al-Hijr, 16-18).
And the Most High said: « And the heaven, We built it with might, and We are extenders » (adh-Dhariyat, 47). And the Most High said: « And We made the heaven a protected roof: yet they turn from its signs. And it is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon: all in an orbit swimming » (al-Anbiya, 32-33). And the Most High said: « And a sign to them is the night, from which We strip the day: and they are left in darkness.
And the sun runs to a resting place appointed for it: that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing. And the moon, We ordained for it stations, until it returns like the old dried palm-stalk. The sun must not overtake the moon, nor the night outstrip the day: each in an orbit swimming » (Ya Sin, 37-40). And the Most High said: « He cleaves the morning, and made the night a rest, and the sun and the moon a reckoning: that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing.
And it is He who made for you the stars, that you may be guided by them in the darknesses of land and sea. We have detailed the signs for people who know » (al-An'am, 96-97). And the Most High said: « Your Lord is Allah who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then established Himself upon the Throne: He covers the night with the day, pursuing it swiftly; and He subjected the sun, the moon and the stars, by His command. His is the creation and the command: blessed be Allah, Lord of the worlds » (al-A'raf, 54).
And the verses on this are very many, and we have discussed each of them in the Tafsir.
The object is that He, the Most High, informs of the creation of the heavens, of the greatness of their extension and elevation, and that they are at the utmost of beauty, splendor, perfection and excellence, as the Most High said: « and by the heaven of well-woven ways » (adh-Dhariyat, 7), that is, the fine creation. And the Most High said: « So return your sight: do you see any flaw? Then return your sight again: your sight returns to you humbled, while it is weary » (al-Mulk, 3-4), that is: humbled at seeing in it no defect nor breach; « while it is weary », that is, like a weak night: were it to gaze until it tired, wearied and weakened, it would not discover any defect or imperfection in it, for He, the Most High, made its creation perfect and adorned its horizon with stars, as He said: « and by the heaven holding constellations » (al-Buruj, 1), that is, the stars. It is said: the guard posts from which meteors are hurled at the eavesdropper; and there is no contradiction between the two views.
And the Most High said: « We did set constellations in the heaven, and adorned it for the beholders, and guarded it from every stoned devil » (al-Hijr, 16-17). He mentioned that He adorned its appearance with the fixed stars and the wandering bodies: the sun, the moon and the shining stars, and that He protected their space from the devils entering them; and this is an adornment of meaning, so He said: « and guarded it from every stoned devil », as He said: « We adorned the nearest heaven with an adornment: the stars, and as a guard against every rebellious devil. They cannot listen to the exalted assembly » (as-Saffat, 6-8).
Al-Bukhari said, in the Book of the Beginning of Creation: Qatada said, concerning His word: « We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps, and made them projectiles against the devils » (al-Mulk, 5): Allah created these stars for three things: He made them an adornment of the heaven, projectiles against the devils, and signs by which one is guided. Whoever interprets them otherwise errs, loses his share, and undertakes what he has no knowledge of. And what Qatada said is explicit in the word of the Most High: « We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps, and made them projectiles against the devils » (al-Mulk, 5), and in the word of the Most High: « it is He who made for you the stars, that you may be guided by them in the darknesses of land and sea » (al-An'am, 97). Whoever imposes upon himself other than these three, that is, knowledge of rulings derived from their movements, their conjunctions in their course, and that this indicates earthly events, errs: most of their speech in this field is nothing but conjecture, false suppositions and vain claims.
And the Most High mentioned that He created seven heavens in layers, that is, one above another.
The scholars of astronomy differed: are they stacked, or separated by a void? Two views, and the correct one is the second, on account of what we reported of the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amirah, from al-Ahnaf, from Abbas, in the hadith of the clouds: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « do you know what is between the heaven and the earth? » We said: Allah and His messenger know best. He said: « between them, the journey of five hundred years; and from each heaven to each heaven, five hundred years; and the thickness of each heaven, five hundred years.
» This complete hadith was reported by Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah and at-Tirmidhi, who deemed it good. And in the two Sahihs, from the hadith of Anas, in the hadith of the Ascension: « He found in the nearest heaven Adam, and Jibril said to him: this is your father Adam. He greeted him, and Adam returned his greeting and said: welcome, and be welcome, O my son: you are an excellent son. Then he was taken up with me to the second heaven.
» And he mentioned the same of the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh, up to his word: « then we were taken up until we came to the second heaven; he knocked, and it was said: who is this? » to the end of the hadith: this indicates their separation. And Allah knows best.
Ibn Hazm, Ibn al-Munadi, Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi and more than one other scholar related consensus that the heavens are spherical and rounded; it has been argued from His word: « each in an orbit swimming » (Ya Sin, 40). Al-Hasan said: they revolve; and Ibn Abbas said of the orbit: like the whorl of a spindle. It is also said that this is indicated by the sun setting every night in the west, then rising at its end from the east, as Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt said: « and the sun rises every last night, red, its color turning like water drawn to drink; it rises not for them in its cords, unless punished, unless lashed. »
As for the hadith reported by al-Bukhari, where he said: Muhammad ibn Yusuf reported to us, Sufyan reported to us, from al-A'mash, from Ibrahim at-Taymi, from his father, from Abu Dharr: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Abu Dharr, when the sun set: « do you know where it goes? » I said: Allah and His messenger know best. He said: « it goes until it prostrates beneath the Throne, asks permission, and it is granted; and it is about to prostrate and not be accepted, to ask permission and not be granted: it will be told: return whence you came; and it will rise from its west. That is His word: and the sun runs to a resting place appointed for it: that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing.
» This is its wording in the Book of the Beginning of Creation; and he reported it in the Tafsir, and in the Book of Divine Oneness from the hadith of al-A'mash as well; and Muslim reported it in the Book of Faith by way of al-A'mash and by that of Yunus ibn Ubayd, and Abu Dawud by that of al-Hakam ibn Utayba, all from Ibrahim ibn Yazid ibn Sharik, from his father, from Abu Dharr, in similar terms. At-Tirmidhi said: hasan sahih.
This being known, this hadith does not contradict what we mentioned of the sphericity of the orbs, which are the heavens, according to the more famous of the two views; it does not indicate the sphericity of the Throne, as some claimants alleged, whose view we have invalidated previously; and it does not indicate that it ascends above the heavens from our direction until it prostrates beneath the Throne. Rather, it sets from our sight while continuing in its orbit, which is the fourth according to more than one scholar of astronomy; and the law contains nothing negating it; rather, sensation, that is, the eclipses, indicates this point and requires it. When it travels therein until it reaches its middle, at the time of midnight, for instance, at the equinox, such that it stands between the southern and northern poles, it is then farthest from the Throne, for the Throne is domed toward the face of the world, and this is its place of prostration as suits it; just as it is nearest the Throne at the time of noon from our side.
When it is at the place of its prostration, it asks its Lord permission to rise from the east, and it is granted, and it appears from the east, while reluctant to rise upon the disobedient of the children of Adam; that is why Umayya said: « it rises not for them in its cords, unless punished, unless lashed. » When the time comes that Allah wills it to rise from the side of its west, it prostrates as is its habit and asks permission to rise as is its habit, and it is not granted; it prostrates again, asks, and is not granted; it prostrates, and is not granted, and that night lengthens as we mentioned in the Tafsir; it then says: O Lord, dawn draws near, and the stretch is far. It is told: return whence you came; and it rises from its west. When the people see it, they will all believe, and that at the time when the faith of a soul avails it not, which did not believe before, or earned no good in its faith.
They explained thereby His word: « and the sun runs to a resting place appointed for it » (Ya Sin, 38). It is said: its time, that in which it is commanded to rise from its west. It is said: its resting place is the place where it prostrates beneath the Throne. It is said: the end of its course, which is the end of the world.
And according to Ibn Abbas, he read: « and the sun runs, with no resting place for it », that is: it does not settle: thus it prostrates while going. That is why the Most High said: « The sun must not overtake the moon, nor the night outstrip the day: each in an orbit swimming » (Ya Sin, 40), that is: the sun does not overtake the moon so as to rise in its dominion and time, nor does it either; and the night does not outstrip the day, that is: it does not precede it by an interval lagging behind; but when the day departs, the night comes on its heels, following it closely, as He said in the other verse: « He covers the night with the day, pursuing it swiftly; and He subjected the sun, the moon and the stars, by His command. His is the creation and the command: blessed be Allah, Lord of the worlds » (al-A'raf, 54).
And the Most High said: « it is He who made the night and the day in succession, for whoever wills to be mindful or wills to be grateful » (al-Furqan, 62), that is: this alternates with that and that with this, as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « when night comes from here, and day departs from there, and the sun sets, then the fasting one breaks his fast.
» Real time thus divides into night and day, and there is nothing between them but the two; that is why the Most High said: « He interweaves the night into the day, and interweaves the day into the night, and He subjected the sun and the moon: each running to an appointed term » (Fatir, 13), that is: He transfers from this into that: He takes from the length of this into the shortness of that, until they equalize as at the beginning of spring: the night was long and the day short, and the night keeps decreasing and the day increasing until they equalize, which is the first of spring; then the day begins to lengthen and increase, and the night to decrease, until the end of spring; then the matter reverses: the day begins to decrease and the night to increase, until they equalize again at the beginning of autumn; then the night begins to lengthen and the day to shorten until the end of autumn; then the day grows again, little by little, and the night decreases, bit by bit, until they equalize at the first of spring, as we said.
And so in every year; that is why the Most High said: « and His is the variation of the night and the day » (al-Mu'minun, 80), that is: He is the One disposing of all that, the Ruler who is neither opposed nor prevented. That is why He says, in three verses, at the mention of the heavens, the stars, the night and the day: « that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing » (al-An'am, 96; Ya Sin, 38; Fussilat, 12), that is: the Mighty who has subdued all things, to Whom all things submit, who is neither prevented nor overcome; the Knowing of all things, who ordained all things upon an order that neither varies nor is disturbed.
And it is established in the two Sahihs, from the hadith of Sufyan ibn Uyayna, from az-Zuhri, from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, from Abu Hurayra: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Allah said: « the son of Adam wrongs Me: he curses time, and I am Time: in My hand is the command; I alternate the night and the day. » In a narration: « and I am Time: I alternate his night and his day. »
The scholars, such as ash-Shafi'i, Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam and others, said: he curses time, that is, he says: time has done such and such to us; woe to time: it orphaned the children and widowed the women. Allah the Most High said: « and I am Time », that is: I am the time he means, for it is He who performs what he attributes to time; but time is a created thing, and the Doer of this is Allah the Creator: so he curses the doer of that while believing him to be time, whereas Allah is the Doer of that, the Creator of all things, the Disposer of all things, as He said: « and I am Time: in My hand is the command; I alternate his night and his day. » And as the Most High said: « Say: O Allah, Master of the dominion, You give the dominion to whom You will, and take the dominion from whom You will; You honor whom You will and abase whom You will: in Your hand is the good; You are Powerful over all things.
You make the night pass into the day, and make the day pass into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living; and You provide for whom You will without reckoning » (Al Imran, 26-27). And the Most High said: « It is He who made the sun a radiance and the moon a light, and ordained for it stations, that you may know the number of the years and the reckoning. Allah created that only in truth. He details the signs for people who know.
In the variation of the night and the day, and what Allah created in the heavens and the earth, are signs for people who fear » (Yunus, 5-6): He distinguished between the sun and the moon in their light, their form, their time and their course; He made this one a radiance: the rays of the sun, a luminous proof and a dazzling light; and the moon a light, that is, weaker than the sun's proof, and He made it a light derived from hers.
« And ordained for it stations »: it rises the first night of the month small, faint, of little light, because of its nearness to the sun and the little it faces her; its light is in proportion to how much it faces her; therefore, on the second night, it is farther from her by double what it was the first night, and its light is double the light of the first night; then, with each distance, its light increases, until its fullness is complete on the night it faces her from the east, which is the fourteenth night of the month; then it begins to decrease, as it approaches her from the other side, until the end of the month: it is hidden until it returns as it began at the first of the second month. By it the months are known, and by the sun the nights and days, and by that the years are known; that is why the Most High said: « It is He who made the sun a radiance and the moon a light, and ordained for it stations, that you may know the number of the years and the reckoning » (Yunus, 5).
And the Most High said: « We made the night and the day two signs: We effaced the sign of the night, and made the sign of the day sight-giving, that you may seek bounty from your Lord, and that you may know the number of the years and the reckoning, and everything We have detailed distinctly » (al-Isra, 12). And the Most High said: « They ask you about the new moons: say: they are appointed times for the people, and for the pilgrimage » (al-Baqara, 189). We have expounded all of this at length in the Tafsir.
Among the bodies in the heaven are wandering stars: they are the « perplexed » in the terminology of the scholars of astronomy; and this is a science most of which is sound, unlike the science of astrological judgments, most of which is false, a claim without proof. The wandering ones are seven: the moon in the nearest heaven, Mercury in the second, Venus in the third, the sun in the fourth, Mars in the fifth, Jupiter in the sixth, and Saturn in the seventh. The rest of the stars are called fixed, and they are, according to them, in the eighth orb, which is the Kursi according to the usage of many later scholars.
Others have said: rather all the stars are in the nearest heaven, and nothing prevents some being above others. This may be argued from His word: « We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps, and made them projectiles against the devils » (al-Mulk, 5), and from His word: « So He ordained them seven heavens in two days, and revealed in each heaven its command. And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as a guard: that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing » (Fussilat, 12): He singled out the nearest heaven, among them, for the adornment of the stars. If this indicates that they are inlaid therein, so be it; otherwise, nothing prevents what the others said, and Allah knows best.
According to them, the seven orbs, indeed the eight, revolve with what they contain of fixed and wandering stars, in a complete rotation from east to west, in the day and the night; and according to them, each wandering star revolves contrary to its orb, from west to east: the moon crosses its orb in a month, and the sun hers, which is the fourth, in a year. Should their courses equalize and their motions draw close, the measure of the fourth heaven would equal that of the nearest heaven twelve times; and Saturn crosses its orb, which is the seventh, in thirty years: it then equals, accordingly, the nearest heaven three hundred and sixty times.
They spoke of the measures of the bodies of these stars, their courses and their movements, and expanded upon these things until they overstepped into the science of astrological judgments and the earthly events following from it, of which many of them have no knowledge. The Greeks who dwelt in Syria before the era of the Messiah (peace be upon him) had much speech on this whose exposition would be long: they are the ones who built the city of Damascus, made for it seven gates, and placed atop each gate a temple in the likeness of the seven stars, worshipping each one in its temple and invoking it with a supplication more than one historian transmitted of them. The author of the Book of the Hidden Secret, on addressing the sun, the moon and the stars, mentioned it: these are futilities not to be heeded; and others among the scholars of Harran, the pagan philosophers of Harran of ancient times: they were idolaters worshipping the seven stars, a faction of the Sabians. That is why Allah the Most High said: « And of His signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon.
Prostrate not to the sun, nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah who created them, if it is Him you worship » (Fussilat, 37). And the Most High said, informing of what the hoopoe said to Sulayman (peace be upon him), about Bilqis and her troops, the queen of Saba in Yemen and those who followed her: « I found a woman ruling over them, given everything, and she has a mighty throne. I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah. Satan made their deeds fair to them, and barred them from the path, so they are not guided, that they prostrate not to Allah who brings forth what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knows what you conceal and what you proclaim.
Allah: no deity but He, Lord of the Mighty Throne » (an-Naml, 23-26). And the Most High said: « Do you not see that to Allah prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth, and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the animals and many of the people? And many deserve the punishment. And whomever Allah disgraces has none to honor him: Allah does what He wills » (al-Hajj, 18).
And the Most High said: « Do they not see what Allah created: their shadows incline to the right and the left, prostrating to Allah while abased? And to Allah prostrates what is in the heavens and what is in the earth of creature, and the angels, who are not arrogant. They fear their Lord above them and do what they are commanded » (an-Nahl, 48-50). And the Most High said: « To Allah prostrates whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and their shadows at morning and evening » (ar-Ra'd, 15).
And the Most High said: « The seven heavens and the earth and whoever is in them glorify Him. And there is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise, but you do not understand their glorification. He is Forbearing, Forgiving » (al-Isra, 44). And the verses on this are very many.
The noblest bodies observed in the heavens and the earth are the stars, the brightest to the eye, and the noblest to contemplate: the sun and the moon. The Khalil (Ibrahim) proved the falsity of the deity of any of them, and this is in His word: « When he saw the moon rising, he said: this is my Lord! When it set, he said: unless my Lord guide me, I shall be among the erring people. When he saw the sun rising, he said: this is my Lord!
This is greater. When it set, he said: O my people, I am quit of what you associate. I have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth, upright, and I am not of the associators » (al-An'am, 77-79). He demonstrated, by way of the decisive proof, that these observable bodies, the stars, the moon and the sun, are none of them fit for deity: all of them are created, nurtured, administered, subjected in their course, not deviating from what they were created for, nor swaying from it except by a perfect, regulated ordainment that is neither disturbed nor varying: and that is a proof that they are nurtured, made, subjected, overpowered.
That is why the Most High said: « And of His signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Prostrate not to the sun, nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah who created them, if it is Him you worship » (Fussilat, 37).
And it is established in the two Sahihs, in the prayer of the eclipse, from the hadith of Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas, Aisha and other Companions, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, in his sermon that day: « the sun and the moon are two signs of the signs of Allah, and they are not eclipsed for the death of anyone nor for his life. »
Al-Bukhari said, in the Book of the Beginning of Creation: Musaddad reported to us, Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Mukhtar reported to us, Abdullah ad-Danaj reported to us: Abu Salama reported to me, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: « the sun and the moon will be rolled up on the Day of Resurrection. » Al-Bukhari alone reported it, and the hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bazzar reported it in a broader context, saying: Ibrahim ibn Ziyad al-Baghdadi reported to us, Yunus ibn Muhammad reported to us, Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Mukhtar reported to us, from Abdullah ad-Danaj: I heard Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Rahman, in the time of Khalid ibn Abdullah al-Qasri, in this mosque, the mosque of Kufa; al-Hasan came and sat beside him and narrated, and he said: Abu Hurayra reported to us that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « the sun and the moon are two bulls in the Fire on the Day of Resurrection. » Al-Hasan said: and what is their sin?
He said: I relate to you the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and you say: and what is their sin? Then al-Bazzar said: it is not narrated from Abu Hurayra except in this way, and Abdullah ad-Danaj narrated from Abu Salama nothing but this hadith.
The hafiz Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili reported, by way of Yazid ar-Raqashi, who is weak, from Anas: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « the sun and the moon are two castrated bulls in the Fire. » Ibn Abi Hatim said: Abu Sa'id al-Ashajj and Amr ibn Abdullah al-Awdi reported to us, Abu Usama reported to us, from Mujalid, from a sheikh of Bajila, from Ibn Abbas, concerning: « when the sun is rolled up » (at-Takwir, 1): Allah will roll up the sun, the moon and the stars on the Day of Resurrection into the sea, and Allah will send a scorching wind that will set them aflame.
These athars prove that the sun and the moon are among the creatures of Allah: Allah created them for what He willed, then He does with them what He wills; His is the decisive proof and the perfect wisdom: He is not asked about what He does, on account of His knowledge, His wisdom, His power, His effective will and His judgment that is neither repelled, nor prevented, nor overcome.
How fine is what Imam Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar reported, at the beginning of the Book of the Sira, of the poetry of Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl on the creation of the heaven, the earth, the sun and the moon, and the rest. Ibn Hisham said: it is of Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt: « To Allah I dedicate my praise and my eulogy, and a weighty word that time does not neglect, to the King Most High, above Whom is neither deity nor lord worshipped. O man, beware of death: you hide nothing obscure from Allah. Place not with Allah another than He: the path of uprightness has become desert.
Your inmost being: the jinn was their hope, and You are my deity, our Lord and my hope. I am content with You as Lord: I shall not admit a deity other than You, O Allah, as a second. It is You who, of favor, grace and mercy, sent to Musa a heralding messenger. You said to him: go, you and Harun, and call Pharaoh the tyrant to Allah.
And say to him: was it you who fashioned this earth without support, until it settled as it is? And say to him: was it you who raised this heaven without pillars? Be gentle then, O Builder. And say to him: was it you who made luminous its midst when the night darkened it, a guide?
And say to him: who sends the sun at morning, so that what it touches of the earth resplends? And say to him: who makes the grain grow in the dust, so that from it the green herb springs? And He brings forth its grain upon its heads: in that are signs for one mindful. And it is by a favor from You that You saved Yunus, who spent nights in the folds of the whale.
And were I to glorify Your name, our Lord, to multiply, it is that You forgave my faults. Lord of the servants, cast pardon and mercy upon me, and bless my children and my wealth. »
This being known, the bodies in the heaven, the fixed and the wandering, are all created, which Allah the Most High created, as He said: « and revealed in each heaven its command. And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as a guard: that is the ordaining of the Mighty, the Knowing » (Fussilat, 12).
As for what many exegetes mention in the story of Harut and Marut: that Venus was a beautiful woman, that they solicited her, and that she refused unless they taught her the Greatest Name; they taught it to her, she pronounced it, and she was raised as a star into the heaven: this, I believe, is of the fabrication of the Israelites, though Ka'b al-Ahbar reported it and a part of the predecessors transmitted it from him, mentioning it as a narrative report from the Children of Israel. Imam Ahmad and Ibn Hibban, in his Sahih, reported a hadith on this: Ahmad reported it, from Yahya ibn Bukayr, from Zuhayr ibn Muhammad, from Musa ibn Jubayr, from Nafi', from Ibn Umar, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he mentioned the story in its length, including: « Venus represented to them a woman of the most beautiful of people; she came to them, and they asked of her her person. » Abd al-Razzaq reported it in his Tafsir, from ath-Thawri, from Musa ibn Uqba, from Salim, from Ibn Umar, from Ka'b al-Ahbar: and this is sounder and firmer.
Al-Hakim reported it in his Mustadrak, and Ibn Abi Hatim in his Tafsir, from Ibn Abbas, who mentioned it, saying: in that era there was a woman whose beauty among women was like the beauty of Venus among the stars; and he mentioned the rest of it. And this is the finest wording reported in this story, and Allah knows best.
Likewise the hadith reported by the hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bazzar: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Wasiti reported to us, Yazid ibn Harun reported to us, Mubashshir ibn Ubayd reported to us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Ibn Umar; and Amr ibn Isa reported to us, Abd al-A'la reported to us, Ibrahim ibn Yazid reported to us, from Amr ibn Dinar, from Ibn Umar: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mentioned Suhayl and said: « he was a tyrannical diviner, and Allah made him a shooting star. » Then he said: it was narrated from Zayd ibn Aslam only by Mubashshir ibn Ubayd, who is weak in hadith, and from Amr ibn Dinar only by Ibrahim ibn Yazid, who is soft in hadith; and we mention it with its defect because we have preserved it only by these two ways. I say: as for Mubashshir ibn Ubayd al-Qurashi, Abu Hafsa al-Himsi, of Kufan origin: all weakened him; Imam Ahmad and ad-Daraqutni said of him: he fabricated hadith and lied.
As for Ibrahim ibn Yazid, he is al-Khuza'i, weak by their consensus; Ahmad and an-Nasa'i said of him: abandoned; Ibn Ma'in said: he is not trustworthy, he is nothing; al-Bukhari said: they left off from him; Abu Hatim and Abu Zur'a said: munkar in hadith, weak in hadith. Such an isnad proves nothing at all; and if we think well of it, this is among the reports of the Children of Israel, like the transmission of Ibn Umar from Ka'b al-Ahbar, and it is of their fables upon which no reliance may be placed. And Allah knows best.
A section on the Milky Way and the rainbow. Abu al-Qasim at-Tabarani said: Ali ibn Abd al-Aziz reported to us, Arim Abu an-Nu'man reported to us, Abu Awana reported to us, from Abu Bishr, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas: Heraclius wrote to Muawiya: if anything of prophethood remains among them, he will inform me of what I ask of them. He wrote to him asking about the Milky Way, about the bow, and about the spot which the sun strikes only one hour. When the letter and the messenger came to Muawiya, he said: this is a thing I dreaded to ask about until this day: who is there for this? It was said: Ibn Abbas. Muawiya folded Heraclius's letter and sent it to Ibn Abbas, who wrote to him: the bow is a security for the people of the earth against drowning; the Milky Way is the gate of the heaven from which it splits open; and the spot which the sun strikes only one hour of the day is the sea that was split for the Children of Israel. This is an authentic chain to Ibn Abbas.
As for the hadith reported by at-Tabarani: Abu az-Zinba' Rawh ibn al-Faraj reported to us, Ibrahim ibn Makhlad reported to us, al-Fadl ibn al-Mukhtar reported to us, from Muhammad ibn Muslim at-Ta'ifi, from Ibn Abi Najih, from Mujahid, from Jabir ibn Abdullah: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « O Mu'adh, I am sending you to a people of the Book: if you are asked about the Milky Way that is in the heaven, say: it is the spittle of a serpent beneath the Throne. » This is a very munkar hadith; rather it is likelier fabricated. Al-Fadl ibn al-Mukhtar is Abu Sahl al-Basri, then he moved to Egypt. Abu Hatim ar-Razi said of him: he is unknown, he narrates falsehoods; the hafiz Abu al-Fath al-Azdi said: very munkar in hadith; Ibn Adi said: his hadiths are not followed, neither in text nor in chain.
And the Most High said: « It is He who shows you the lightning, for fear and hope, and raises the heavy clouds. And the thunder glorifies His praise, and the angels, from fear of Him. And He sends the thunderbolts and strikes with them whom He wills, while they dispute about Allah: and He is Mighty in assault » (ar-Ra'd, 12-13). And the Most High said: « In the creation of the heavens and the earth, in the variation of the night and the day, in the ships that run upon the sea with what benefits the people, in what Allah sent down from the heaven of water whereby He revived the earth after its death, and spread in it of every creature, in the turning of the winds, and in the clouds subjected between the heaven and the earth: are signs for people who reason » (al-Baqara, 164).
Imam Ahmad reported, from Yazid ibn Harun, from Ibrahim ibn Sa'd, from his father, from a sheikh of Bani Ghifar: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: « Allah raises the cloud: it speaks the finest speech and laughs the finest laugh. » Musa ibn Ubayda ibn Sa'd ibn Ibrahim reported that he said: its speech is the thunder, and its laughter the lightning. Ibn Abi Hatim said: my father reported to us, Hisham reported to us, from Ubaydullah ar-Razi, from Muhammad ibn Muslim, who said: it reached us that the lightning is an angel having four faces: a human face, a bull's face, an eagle's face and a lion's face: when it flicks its tail, that is the lightning.
Imam Ahmad, at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i, al-Bukhari in the Book of Good Manners, and al-Hakim in his Mustadrak reported, from the hadith of al-Hajjaj ibn Arta: Abu Matar reported to me, from Salim, from his father, who said: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) heard the thunder and the thunderbolts, he would say: « O Allah, kill us not with Your wrath, destroy us not with Your punishment, and spare us before that. »
Ibn Jarir reported, from the hadith of al-Layth, from a man, from Abu Hurayra, attributed to the Prophet: when he heard the thunder he would say: « Glory to Him whom the thunder glorifies with His praise. » And from Ali, that he would say: « Glory to Him for whom it glorified. » Likewise from Ibn Abbas, al-Aswad ibn Yazid, Tawus and others. Malik reported, from Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr: when he heard the thunder he would leave off speech and say: « Glory to Him whom the thunder glorifies with His praise, and the angels from fear of Him »; and he would say: this is a severe warning to the people of the earth.
Imam Ahmad reported, from Abu Hurayra, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « your Lord said: were My servants to obey Me, I would rain upon them by night, show them the sun by day, and not make them hear the sound of the thunder. » At-Tabarani reported, from Ibn Abbas, attributed to the Prophet: « when you hear the sound of the thunder, remember Allah: it does not strike one who remembers. » All of this is expounded in the Tafsir, and to Allah belong the praise and the favor.