1 Preface وَالنَّجمِ إِذا هَوىٰYusuf AliBy the Star1 when it goes down,-Najm is interpreted in various ways. As most commonly accepted, it means either a Star genetically, or the close cluster of seven stars known as the Pleiades in the Constellation Taurus, which the sun enters about the 21st of April every year. In mid-April, or a little later, the beautiful cluster would set just after the sun, after having gradually ascended the sky in the winter months. In late May, or a little later, it would rise just before the sun. In its western aspects, it might be considered a spring constellation. To open-air nations (including the Arabs) whose climate usually presents starry skies, this is an object of great interest, and many folklore tales gather round it. When so glorious a cluster is content to bow down in the horizon and merge its light in the greater light created by God (see the last three lines of C. 228), it becomes a symbol of humility in beauty and power before the Most High, Whose revelation discloses the summit of beauty, power and wisdom. Hawa in the text may mean either “goes down (or sets)” or “rises”. Whichever meaning we take, it makes no difference to the symbolic interpretation given above.