5وَلَقَد زَيَّنَّا السَّماءَ الدُّنيا بِمَصابيحَ وَجَعَلناها رُجومًا لِلشَّياطينِ ۖ وَأَعتَدنا لَهُم عَذابَ السَّعيرِAli UnalAnd, indeed, We have adorned the lowest heaven (the heaven of the world) with lamps (stars), and made (out of) them missiles to drive away devils; and for them, We have prepared (in the Hereafter) the punishment of the Blaze.1As stated in sūrah 65, note 7, the earth and the heavens are interconnected like two countries under one government, and there are journeys between them. Important necessities for the earth are sent from the heavens; pure spirits travel to the heavens; and evil spirits, in imitation of pure ones, attempt to travel to the heavenly abode. Physically, these are subtle beings made of smokeless fire. However, they will certainly be repulsed and repelled, for by nature, they are evil and unclean. As the silence and tranquility, the order and serene regularity of the heavens, and their vastness and radiance show, their inhabitants are not like those of the earth; they are all obedient to God and do whatever He commands them. There is nothing to cause quarrels or disputes among them because they are innocent, their realm is vast, their nature is pure, and their stations are fixed. So when devils or evil spiritual beings attempt to ascend to the heavens, the pure inhabitants there are mobilized to repel them. Without a doubt, there must be a sign or reflection in the visible, material world of this important interaction and contest. For the wisdom of the sovereignty of Divine Lordship requires that the Lord should put a sign, an indication, for conscious beings, particularly for humankind, whose most important duty is observing, witnessing, supervising, and acting as a herald to His significant disposals in the realm of the Unseen. This is just as He has made the rain and the sun’s heat a sign for them to explain, in physical terms, His countless miracles in spring, and has also made apparent (natural) causes as the indications of the wonders of His art, so that He may call the inhabitants of the visible, material world to witness them, indeed to attract the attentive gaze of all the inhabitants of the vast heavens and the earth to that amazing exhibition. That is, He displays the vast heavens as a castle or a city arrayed with towers on which sentries are posted, so that those inhabitants of the heavens and earth may reflect on the majesty of His Lordship. Since wisdom requires the announcement of this elevated contest, there will surely be a sign for it. However, other than the fact that some stars are being used as “missiles” against the devils, no event among those of the atmosphere and heavens seems to be appropriate to this announcement. For it is evident how suitable these stellar events are for the repulsion of the devils, events that resemble missiles and rockets fired from the formidable bastions of high castles. Furthermore, unlike other events that take place in the heavens, no other function is known for such stellar events. In addition, this function has been widely recognized since the time of Adam, and witnessed by those who know the reality of things and events. Like angels and other creatures, there are also many different varieties of stars. Some are extremely small, and some are extremely large. Everything that shines in the sky can be called a star. One sort of star is that which the Majestic Creator, the Gracious Maker, has created as a sort of jewel on the face of the sky or like the shining fruit of a vast tree. He has also made them places of excursion or mounts or dwelling-places for His angels. He has made one sort of small star a missile to drive off devils and kill them. Thus, firing these shooting stars to repulse devils may have three meanings: The first: It is a sign that there is a contest (among conscious beings) in the vastest sphere of existence. The second: It indicates that in the heavens there are watchful guards and obedient inhabitants, i.e., Divine forces, who do not like the earthly evil-doers to mix with and eavesdrop on them. The third: The spying devils, who are representatives of the foulness and wickedness of the earth, attempt to soil the clean and pure realm of the heavens inhabited by pure beings, and spy on the conversations of their inhabitants in the name of evil spirits (disbelieving jinn and their human companions who try to mislead people, particularly through sorcery, medium-ship, and soothsaying). Shooting stars are fired to prevent these and to repulse them from the doors of the heavens (See The Words, “The 15th Word,” 192–199). At this point, one might ask what some commonly observed and scientifically verified astronomical events might signify, such as a meteor shower. The Perseid meteor shower, for example, which is observed almost every year, suggests that such meteors are shot for certain, yet unknown, important purposes. The observations made in 1993, for example, demonstrate the fact that the structure of the shower is yet little understood. According to information given by the International Meteor Organization about the events of the 1993 shower (Astronomy, October 1993), the first results posted for the night of August 11th – 12th of that year came from Japan. Up to 20:30 UT on August 11th, the meteor rates were found to be normal, and a zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of 40 meteors per hour (m/h) was tentatively assigned to the shower at that time. However, preliminary data from European observers indicated that the rates gradually increased to a ZHR of the order of 100 m/h between 20:00 UT on August 11th and 01:00 UT onAugust 12th. Observers in France also reported a noticeable increase in rates after 00:30 UT, August 12th, with the rate being about twice the ‘normal’ rate. The rates continued to climb between 01:00 and 03:00 UT, and a preliminary ZHR of 200–250 m/h was ascribed to this period. The rates appeared to reach a maximum between 03:00 and 03:30 UT; the ZHR at its maximum was estimated to be of the order of 500 m/h. Later observations from the Canary Islands indicated that the rates began to decline after 04:00 UT. Higher than normal rates were also reported by many observers in the United States and Japan. As observed by Martin Beech, in Astronomy, 1993 (pg 11), the results clearly indicated that the shower did not behave as predicted. Speculation about a possible meteor storm proved incorrect. Another unexpected feature in 1993 was the high number of bright fireballs observed. Observers reported something like five times the normal level of Perseid fireballs on the night of August 11th – 12th. The Perseid shower once again demonstrated how difficult it is to predict meteor shower activity. A. Cressy Morrison (p. 100) mentions, as a typical human characteristic, the reluctance to give up fixed ideas and the stubborn resistance to accepting unfamiliar truths. The early Greeks knew that the earth was spherical, but it took two thousand years to convince (Western) men that this fact was true. New ideas encounter opposition, ridicule and abuse, but truth survives and is verified. Neither scientific studies nor developments in science can offer any excuse not to accept God. What we observe in nature, and what we obtain from it, must encourage us to know Him more closely and to see the strong bridge between science and religion, the world and the Hereafter, and between reason and spirit.