An-Najm

Surah 53 of the Quran

النجم‎ An-Najm The Star
Arabic text English text
Classification	Meccan
Position	Juzʼ 27
No. of verses	62
No. of Rukus	3
No. of Sajdahs	1 (verse 62)
No. of words	360
No. of letters	1433

An-Najm (Arabic: النجم, an-najm; meaning: The Star) is the 53rd chapter (surah) of the Quran, with 62 verses (āyāt). The surah opens with the oath of the Divine One swearing by every one of the stars, as they descend and disappear beneath the horizon, that Muhammad is indeed God's awaited Messenger. It takes its name from Ayat #1, which mentions "the stars" (najm). The surah confirms the divine source of the Prophet's message and refers to his ascension to heaven during the Night Journey (Ayah#1 ff.). The surah refutes the claims of the disbelievers about the goddesses and the angels (ayah#19 ff.), and lists several truths about God's power. It closes with a warning of the imminent Day of Judgement.

The surah is distinguished as being the first that required Muslims to prostrate, or perform sajdah, when it is recited, according to Tafsir Ibn Kathir and a number of hadiths. The surah claims that, when it was first narrated in Mecca, all Muslims and non-Muslims who heard the recitation (except one man) prostrated to God upon its completion due to the effect that the words had upon them.

Summary

• 1-5 Oath that Muhammad received the Quran from the Angel Gabriel
• 6-18 Description of the angelic visions vouchsafed to Muhammad
• 19-20 21-23 The revelation concerning Al Lát, Al Uzzah, and Manáh etc.
• 24-31 The vanity of trusting to the intercession of female deities
• 32-33 God almighty and omniscient
• 34-55 Rebuke of a man who employed another to bear his punishment on the Judgment Day
• 56 Muhammad is a preacher like the prophets before him
• 57 ۩ 62 The Day of Judgement is drawing nearer and nearer, so prepare for it

Exegesis

1-18 legitimacy of Muhammad’s prophetic vision

The last line of An-Najm: "So prostrate to Allah and worship [Him]."

The first eighteen verses of this surah are considered to be some of the earliest revelations of the Quran. These verses address the legitimacy of Muhammad's prophetic visions. The surah begins with the divine voice swearing by the collapsing star that "Your companion," referring to Muhammad, has not gone mad, nor does he speak out of his desire. The passage evokes the process of vision by tracing the movement along the highest horizon and then coming down and drawing near to the distance of "two bows" length. The passage ends with the affirmation of the validity of the vision by stating that the heart of the prophet "did not lie in what it saw."

49 Surah

The surah is also known for referencing the star Sirius in verse 49, where it is given the name الشِّعْرَى (transliteration: aš-ši‘rā or ash-shira; the leader). The verse is: "وأنَّهُ هُوَ رَبُّ الشِّعْرَى", "That He is the Lord of Sirius (the Mighty Star)."

Ibn Kathir (d.1373) said in his commentary "that it is the bright star, named Mirzam Al-Jawza' (Sirius), which a group of Arabs used to worship." The alternate (to Sirius) Aschere, used by Johann Bayer, is derived from this.

Satanic Verses

See also: Satanic Verses

The "Satanic Verses" incident, recorded in early prophetic biographies of Muhammad by al-Wāqidī, Ibn Sa'd and the tafsir of al-Tabarī, describes an event where the Prophet Muhammad, while reciting An-Najm, reportedly recited verses of "satanic suggestion" which he is alleged to have mistaken for divine revelation . These verses allegedly followed Q. 53:19–20 ("Consider al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā / and the third one, Manāt") and read:

"Those are the high-flying cranes / Whose intercession is to be hoped for (Tilka'l-gharānīqu'l-ʿulā / wa-shafāʿatuhunna turtajā)."

This had the immediate effect of placating and converting the Quraysh, who previously had opposed Islam's spread into Mecca. According to these account, Gabriel later informed Muhammad that these verses were satanic in origin, prompting their replacement with verses condemning the goddesses: “They are but names you have named – you and your fathers – for which Allah has sent down no authority” (Qur’an 53:23).

Religious authorities recorded the story for the first two centuries of the Islamic era. Early Muslim scholars widely accepted the incident as part of Muhammad’s prophetic struggle, but strong objections to the historicity of the Satanic Verses incident were raised as early as the tenth century. By the 13th century, most Islamic scholars (Ulama) started to reject it as being inconsistent with Muhammad's "perfection" ('isma), which meant that Muhammad was infallible and could not be fooled by Satan. According to some Islamic traditions, God sent Satan as a tempter to test the audience. Others categorically deny that this incident ever happened. Prominent Sunni scholars, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Qadi Iyad, had rejected the account on the grounds of incomplete chains of transmission and inconsistency with Muhammad's role as a divinely protected prophet. Despite this, modern scholars debate its historicity, with some citing its early acceptance as evidence of authenticity, while others reject it due to theological and textual inconsistencies.

External links

• Works related to The Holy Qur'an (Maulana Muhammad Ali)/53. The Star at Wikisource