Arabic Translation

Shooting Stars Used as Missiles to Hit the Jinn

Muhammad just as his Bedouin contemporaries had a strange belief in shadowy beings and ghosts that he called Jinn.

These Jinns were made of fire and would stand on top of each other’s shoulders all the way to heaven to eavesdrop to what was being discussed. But the most amusing part is that the prophet believed that the shooting stars and the meteors are the missiles thrown at the eavesdropping Jinns. 

Q. 72: 8
“And (the Jinn who had listened to the Qur'an said): We had sought the heaven but had found it filled with strong warders and meteors.
9.
And we used to sit on places (high) therein to listen. But he who listeneth now findeth a flame in wait for him;"

He repeated the same absurd idea again.

Q. 37: 6/10
”We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars,
(For beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious evil spirits,
 (So) they should not strain their ears in the direction of the Exalted Assembly but be cast away from every side,
Repulsed, for they are under a perpetual penalty,
Except such as snatch away something by stealth, and they are pursued by a flaming fire, of piercing brightness. 

And

Q. 67: 5
“And we have, (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with Lamps, and We have made such (Lamps) (as) missiles to drive away the Evil Ones, and have prepared for them the Penalty of the Blazing Fire.” 

The universe as was envisioned by Muhammad, obviously belongs to the realm of fairy tales. The Earth for him was flat were the sun rises from one end and sets in the muddy waters on the other. In Arabic the word “sama” stands for both heaven and sky. And for Muhammad, just like his primitive contemporaries there was no distinction between the two. He described the heaven (sky) made of seven layers and placed the stars in the lowest layer, lower than the Moon. Then he envisioned the mythical Jinns as if they were real beings, standing on each other’s shoulders all the way to heaven to eavesdrop to the discussion of the “Exalted Assembly”. He assumed that the stars are just lamps to adorn the lower heaven that are also used as missiles to shoot the intruding Jinns. Can any reasonable person today accept these fables of those primitive people as true?

The shooting stars, despite their names are not stars but meteorites that glow when enter the atmosphere of the Earth. But Muhammad, could not see the difference; to him the shooting stars were stars.

As absurd as it may be, today’s Muslims still believe in the Jinns. It is written in Quran and for them the Quran is the word of Allah. How can it be wrong?

There is also a Hadith that confirms the above story.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 54, Number 432

Narrated 'Aisha:
I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The angels descend, the clouds and mention this or that matter decreed in the Heaven. The devils listen stealthily to such a matter, come down to inspire the soothsayers with it, and the latter would add to it one-hundred lies of their own."

A similar hadith is reported in Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 93, Number 650

Ali Sina