سورة الحجر

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): One night we were with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) when suddenly a star was hurled [from the sky] and flashed. The Prophet said to those around him: "In the time of jahiliyya (pre-Islamic ignorance), when you saw such a scene, what did you used to say?" They replied: "We used to say: 'A great man has died, or a great man has been born.'" He said: "The stars are not hurled because of anyone's death or life; rather, when our Lord issues the command for something to exist, the bearers of the divine Throne glorify Allah and say: 'Our Lord has decreed such-and-such.' The inhabitants of the heaven below the Throne hear this speech and repeat the same words, until the report reaches the inhabitants of the lowest heaven. [There] the satans listen stealthily and sometimes obtain part of the report and pass it on to the soothsayers, adding to it and subtracting from it, so the soothsayers sometimes err and sometimes get it right. Then Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, protected the heaven by means of these stars [from the eavesdropping of the satans], and so [the path of] soothsaying was closed and no more foretelling of the future exists."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abd al-Salam narrated from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) that he said: "O Abd al-Salam! Beware of the people and of yourself!" I said: "May my father and mother be sacrificed for you! I can beware of the people, but how am I to beware of myself?" He said: "The wicked Satan, who practises eavesdropping, comes to you and stealthily listens to your words; then he appears among the people in the form of a human and says: 'Abd al-Salam said such-and-such.'" I said: "May my father and mother be sacrificed for you! There is no escape from this!" He said: "That is what I said [beware of yourself]."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): It is narrated from Aminah, the mother of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), who said: "When I was pregnant with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), I did not feel the pregnancy, and unlike other women, I did not suffer from the heaviness of pregnancy; and I saw in a dream as if someone came to me and said to me: 'You have conceived the best of mankind.' When I brought him into the world, he lifted himself off the ground with his hands and knees and raised his head toward the sky, and [in that moment] a shining light appeared from me that illuminated the space between the sky and the earth, and the satans were driven away with the stars and were prevented from entering the sky." When Quraysh saw the movement of the shooting stars in the sky and their falling, they became frightened and said: "The Day of Resurrection has arrived." They all gathered before al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah, who was an experienced old man, and asked him about these events. Al-Walid said: "Look at the stars by which the paths in the darkness of the land and sea are found; if they have disappeared, the Resurrection has come, and if they remain fixed in their place, then a new event has occurred." In Makkah there was a Jewish man named Yusuf; when he saw the stars moving in the sky, he went to the gathering place of Quraysh and said [to them]: "O Qurayshis! Has a child been born among you tonight?" They said: "No." He said: "By the Torah, you are mistaken! On this night the last and the best of the prophets has been born, and it is stated in our books that when this prophet comes into the world, the satans will be driven away [with the stars] and kept far from the sky." So each of the Qurayshis returned to his home and inquired from his household about this. They said: "Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib has had a son." That Jew said: "Show him to me." Quraysh went with him to the house of Aminah and said to Aminah: "Bring out your son so this Jew may see him!" Aminah brought out the swaddled newborn. The Jew looked into the eyes of the newborn and drew aside the covering from his shoulder and saw a black mole on which there were a few hairs, and upon seeing it he fell unconscious to the ground. The Qurayshis laughed at him. The Jew said: "O Qurayshis! Do you laugh?! This is the Prophet of the sword (he will rise with the sword) and will destroy you; prophethood and messengership have departed from the Children of Israel forever." The people dispersed while talking about the affair of this Jew. [On the other hand,] when the satans were driven away by means of the stars and this matter was new to them, they all gathered before Iblis and said: "We have been prevented from entering the sky and we have been driven away with shooting stars!" Iblis said: "Certainly some important event has occurred in the world; go and find it." The satans [scattered and shortly after] returned and said: "We saw nothing." Iblis said: "I myself must go after it"; and he roamed between the east and the west until he reached the Sanctuary and found it surrounded by angels, and he saw Jibril standing at the gate of the Sanctuary with a spear in his hand. Iblis wanted to enter the Sanctuary, but Jibril shouted at him and said: "Away with you, O accursed one!" Iblis entered in the form of a sparrow from the side of Mount Hira and said: "O Jibril! I have a question for you." Jibril said: "What do you want?" He asked: "What has happened, and why have you gathered in the world?" He said: "The Prophet of this nation has been born, and he is the last and best of the prophets." Iblis asked: "Can I deceive him?" Jibril said: "No." He asked: "What about his nation?" He said: "Yes." Iblis said: "I am content."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): [In the conversation between Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) and a heretic (zindiq), the Imam (peace be upon him) said:] As for the reports [that used to reach the soothsayer from] the heavens, it was in this manner: the satans used to sit in places [in the sky] to eavesdrop, for in the past the satans were neither prevented [from eavesdropping] nor driven off by the stars. And [later on], so that nothing of the news of the heavens resembling revelation would be conveyed [by the satans] to the earth and cause the people of the earth to fall into confusion regarding what is sent from Allah for the establishment of the proof and the negation of doubt (something that would cause confusion between truth and falsehood), the satans were prevented from eavesdropping. The satan's practice was this: he would stealthily listen to a single word from the news of the heavens concerning what Allah was about to do with regard to His creation, snatch it, then bring it down to the earth and convey it to the soothsayer, and at times he would add words of his own to it, so that truth and falsehood became mixed. Thus, whatever reports the soothsayer gave that turned out to be correct were things the satan had heard [from the heavens] and conveyed to him [without addition or omission]; and whatever turned out wrong was what the satan had added from himself. Therefore, from the time the satans were prevented from eavesdropping, [the way of] soothsaying was cut off as well. Today, what the satans convey to the soothsayers are reports about people concerning the words they utter and [or] the deeds they intend to do [in the future]; and the satans convey to one another reports concerning events that will occur in the future, such as a theft that a thief will commit, a murderer who will commit a murder, and someone who goes into hiding. The satans, like human beings, are among them truthful and liars. The heretic asked: "How did the satans ascend to the heavens, when in their creation and in possessing a material body they are like human beings; and [for that reason] in the past they were able to build for Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon him) buildings that the children of Adam are incapable of building?!" Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "They were originally subtle beings [without a material body], such that their nourishment was the breeze of the air, and when they were made subservient to Sulayman (peace be upon him) they were turned into beings possessing a material body [like humans]; and the proof that they were subtle beings is that they used to ascend to the heavens for eavesdropping, and a being possessing a material body cannot ascend to the heavens by means of a ladder or any other device."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): [Within a narration in which a Jewish man asked Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) about the miracles of the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his family), it is reported that his eminence said]: And on the night of the Prophet's (peace be upon him and his family) birth, the angels were seen ascending [to the sky] and descending [to the earth], engaged in glorifying and sanctifying Allah, and the stars trembled and fell; and all of these were among the signs of his (peace be upon him and his family) birth. And when Iblis, who had a station for himself in the third heaven, saw those wondrous scenes on that night, he decided to go up to the sky, and the other satans whose work was eavesdropping wanted [that night as well to go up to the sky and] eavesdrop, but all of them were barred from [going to] the heavens and were driven away with shooting stars, and all of these were proofs of the prophethood of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family).

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): In Qurb al-Isnad, with its chain from Imam Kazim (peace be upon him), a long hadith is narrated in which the signs of [the Prophet's prophethood are mentioned]: At the age of five, I was in the presence of [my father] Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him), when a group of Jews came into his presence and said: "What miracles were given to your Prophet that caused doubt to disappear from the hearts of the people?" I said: "He was given many miracles ... The first of them is that which you yourselves [also] confess, that the jinn used to eavesdrop [in the heavens] before the mission of the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his family), and it was at the beginning of his prophethood that they were prevented from this work by being driven away and by the descending of stars [upon their heads], and [as a result] soothsaying and sorcery became void."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): And [Allah] placed on every road and gap of the sky a watchman from the piercing shooting stars.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): In the time of Jahiliyyah there were soothsayers, and with each one was a satan, and that satan would always sit in the sky at places for listening [to the news and words of the angels], and would hear from the angels what was to occur on the earth; then he would descend and inform that soothsayer, and that soothsayer would divulge the news to the people. When Allah raised Isa (peace be upon him) as a prophet, the satans were barred from three heavens, and when Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) was sent, they were barred from all the heavens, and the sky was guarded with stars, and [the driving away of the satans] with shooting stars is among the miracles of the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his family), because this phenomenon had not been seen before his time. The shooting star ruins [the satans] and burns [them], but does not kill [them].