سورة الصافات

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Hisham ibn Salim relates: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: Jibra'il, Mika'il and Israfil came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) with al-Buraq (the swift mount). One took hold of the bridle, another took hold of the stirrup, and the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) mounted, and the third arranged his garments upon him. Al-Buraq acted skittishly, so Jibra'il struck it on the face. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: Along the way I suddenly heard a terrifying sound. Jibra'il said: "O Muhammad! Do you hear it?" I said: "Yes." He said: "This was a stone which I cast from the edge of Hell about seventy years ago, and it has only now reached its depths." They say that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) did not laugh again to the end of his life. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "Jibra'il ascended and I ascended with him until we reached the lowest heaven. Jibra'il went into the heaven and al-Buraq went up with him to the lowest heaven. Upon it was an angel called Isma'il, and he is the master of the snatching about whom Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: إِلَّا مَنْ خَطِفَ الْخَطْفَةَ فَأَتْبَعَهُ شِهابٌ ثاقِبٌ [Except him who snatches off but once, then there follows him a brightly shining flame]. Under his command were seventy thousand angels, each of whom commanded seventy thousand angels."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): إِلَّا مَنْ خَطِفَ الْخَطْفَةَ [Except him who snatches off but once], meaning they hear a word and memorize it, in which case a piercing flame follows them, that is, a flame is hurled at them and burns them.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): شِهابٌ ثاقِبٌ [a brightly shining flame] means an effective flame that strikes them with force and finishes them off.

Ibn Abbas: It is narrated from Ibn Abbas: When a flame is hurled at any target, it does not miss, and he recited the verse: فَأَتْبَعَهُ شِهابٌ ثاقِبٌ [then there follows him a brightly shining flame].

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): It is narrated from Imam Ali (peace be upon him) that one night we were with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) when a star was hurled and disappeared, and he said to the people: "In the time of Jahiliyya, what did you say when you saw the like of this?" They said: "We used to say a great man has died and a great man has been born." He said: "It is not hurled for anyone's death or anyone's life; rather, when our Lord decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him, and the inhabitants of the heaven next to them hear it and repeat it, until it reaches the inhabitants of the lowest heaven. The devils listen in stealthily, hoping to catch something of it and convey it to the soothsayers, and they add to it and subtract from it, and the soothsayers sometimes err and sometimes are correct. Then Allah barred them from access with these stars of the heaven, and soothsaying was cut off. There is no more foretelling." Then Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) recited this verse: "Except him who snatches by stealth, so a brightly shining flame pursued him" (Al-Hijr/18), and this verse: "And indeed we used to sit in some of the seats therein to eavesdrop" (Al-Jinn/9).