سورة البروج

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Jabir (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was asked about the verse: وَ السَّماءِ ذاتِ الْبُرُوجِ [I swear by the mansions of the stars]. He said: "[It means] the stars." He was likewise asked about the verse: "He placed in the sky mansions for the stars." (Furqan/61). He said: "The buruj are the stars." It was asked: "What are buruj mushayyada (fortified towers)?" He said: "Palaces."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): The sun has three hundred and sixty mansions (buruj), each one like one of the islands of the Arabs, and every day it enters one of these mansions, and when it sets it reaches the limit of the depths of the Throne (butnan al-Arsh), and it remains in prostration until the next day, when it is returned to the place of its rising, and with it are two angels who call out with it.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Aban ibn Taghlib said: I was with Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) when a Yemeni man came to him ... Then he said: "O Arab brother! Do you have a scholar among you?" The Yemeni man said: "Yes, may I be your ransom, in Yemen there is a people whose knowledge is not like anyone among mankind (no one has knowledge like them)." So the Imam (peace be upon him) said: "And to what does the knowledge of their scholar reach (that is, how far)?" The Yemeni man said that their scholar takes omens from birds and follows footprints in a single moment for the distance of a month's journey for an earnest and swift rider. So the Imam (peace be upon him) said: "Indeed the scholar of Medina is more knowledgeable than the scholar of Yemen." The Yemeni man said: "To what does the knowledge of the scholar of Medina reach?" The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "The knowledge of the scholar of Medina ends at this: that he does not follow footprints, does not take omens from birds, while he knows that which in a single instant, over the course of the sun's journey, traverses twelve mansions (buruj) and twelve deserts and twelve seas and twelve worlds." So the Yemeni man said: "I did not think anyone knew this or knew what its essence is (how much it is)." Then the Yemeni man stood up.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) recited this verse: وَ السَّمَاء ذَاتِ الْبُرُوجِ [By the heaven possessing the mansions of the stars]. Then he said: "O Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him)! Do you suppose that when Allah swears by the heaven possessing the constellations, He really means the sky and its constellations?" I said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! Then what is meant?" He said: "By the heaven, I am meant, and the constellations are the Imams (peace be upon them) after me — the first of them is Ali (peace be upon him), and the last of them is al-Mahdi (may Allah hasten his noble relief)."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Asbagh ibn Nubata said: One day the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) came out to us holding the hand of Hasan (peace be upon him), and said: "One day I was in the company of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) when he was asked about the Imams after him." The Prophet answered the questioner: "By the heaven possessing the mansions of the stars! The number of the Imams after me is the number of these mansions. And by the Lord of the nights, the days, and the months! The number of the Imams is as the number of the months." The questioner asked: "Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?" The Prophet placed his hand upon my head and said: "The first of them is this one, and the last of them is al-Mahdi (may Allah hasten his noble relief)."