Tafseer of The Star · An-Najm · 53:1
By the star when it descends,
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The statement concerning the interpretation of His word, the Exalted: وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى (1) ("By the star when it falls.")
The exegetes differed concerning the interpretation of His word ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ). Some of them said: by "the star" (al-najm) the Pleiades (al-Thurayyā) are meant, and by His word ( إِذَا هَوَى ) is meant: when it sets. They said: the interpretation of the statement is: by the Pleiades when they set.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ) he said: when the Pleiades set at dawn.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ) he said: the Pleiades. And Mujāhid said: ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ) he said: the setting of the Pleiades.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ) he said: when it falls down.
Others said: the meaning of it is: by the Qurʾān when it is sent down.
* Mention of who said that:
Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥassānī Abū al-Khaṭṭāb related to me, saying: Mālik ibn Suʿayr related to us, saying: al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ) he said: the Qurʾān when it is sent down.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى * مَا ضَلَّ صَاحِبُكُمْ وَمَا غَوَى ) he said: ʿUtba ibn Abī Lahab said: "I disbelieve in the Lord of the star." Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Do you not fear that the dog of Allah will devour you?" He said: he set out for trade to Yemen, and while they had settled down for the night's rest, he suddenly heard the roar of the lion. He said to his companions: "I am being devoured." Then they encircled him, but their ears were stroked so that they fell asleep, and he (the lion) came until he seized him, and they heard nothing but his voice.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, saying: Maʿmar related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "that the Prophet ﷺ recited ( وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى ), whereupon a son of Abū Lahab — I think he said: his name was ʿUtba — said: 'I disbelieve in the Lord of the star.' Then the Prophet ﷺ said: 'Beware, lest the dog of Allah devour you'; he said: and he struck upon his crown." He said: and Ibn Ṭāwūs said, on the authority of his father, that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Do you not fear that Allah will set His dog upon you?" Then the son of Abū Lahab set out with some people on a journey, until, when they were somewhere along the way, they heard the roar of the lion. He said: "It is nothing other than that he has set his sights on me." Then his companions gathered around him and placed him in their midst, until, when they had fallen asleep, the lion came and snatched him away from their midst. And one of the people who had knowledge of the language of the Arabs, from the people of Basra, used to say: by His word ( وَالنَّجْمِ ) the stars (al-nujūm) are meant. He said: he turned to the singular form, while in meaning it is the plural, and he adduced as proof for that statement the word of the camel-herder:
"Thus she passed the night, counting the star in a bowl full of fat, swiftly the fat melts beneath the hands of the eaters." (1)
And the correct opinion concerning it, in my view, is what Mujāhid said, namely that by "the star" in this place the Pleiades are meant, and that is because the Arabs call it "the star" (al-najm). And the statement that the one whom we related from the people of Basra made is a statement which we do not know any of the exegetes to have said, even though it has a plausible aspect; therefore we have refrained from adopting it.
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The footnotes:
(1) The verse is by the camel-herder al-Numayrī, ʿUbayd ibn Ayyūb (Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda, folio 230 of the photocopy 26059). He said concerning His word, the Exalted ( والنجم إذا هوى ): it is an oath, and "the star" means: the stars; he turned to the singular form while it has the meaning of the plural. The camel-herder said: "Thus she passed the night, counting the star …" — the verse. And in mustaḥīra: in a bowl with melted fat; he depicted it (the star) as floating, because it is of fat. And Ibn Qutayba said in the book al-Maʿānī al-Kabīr, printed in India:
And the camel-herder said, while mentioning a woman whom he had received as a guest: "Thus she passed the night …" — the verse. Mustaḥīra: a bowl in which the fat has accumulated, so that one sees in it the stars on account of the clarity of the melted fat; and by his word "she counts the star" he meant: the Pleiades, for the Arabs call the Pleiades "the star." He said:
"The star has risen in the evening, the herder searches for a cloak."
And al-Tibrīzī said in his commentary on the Ḥamāsa of Abū Tammām (4:39): Abū al-ʿAlāʾ said: some people understood "taʿuddu" here in the sense of counting, that is to say that this woman counts the star in the mustaḥīra bowl, that is the filled one, because she sees in it the reflection of the stars; and this understanding is permissible. And it is possible that "taʿuddu" has the meaning of "supposing" and "conjecturing," and then what is meant is that the woman supposes she sees a star in the bowl, on account of the whiteness of the fat which she perceives in it. End.
