Quran corpus - Surraiya Encyclopaedia of Quran

There is no denying that the Ancient Arabs had developed, over the centuries, their own popular knowledge of the Sky and celestial bodies and phenomenon. They knew the fixed stars and planets. Hundreds of stars were known by name and there were indigenous names for the planets. The Bedouins used the stars for orientation in the migrations by night.**

However, the majority of translators of Grand Qur’ān, unfortunately, did not use different words feeling convenience in describing various Arabic words of absolutely different origins and significations by a single word "Star".

: It is one such word that was translated by the majority as "Star". However, the Grand Qur’ān has identified it as a celestial object, different and distinct from the Stars, at the very first place of its use in 6:76:

: Verb: Perfect; Third person; Singular; Masculine. Root: ج ن ن signifying to veil, conceal, cover, hide.

It is conspicuously stated that Sydena Iebra'heim عليه السلام had seen the celestial object in the Sky when Night had spread darkness veiling his surroundings. In the darkness of night, one does not see a single star in the Sky but quiet a large number of stars are visible to naked eye. One celestial object he saw in the darkness of that Night was:

the direct object of verb signifying seeing with naked eye.

Grand Qur’ān came in 7^th century, but people have known the distinction between stars and planets from couple of centuries BC. The basic difference between both, as we know, is that stars emit light but planets do not have their own light; they reflect light. How both could have same meanings and termed as stars?

After the Sun and the Moon, planet Venus is the most shining object. It is visible in Sky three hours before Sunrise and for three hours after Sunset. After these three objects, planet Jupiter is the brightest object. It is three times brighter than the brightest star Sirius. Because of its prominence, Romans had given it name Jupiter after the name of their bigger god, idol.

A word is needed to convey and transmit a specific perception or verbal mirroring of an object. Words serve as a medium to communicate perceptions. It is for this reason that, a language will be considered rich, clear, perspicuous, eloquent, distinct, free from admixture, void of indistinctness or without concealment, apparent like the daybreak and divested of the froth, if its words have the capability of transporting the perception from one mind to a listener and reader, in a manner that it generates in the recipient mind exactly the same neurological process of observation and interpretation, and creates a true copy of that perception.

The Arabic language is portrayed as:

- Active Participle; [Form IV], the language that makes things individually and collectively distinct and differentiated from others. The language {لسان}of our Guide Lord, Last Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم has the capacity of transmitting and making the perception reach to the listener and reader, in the aforesaid manner. Therefore,

plural

cannot, and should not be translated as “Star” since Grand Qur’ān has made a clear distinction between the celestial bodies. It is rather unfair with Arabic Language, which is rightly proud of vastness of its vocabulary and concepts, that different words emanating from different Roots be assigned the same meanings in the target language.

We find mention of specific Planets in the Classical works about the above statement in 6:76

The difference between Venus and Jupiter is that Venus after three hours of Sunset disappears from the Sky and is not visible till three hours before Sunrise. However, Jupiter, when it is visible from Earth, does not disappear but remains visible on the Sky. Grand Qur’ān informs us that the Planet towards which he drew the attention of his people, later on disappeared from the scene.

The Grand Qur’ān has vividly pointed out that on that Night Iebra'heim [alai'his'slaam] had drawn the attention of people around him towards Venus. Therefore, we can visualize the session of that Night that it was held after quite some time of Sunset but within three hours of the Sunset, and continued till morning, Sunrise.

The Grand Qur’ān describes the Sky as one which was layered into Seven Segments, one above the other. The Layer of the Sky immediately above the Earth is referred as the Sky of the Earth. The information about this specific Layer of the Sky is that it is beautified by the presence of Planets:

: It is necessarily something in which there is an attraction. Anything that does not absorb attention-attraction cannot be referred by this word. We know that man has always attraction and interest in the Planets. Moreover, the Planets are related to the Sky of the Earth-the Solar System in relation to the Lower World-Earth.

Here Plural:

on the Pattern of: فُعُولٌ is used, indicating abundance. This is wide general information relating to the entire globe. However, specific information, commonly known to majority of people, particularly the travellers in Oceans and Deserts, is given separately:

The Grand Qur’ān is declared as: "

", i.e. the statement of absolute fact, established reality in time and space. It once said that Allah the Exalted has appointed:

the peculiar Stars [it is plural], and later it is said that people get direction-orientation with:

the help of One specific Star [it is singular]. Grand Qur’ān was meant, not only for those Arabs who were to listen it first, but is for the entire humanity in time and space. Therefore, its language is such that it contains and narrates a fact in such manner that it should seem and could have been perceived as an absolute truth by its first listeners, and prove to be an absolute fact for the posterity for whom the knowledge of the universe will keep unfolding. The above statement of the Grand Qur’ān is a fact from whatever angle it may be seen. In common knowledge, people perceive that North/Pole Star is the one but that is not the fact. Today North Star is Polaris but in 7500 there will be some other Star as Pole Star and in 15000 another one will take this place and after 9000 years today's North Pole Polaris will again be stationed there. Let us verify the fact with thanks from Encarta, and online Wikipedia:

"North Star or Polestar, conspicuous star in the northern hemisphere, located closest to the point toward which the axis of the earth is directed, thus roughly marking the location of the north celestial pole. A polestar has been used by navigators throughout recorded history for charting navigation routes and is still used for determining true azimuth and astronomic latitude. The positions of the celestial poles change as the earth's axis moves with the earth's precessional motion (see Ecliptic), and as the north celestial pole assumes different positions relative to the constellations, different stars become the North Star.

During the past 5000 years the line of direction of the North Pole has moved from the star Thuban, or Alpha (a) Draconis, in the constellation Draco, to within one degree of the bright star Polaris, also known as Alpha (a) Ursae Minoris, in the constellation Ursa Minor (Little Dipper), which is now the North Star. Polaris is a binary star of second magnitude, and is located at a distance of about 300 light-years from the earth. It is easy to locate in the sky because the two stars opposite the handle in the bowl of the dipper in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper), which are called the Pointers, point to the star Polaris. See Big Dipper; Constellation; Little Dipper.

In the year 7500 the brightest star in the constellation Cepheus, Alpha (a) Cephei, will mark the pole, and in the year 15,000 the star Vega, in the constellation Lyra, will be the North Star. About 9000 years after that, Polaris will again become the North Star"{"North Star." Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005}

The Stars are declared as helping people in finding direction in the bewilderment of oceans and deserts, no-clue places. But the Planets are stated as beautification and attraction embedded in the Sky of Earth. Stars and Planets are distinct celestial objects, which is also evident from their destined end:

Verb: Perfect; Third Person; Singular; feminine; Intransitive; [Form-VIII]; Subject pronoun hidden; مصدر-إِنْتِثَارٌ Verbal noun.

Verb: Perfect; Third Person; Singular; Feminine; Passive; [Form-II]; تَ Proxy Subject pronoun hidden; تَفْجِيرٌ Verbal Noun.

The common factor in this pair is that both absorb as well as reflect light. Both the verbs relating their end share the commonality of fragmentation and dispersing.

We are not sure at the moment about the number of planets in our solar system. The International Astronomical Union has already put Pluto out of the Planet Club declaring it as a "dwarf planet". Under the new definition, planets must orbit a star, be spherical in shape, and clear out their neighbourhood of orbital debris.

: It is an Active Participle, plural, accusative, used for circumstantial state/description. After having stated the objects seen in his dream, he repeated the word

which signifies expression of wonder and strangeness that he saw them in a state of reverent for him. Indeed this dream reflected metaphorically a fact that had to happen in the life of Yu'suf [alahissalam] when his mother, father and Eleven brothers were to come near to him-join him in Egypt after his separation and having been taken by a caravan and sold to an advisor/ \minister of the king of Egypt. At the end of the Episode, we see that his eleven brothers, mother and father come to him in Egypt as his reverent and admirers. Interestingly, eleven planets seen and mentioned first representing his eleven brothers came to him first and afterwards his ten brothers came back to Egypt bringing their own families and their mother and father along. The dream got physical manifestation exactly in the manner it was seen.

There is a similarity between the planets and Eleven brothers of Yu'suf [alai'his'slaam]. They did not have their own "light", they owe their recognition and popularity to Yu'suf [alai'his'slaam]. They at that point in time, unlike their past conduct resembled definition of Planet suggested by International Astronomical Union, that is "clear out their neighbourhood of orbital debris".

But the fact remains that he had seen 11 planets. The question is can we see-perceive even in dream a thing which does not exist in reality somewhere? What he had seen also happened in reality. Can neurons create and pass on a signal for storage in the memory without existence of a thing somewhere?

One thing is certain that Messengers of Allah never see a dream which does not exist as a fact in the past, present or future. He has seen Eleven planets, excluding the Earth. We will find them sooner or later; it is promise of Allah the Exalted:

May I suggest to NASA that whenever they find 11 Planets, two should be named after two brothers of Yu'suf [alai'his'slaam], one from his own mother and the eldest from his second mother which may be proposed by our cousins, Bani Israel living in Israel.

I suggest to all Muslim communities/countries to recognize Israel as there lives Bani Israel whom Grand Qur’ān addresses directly. When Allah the Exalted, his Last Elevated Messenger and the Last Book recognizes them, why Muslim countries should not recognize them as a nation and obviously a nation lives in a geographical territory?