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MYSTIC SYMBOLS:
(Stars) : 53:1 -By the Star when it goes down 5085
5085 An-Najm is interpreted in various ways. As most commonly accepted, it means either a Star generically, or the close
cluster of seven stars known as the Pleiades in the Constellation Taurus, which the sun enters about the 21st of April
every year. In mid-April, or a little later, the beautiful cluster would set just after the sun, after having gradually
ascended the sky in the winter months. In late May, or a little later, it would rise just before the sun. In its western
aspects, it might be considered a spring constellation. To open-air nations (including the Arabs) whose climate usually
presents starry skies, this is an object of great interest, and many folklore tales gather round it. When so glorious a
cluster is content to bow down in the horizon and merge its light in the greater light created by Allah, it becomes a
symbol of humility in beauty and power before the Most High. Whose revelation discloses the summit of beauty,
power, and wisdom. Hawa in the text may mean either "goes down (or sets)" or "rises". Whichever meaning we take,
it makes no difference to the interpretation given above. (53.1)
56:75 - Furthermore I call to witness the setting of the Stars 5258
5258 Cf. liii. 1. (56.75)
77:8 - Then when the stars become dim; 5867
5867 The lustre of the stars will become dim; in fact they will disappear: cf. lxxxi. 2, and lxxxii. 2. The heaven's canopy will
be torn asunder: cf. lxxxii. 1, and lxxiii. 18. The mountains will be uprooted and fly about like dust: cf. lxix. 14; lxxxi. 3;
etc. All the old landmarks of the physical world as we know it will be swept away. (77.8)
(Sun) : 81:1 - When the sun (with its spacious light) is folded up; 59695970
5969 Verses 1 to 13 are conditional clauses, and the substantive clause is in verse 14. The time will come when nature's
processes as we know them will cease to function, and the soul will only then know by self conviction the results of its
actions. With reference to an individual soul, its resurrection is its supreme crisis: the whole world of sense, and even
of imagination and reason, melts away, and its whole spiritual scroll is laid bare before it. (81.1)
5970 The conditional clauses are twelve, in two groups of six. The first six affect the outer or physical life of man; the last
six, his inmost spiritual life. Let us take them one by one. (1) The biggest factor affecting us in the external physical
World is the light, heat, and perhaps electric or magnetic energy of the sun. The sun is the source of all the light, heat,
and energy, and indeed the source and support of all the physical life that we know. It is the biggest factor and yet
most remote from us in our solar system. Yet the sources of our inner spiritual life will be greater and more lasting, for
they will survive it. The sun as the center of our solar system also stands as a symbol of the present order of things.
The physical forces, as defined in Newton's laws of Matter and Attraction, will also break up with the break-up of the
sun. (81.1)
91: 1 - By the Sun and his (glorious) splendor; 6147
6147 Six types are taken in three pairs, from Allah's mighty works in nature, as tokens or evidence of Allah's providence and
the contrasts in His sublime creation, which yet conduce to cosmic harmony (verses 1-6). Then (verses 7-8) the soul
of man, with internal order and proportion in its capacities and faculties, as made by Allah, is appealed to as having
been endowed with the power of discriminating between right and wrong. Then the conclusion is stated in verses 9-
10, that man's success or failure, prosperity or bankruptcy, would depend upon his keeping that soul pure or his
corrupting it. (91.1)
6148 The first pair is the glorious sun, the source of our light and physical life, and the moon which follows or acts as
second to the sun for illuminating our world. The moon, when she is in the sky with the sun, is pale and
inconspicuous; in the sun's absence she shines with reflected light and may metaphorically be called the sun's
vicegerent. So with Revelation and the great Prophets who brought it; and the minor Teachers who derive their light
reflected, or perhaps doubly reflected, from the original source. (91.2)
(Sky) : 82:1 - When the Sky is cleft asunder; 59975998
5997 Cf. the passage lxxxi. 1-14 and notes. For the three parallel interpretations, see the Introduction to the Sura. There are
four conditional clauses here, and the substantive clause is in verse 5. In S. lxxxi, there were 12 conditional clauses,
and the conclusion was, similar, but not expressed in precisely the same terms. See lxxii. 5. n. 6002 below. The
physical world as we see it now will be destroyed before the final Day of Judgment, establishing the true Reality. In
the following four clauses we have a reference to the Lesser Judgment, the individual dawn of the true Reality at
Death. (82.1)
5998 Cf. lxxiii. 18, n. 5769. The beautiful blue sky overhead, which we take for granted in sunshine and storm, will be
shattered to pieces before the New World is established. The partition which seems at present to divide things divine
from this phenomenal world has to be shattered before each soul knows the reality about itself. (82.1)
84:1 - When the Sky is rent asunder 6031
6031 The passing away of this world of sense to make way for a new World of Reality is here indicated by two Facts, which
are themselves signs for a complete revolution in our whole knowledge and experience. At the beginning of S. lxxxii.
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