Surat al-Buruj
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البروج Al-Burūj The Stars |
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Arabic text · English translation |
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| Classification | Meccan |
| Other names | The Constellations, The Zodiacal Signs |
| No. of verses | 22 |
| No. of words | 109 |
| No. of letters | 469 |
Arabic text · English translation
Sūrat al-Burūj (Arabic: البروج, "The Great Star") is the eighty-fifth chapter (sura) of the Quran with 22 verses.
The word "Al-Burooj" in the first verse is translated to stars, mainly 'great stars'. The Surah opens with an oath by a heaven full of stars: By the sky containing great stars. The Arabic word Al-Burooj is interpreted in several ways. The word Al-Burooj is the plural of Burj which means fort or tower; something that can be seen from a distance. Ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid, Ad-Dahhaj, Al-Hasan, Qatadah and As-Suddi said Burj means stars. Ibn Jareer chose the view that it means the positions of the sun and the moon, which are twelve Burooj. The sun travels through each one of these Burj in one month. The moon travels through each one of these Burj in two-and-a-third days, which makes a total of twenty-eight positions, and it is hidden for two nights [making a month of 30 approximately].
Interpreters give several different versions of the story to be referred to in verses 4–8: persecution of Christians by Dhu Nuwas in Yemen, persecutions by Nebuchadnezzar, and people of the trench. It has been documented that Dun Nuwas burned 20,000 Christians alive in a burning trench because they refused to convert to Judaism. Quranic exegetes produced different interpretations of the term 'preserved tablet' in verse 22. In this surah the relationship of Quran to the 'Preserved Tablet' is correlated with the relation of the stars 'Al-Buruj' to the heavens 'Al-Sama'. Mu'tazilites argued that revelations were created initially in the preserved tablet. This seems to be close to another term, 'Mother of all books' (umm al-kitab), mentioned in 13:39 and 43:4.
The subject matter itself indicates that this Surah was sent down at Makkah in the period when persecution of the Muslims was at its climax and the disbelievers of Makkah were trying their utmost by tyranny and coercion to turn away the new converts from Islam.
Its theme is to warn the disbelievers of the evil consequences of the persecution and tyranny that they were perpetrating on the converts to Islam, and to console the believers, so as to say: "If you remain firm and steadfast against tyranny and coercion, you will be rewarded richly for it, and Allah will certainly avenge Himself on your persecutors on your behalf."
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