Surah al-Waqi`ah (The Occurrence) 56 : 80

Overview (Verses 75 - 80)

A Great Oath

Now the surah directs its address to those who denied the truth of the Qur'an in another way, providing a relationship between it and the universe in a great oath by God, the Lord of all the worlds:

I do swear by the positions of the stars — a mighty oath, if you but knew — that this is indeed a most honourable Qur'an, in a well-guarded record that only the purified can touch: a revelation from the Lord of all the worlds. (Verses 75-80)

Those addressed by the Qur'an at the time of its revelation knew no more about the positions of the stars than what they could see with the naked eye. Therefore, the surah tells them that the oath already made was a mighty one, even though they did not know it at the time. Today, we appreciate the greatness of this oath far more than they did, but we too know only very little about the greatness of the positions of the stars. The little we have discovered with our seemingly advanced observatories and allegedly powerful telescopes tells us that one of the countless clusters in open space, the one that constitutes the galaxy that contains our solar system, includes one billion stars.'

Astronomers say that some of these stars and planets, which number many billions, can be seen with the naked eye, while others can only be seen with powerful telescopes. Others still can only be sensed by such very powerful telescopes. All these run in their respective orbits in space. The possibility of a magnetic field of one of these stars coming close to another, or of a planet crashing into another, is as remote as that of a boat in the Mediterranean crashing into one travelling in the Indian Ocean, when both are travelling in the same direction at the same speed. The chances of such a crash ever taking place are so remote that it is certainly impossible.'
 
Every star in its position, which is so distant from its sister stars, is placed there in accordance with God's wisdom and careful measure. Each interacts with other stars and planets to produce a measured equilibrium between all these entities floating in space. All this is part of the greatness of the positions of the stars. It goes far beyond the knowledge of those who were the first to be addressed by the Qur'an. At the same time, it is immeasurably less than the total truth of the greatness of stars and their positions.

"I do swear by the positions of the stars — a mighty oath, if you but knew it!" (Verses 75-76) These verses make an oath which is correctly rendered in the translation here. However, the surah employs a special mode of expression, often used in the Qur'an which would say, if literally translated, "I do not swear by..." This stylistic feature mentions an oath, then appears to turn away from it. It is as if God is saying: "I do not need to make this oath by..." Yet this does not convey exactly the same meaning. The Arabic original is far more powerful in its deliverance of what is intended. Hence, the emphasis on the oath in the way it is rendered in English. The point is that this great truth does not need an oath to establish it, as it is already clear and well confirmed: "This is indeed a most honourable Qur'an, in a well-guarded record that only the purified can touch: a revelation from the Lord of all the worlds." (Verses 77-80)

The Qur'an is indeed a most honourable discourse. It is unlike anything the unbelievers allege about it, claiming that it is the work of a monk or a madman or that it is fabricated, or a host of ancient legends, or that it is delivered by devils, or whatever. It is most honourable by its source, by itself and by the message and teachings it imparts.

Further description of the Qur'an is added in the next two verses, the second of which provides an explanation of the first: "In a well-guarded record that only the purified can touch." (Verses 78-79) The unbelievers alleged that the Qur'an was given to the Prophet by devils. This verse refutes this. No devil can touch this record, which is well-guarded, kept safe under God's care. It is purified by angels that bring it down to the Prophet. This is the better explanation of the verse that says that only the purified can touch the Qur'an. The negation here is a statement, not a command. In this life on earth anyone can handle the Qur'an: someone who is purified or someone who is contaminated, a believer or an unbeliever. To take the negation as applying to the book containing the Qur'an would be erroneous. It can only be true when we take it as refuting the unbelievers' allegations. The divine record containing the Qur'an in heaven is untouchable by anyone other than purified angels. This is further confirmed by the statement that follows, confirming that the Qur'an is "a revelation from the Lord of all the worlds." (Verse 80)

Two hadith reports state a different meaning, implying that only a person who has purified himself by ablution can touch the Qur'an. Ibn Kathir, however, makes clear that neither of these reports has been authentically transmitted.