Moulavi Gerágh Ali

“ It says that the heavens (or the stars) are safe and protected against the eavesdropping (or enchantments) of the soothsayers. "We have set the signs of Zodiac in the heavens, and we have decked them forth for the bewilders." "And we guard them from every stoned satan."—Sura XV, verses 16, 17. "Verily we have adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the stars;" "And we have guarded them against every rebellious satan."—Sura XXXVII, verses 6, 7. ”

“ On his return to Mecca he converted a party of the tribe of Jinn [7] (not Genii according to the vulgar notion) [8] at Nakhla. After his return from Tàyif he preached to an audience of six or seven persons from Medina, who believed and spread Islam there.
Footnotes ↑ I do not mean to say that flourishing under persecution is a convincing proof of the divine origin of a religion. Not that a religion established by force is altogether of human invention. Almost all religions are divine however they may have been established, but flourishing under opposition and persecution is a natural course. ”

“ The Kahins were very much alarmed at the stupendous phenomena of the falling stars and the comets; and had stopped their soothsaying and divinations. Whenever they used to sit on their places of listening, enchanting, and divination during night-time, looking at the heavens, their eyes met with showers of shooting stars and brilliant comets which bewildered them very much. It is said that the first whose attention was attracted to the unusual shooting stars was a clan of the Sakeefites of Us-Tayif (Ibn Hisham, page 131) . ”

“ The Koran further says that the soothsayers impart to their votaries or to those who go to consult them what they have heard from other people and are liars:— "They impart what they have heard, but most of them are liars."—Sura XXVI, verse 223. It is nowhere said in the Koran that the stars are darted or hurled at the Satans. ”

“ Some of this class of people pretended to receive intelligence of what was to come to pass from certain satans or demons, whom they alleged to hear what passed in the heavens. Others pretended to control the stars by enchanting them. ”

“ Christianity suffered from persecutions and other harrowing evils for 300 years, after which time it was established, and paganism abolished by public authority, which has had great influence in the propagation of the one and destruction of the other ever since.↑ "The severity and injustice of the Cureish, overshooting the mark, aroused personal and family sympathies ”

“ It was a conceit or imposture of the Kahins to pretend that their demons had access to the outskirts of the heavens, and by assiduous eavesdropping secured some of the secrets of the upper world and communicated the same to the soothsayers or diviners upon earth. ”

“ II, page 207.↑ The Arabs also had a similar clan named Bani Shaitán, a clan of the Hinzala tribe, the descendants of Tamim, through Zeid Monat of the Moaddite stock. The Bani Shaitán (the children of Satan) dwelt near Kúfa.—Vide Qalqashandi's Dictionary of Arab Tribes.↑ Sura XLVI, verses 28, 29. These people were from Nisibin and Nineveh in Mesopotamia. They were Chaldeans, soothsayers, and cabalists. In the book of Daniel the Chaldeans are classed with magicians and astronomers, and evidently form a sort of the priest class who have a peculiar "tongue" and "learning" (Dan. I. 4) . ”