Al-Hijr: (16) "And indeed, We have placed in the heaven..."

When the Almighty mentioned the state of those who deny prophethood—which was predicated upon the doctrine of Oneness—He proceeded to mention the celestial and terrestrial proofs thereof. Thus, He, the Exalted, said: "And indeed, We have placed in the heaven constellations (Buruj)..." and so on. The Imam and others have adopted this view regarding the connection between the verses.

Ibn Atiyyah stated: When He, the Glorified, mentioned that if they were to see the requested sign in the heaven, they would still persist in obstinacy and remain in their state of misguidance, He followed it with this verse. It is as if He, the Exalted, were saying: "There are indeed signs set up in the heaven other than those you requested, yet their disbelief and turning away from them is due to their own persistence and arrogance."

The apparent meaning of "placed" (ja'alna) is creation and origination; thus, the prepositional phrase "in the heaven" relates to it. It is also permissible that it means "to render" or "appoint," in which case it relates to an omitted component as a second object, while "constellations" (burujan) is its first object. Buruj is the plural of burj, which linguistically means a palace or a fortress, and this is how Atiyyah interpreted it here. Ibn Abi Hatim recorded from him that he said: "We have made palaces in the heaven in which there are guards." He also recorded from Abu Salih that the intended meaning of Buruj is the great stars.

In al-Bahr, it is reported from him that they are the planets. Multiple narrators reported from Mujahid and Qatadah that they are the stars without qualification. It is reported from Ibn Abbas that they are the twelve famous constellations: six northern—three vernal and three summer, beginning with Aries—and six southern—three autumnal and three winter, beginning with Libra. The length of each constellation according to them is thirty degrees, and its width is twelve degrees; fifteen of which are on the northern side and the same on the southern side.

They seem to have been named as such because they are like a fortress or palace for the star situated within them. In reality, they are parts of the Great Sphere, which is the determining sphere called in their terminology the "Atlas Sphere" and the "Sphere of Spheres," and in the language of the Lawgiver, it is the reverse. This is why the Greatest Master (Ibn Arabi)—may his secret be sanctified—calls the Atlas Sphere the "Sphere of Constellations." The common view is to name the eighth sphere—the sphere of fixed stars—by this name, due to their consideration of the divisions within it. This appears to be because of the visibility of the shapes by which the parts are defined, even though each of them is transitioning from the position assigned to it to another due to the intrinsic motion of the fixed stars in the opposite direction of the consecutive order. While ancient philosophers did not establish this motion for them—due to the lack of sensory perception of it, just as the majority did not establish their motion upon themselves—Sheikh Abu Ali and those who followed him from the investigators have established it. They explicitly stated that these shapes—known in the heaven—are merely imagined upon the celestial belt and its proximity on both sides from the fixed stars, which are organized by assumed lines that fall within those divisions at the time of categorization. This was transmitted in al-Kifayah from the generality of astronomers, noting that they only imagined a shape for each division for the purpose of instruction and teaching; for example, saying: "Aldebaran is the eye of the Lion."

He criticized this by saying: "This is not sound in my opinion, for if those shapes were merely imaginary, they would have no effect on their counterparts in the lower world, whereas the matter is not so." Ptolemy stated in The Fruit (Centiloquium): "The shapes in the world of composition are obedient to the celestial shapes, as they are in their essences upon these shapes, and the faculties of imagination perceived them as they are." There is a discussion regarding this. Furthermore, these constellations possess varying effects and properties; indeed, every part of each one—even if less than a tenth, or even less than the least—has effects that differ from the effects of another part. All of this is a manifestation of the wisdom of Allah the Exalted and His power.

The Greatest Master—may his secret be sanctified—mentioned in some of his books that the effects of the stars and their decrees are cast upon them from those constellations considered in the "Determiner" (the Atlas Sphere). In the third section of the three-hundred and seventy-first chapter of his Futuhat, he states that Allah the Exalted divided the Atlas Sphere into twelve parts, which He named constellations, and inhabited each one with an angel. These angels are the leaders of the world, and He appointed for each of them thirty treasuries, each containing various sciences from which they bestow upon those who descend to them according to their rank. These are the treasuries of which Allah the Exalted said: "And there is not a thing but that with Us are its depositories, and We do not send it down except according to a known measure." These are called by those versed in the mathematical sciences the "degrees of the sphere," and those who descend to them are the wandering stars (al-jawari) and the mansions (al-manazil), and their companions ('ayuqatuha) from the fixed stars. The sciences derived from these high-level treasuries are those that manifest in the realm of the elements as influences; indeed, they are what manifest in the concavity of the sphere of fixed stars down to the Earth—to the end of his statement. He has spoken at length on this topic, and it is far removed from the belief of the later scholars, the transmitters of religion—may mercy be upon them. Furthermore, the variation in the properties of the constellations, as we witness through experience, along with what the majority have agreed upon regarding the simplicity of the heaven, is the strongest proof for the existence of a Choosing Creator, may His majesty be glorified.

"And We have beautified it" (meaning the heaven) with what it contains of planets and others, which are numerous, the number of which is known to none but Allah the Exalted. We know of the observed ones a little over a thousand and twenty, and they have arranged them into six ranks, calling them magnitudes, increasing by a sixth, such that the diameter of those in the first magnitude is six times that of those in the sixth magnitude. They placed each magnitude into three tiers, and what is below the sixth they did not establish in ranks; rather, if it is like a cloud, they call it "nebulous," otherwise "dim." It is mentioned in al-Kifayah that what is among them in the first magnitude, its body is one hundred fifty-six and a half times the size of the Earth. It has been narrated in some traditions that the smallest of the stars is like a great mountain. Abu Hayyan argued that the pronoun refers back to the "constellations" because they are what is being discussed and are the closest in phrasing, but the majority follow what we have mentioned to avoid the confusion of pronouns.

"For those who look" (meaning with their eyes toward them, as some have said, because it is appropriate for "beautification"). It is also permissible that the intent behind "beautification" is their arrangement according to a marvelous system that results in good effects, so that "those who look" refers to those who contemplate and infer from this the power of its Arranger and the wisdom of its Planner, may His majesty be glorified.