An-Najm

Surah 53 of the Quran

سورة النجم‎ Sūrat al-Najm The Star
Arabic text English text
Classification	Meccan
Other names	The Unfolding
Position	Juzʼ 27
No. of verses	62
No. of Rukus	3
No. of words	360
No. of letters	1433

Surat An-Najm (Arabic: سورة النجم) (The Star) is the 53rd sura of the Qur'an with 62 ayat.

Summary of the line 1-12

The first eighteen verses of this sura are considered to be some of the earliest revelations of the Qur’an. These verses address the legitimacy of Muhammad’s prophetic visions. The sura begins with the divine voice swearing by the falling star that “Your companion,” referring to Muhammad, has not gone mad, nor does he speak out of his desire. The passage evokes the process of vision by tracing the movement along the highest horizon and then coming down and drawing near to the distance of “two bows” length. The passage ends with the affirmation of the validity of the vision by stating that the heart of the prophet “did not lie in what it saw.”

The surah is distinguished as being the first that required Muslims to prostrate (perform sajdah) when it is recited, according to Tafsir Ibn Kathir and a number of hadiths. The sura claims that, when it was first narrated by Muhammad in Mecca, all Muslims and non-Muslims who heard the recitation prostrated to God upon its completion due to the effect that the words had upon them. [1]

Early versions of the Qur'an may have contained verses that were later expunged, known as Satanic Verses.^{(citation needed)} In these verses, Mohammed refers to three other deities, Allāt, Uzza, and Manāt, whom he mentions in verses 19 and 20.

Have you thought of al-Lat and al-'Uzza/ And Manat the third, the other

According to later a later sura, Shaitan (The Islamic name for Satan), allegedly tempted him to add the following now-expurgated line:

These are the exalted Gharaniq, whose intercession is approved.^{(citation needed)}

References

1. Sells, Michael, Approaching The Qur'an, p. 44-45, [ISBN 1883991692]

External links

• An-Najm at Sacred Texts