Exegesis of the Noble Verse (And We made the heaven a protected ceiling, and they are turning away from its signs. And it is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each in an orbit swims)

Question:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may the blessings and peace be upon our leader, the one with the white-ankled forelocks, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. O Allah, teach us what benefits us, benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase us in knowledge, O the Generous. We welcome our brothers and sisters with the most beautiful welcome to this noble, blessed gathering that brings us together with the honorable scholar, the distinguished Shaykh Salih ibn Fawzan al-Fawzan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars and a member of the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta. Welcome, Shaykh, to the brothers and sisters in this gathering. The Shaykh: May Allah greet you and bless you. Question: The exegesis of the blessed verse in Surat al-Anbiya, in the saying of the Truth – Blessed and Exalted is He – I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan: (And We made the heaven a protected ceiling, and they are turning away from its signs. And it is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each in an orbit swims).

Answer:
Answer: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may the blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. His saying, Exalted is He: (And We made the heaven a ceiling) means a ceiling for the earth and what is upon it. The heaven is above them, and a ceiling is what is above people, above their heads. (Protected) means that the noble angels guard it from the devils who steal the hearing, as well as the shooting stars that Allah placed in the heaven in order to throw them at the devils so that they do not steal the hearing from the conversation of the angels – may the blessings and peace be upon them. When the devil ascends to listen, a shooting star is thrown at him; either it burns him before he reaches the earth, or he reaches the earth and throws a word he heard from the conversation of the angels to the fortune-teller. Then the fortune-teller lies a hundred lies along with it, and he is believed in a hundred lies for the sake of the word that was heard from the heaven. This is what the devils do, and Allah has guarded it with the stars and the angels. (And indeed, we have touched the heaven) as they say when the Messenger – may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him – was sent, the devils say: (And indeed, we have touched the heaven and found it filled with severe guards and shooting stars). Guards from the angels and shooting stars from the stars, and that is to protect it from the stealing of the hearing that descends upon the Messenger of Allah – may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him. (We made the heaven a protected ceiling, and they are turning away from its signs) people are turning away from the signs of the heaven and what is in it of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and what is in it of wonders. They do not contemplate in them and use them as evidence for the greatness of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He. So this is a rebuke of the people who do not contemplate in the cosmic signs of Allah, nor look at them with a look of consideration and a look of magnification of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He. (And it is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each in an orbit) and the orbit is the place of rotation for a planet. So the sun is in an orbit, the moon is in an orbit, and the stars are in orbits. All of them rotate in these orbits around the earth by the power of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He. (Each in an orbit swims) means in the space, and none holds them except Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, by His power and His will.