Reply To The Article ''The Star Will Fall''

Reply To The Article ''The Star Will Fall'' 

The author of wikiislam.net says:

The Qur'an says that the stars will fall (inkadarat ٱنكَدَرَتْ) along with other dramatic events surrounding the last day. The author clearly had no idea of the size and distance of the stars. The word كدر in the form used in this verse (form VII) meant to dart down as is said of a bird or hawk, or to fall and scatter.

And when the stars fall

Qur'an 81:2

The structure of space-time is such that nothing, not even stars, can move faster than the velocity of light. Even if stars were to somehow move close to light speed across the sky their motion would be imperceivable to the naked eye as many visible stars are hundreds of light years away. Neither would we be able to see anything that the stars are doing recently (when we see a star 100 light years away, we are seeing it as it was 100 years ago).

Reply:

The better translations of the verse are:

Shakir: ''And when the stars darken,''

Muhammad Sarwar: ''The stars are made to fade away,''

Because the Arabic word كدر means dark colored,cease to be clear,black colored,faint,dead-colored,to become dim,scatter, to scatter and become light-less,to become light-less,to fade away,to lose light, etc.

See:

1.   Hans Wehr 4th ed. page no. 957

2.   Lane,s Lexicon page no. 2596

3.   Steingass page no. 877

4.   Hava page no. 639

5.   Brill page no. 800

6.   Dict. of Quran by M.G Farid page no. 716

7.   Mufridat ul Quran (urdu) page no. 343

8.   Mukhtar us Sahih page no. 780

9.   Lughat ul Quran page no. 1431

10. Alfaaz Istilaahat il Quran page no. 372

11. Qamoos Alfaz Al Quran page no. 350

12. Dic. of Holy Quran page no. 480

Thus the above-quoted translation by us is the better one.It is a scientifically correct fact because stars are losing light day by day and thus they would be darkened on the day of judgement. See:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11796031/Universe-is-losing-its-twinkle-as-stars-die-out-say-scientists.html

 Even if we take the translation taken by the author of wikiislam.net then it is right too. Then we should look at its Interpretation done by Holy Prophet SAW. We read in Tafseer Durr e Mansoor vol .6 page no 887:

" Ibn e Abbas said that on the day of Qiyamah sun,moon and stars would be wrapped and fell in the hell of fire."

There can be no better metaphorical explanation to show that the whole universe would be wrapped in the singularity of high power from which they are formed(the big crunch). Because Qiyamah is the metaphor of great energy and  power. So by taking the meaning fall it favors big crunch and by taking the meaning fade away it favors dying out of stars. Both are scientific facts.Thus nothing to put as a scientific error.
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