وَإِذَا النُّجومُ انكَدَرَت
When the stars fall, losing their lustre.
EXEGESIS
The perfect tense verb inkadarat means to fall down and to disperse or scatter, as well as to become murky and dim. The verbal noun kudūrah with which this verb shares its root letters, denotes a sense of darkness and dimness, loss of light, and loss of lustre and brilliance, and therefore when this word is applied to water it means to become muddy and turbid.
It has also been suggested that the original meaning of its verbal noun inkidār is the transformation of a thing in such a manner that it turns upside down, denoting dispersion and turmoil in the system.
Another meaning suggested for this verb is to swoop down, as in the case of a bird when it swoops down from the air towards the earth. Thus the Arabs have a saying that goes: inkadar al-ṭāʾir min al-hawā, meaning: the bird hurtled down from the air (towards the earth).
EXPOSITION
The second event this surah mentions is the dimming of the light and dazzle of the stars and their dispersion; these were those beautiful nocturnal lights (37:6, 15:16) created to serve humans along with the sun and the moon (7:54, 16:12, 31:20, 45:13), and especially to serve as guiding lights at night for those journeying on land and sea (6:97, 16:16). Once again, this startling phenomenon remains a mystery and will become known only when the event occurs in the future, but the twentieth-century exegete Ibn ʿĀshūr writes that when the sun will have lost its light, it is obvious that the stars will also lose their brilliance for most of the stars are illuminated by the light of the sun which they reflect. Ibn ʿĀshūr’s explanation may be deemed credible if his intent by ‘stars’ is the planets. This is because the stars that we see twinkling during the night exist beyond the solar system and are independent of it and therefore of the sun too, however this is not so for the planets, which form part of the solar system. Hence, his suggested explanation for this verse may be useful if it is the planets that are meant for the stars. The word nujūm, which is the plural of najm, has several different meanings ascribed to it, the most common and famous of which is that it means the stars and especially the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades. Yet some prominent lexicons and scholars have also defined it to mean the planets, celestial bodies, and the constellations. Apparently, the ancient Arabs used the words najm and kawkab for the stars and the planets indiscriminately. Therefore, Ibn ʿĀshūr’s explanation may be considered to have some validity here in light of the latter meaning.
The theme of this verse is repeated and corroborated in a number of other verses of the Quran such as, So when the stars are blotted out (77:8), and When the stars are scattered (82:2).
[1] Amthal, 19/446; Irshād al-Adhhān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 1/591.
[2] Amthal, 19/446.
[3] Mizan, 20/213.
[4] Fadlallah, 24/88.
[5] Amthal, 19/446; Fadlallah, 24/88.
[6] Fadlallah, 24/88.
[7] Mizan, 20/213.
[8] Tabrisi, 10/674.
[9] Ibn Ashur, 30/125.
[10] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’ānic Usage, p. 919.
[11] Ayn, 6/154; Bahrayn, 6/173; Tibyan, 10/281.
[12] Hans Wehr, p. 945.