Short answer
Yes. The Qur'an and an authentic hadith, a report from the Prophet (ﷺ), teach that meteors drive devils away from heaven. Meteors are the flames we call shooting stars. No verse on the guarding of heaven says that a star leaves the sky. Qur'an 67:5 says God (﷾) adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and made them missiles. Yusuf Ali renders "them" as "such (Lamps)": lights of that kind. Other verses name the missile: a flaming fire. In that hadith, a Companion describes a meteor as a thrown star, just as English says shooting star. Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi explained that the devils are pelted with flames, not with the stars. What the verse describes, anyone can see on a clear night. Its purpose belongs to the unseen, which no telescope can test. Islam teaches that heaven is guarded so that the devils cannot overhear the revelation.
Full explanation
What the verse says
Qur'an 67:5 says two things. God (﷾) adorned the lowest heaven (the sky nearest to us) with masabih, lamps. And He made them rujum, missiles, against the devils. It does not say that any lamp leaves the sky. Yusuf Ali's translation renders "them" as "such (Lamps)", that is, lights of that kind. Qur'an 41:12 sets the same two things side by side: the lower heaven adorned with lights, and provided with a guard.
“And we have, (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with Lamps, and We have made such (Lamps) (as) missiles to drive away the Evil Ones, and have prepared for them the Penalty of the Blazing Fire.”
“So He completed them as seven firmaments in two Days, and He assigned to each heaven its duty and command. And We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and (provided it) with guard. Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might, Full of Knowledge.”
The objection
Critics read Qur'an 67:5 as saying that the stars themselves are hurled at devils. The verse says God (﷾) adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and made them missiles. The lamps, they say, are the stars. But stars are distant suns, which cannot be thrown at anything near the earth. A shooting star is not a star at all. It is a grain of dust or a small rock from space, burning up as it enters the earth's air. Critics add that some early commentators (scholars who explain the Qur'an) read the verse their way. Al-Tabari, a commentator who died in 923, takes the lamps themselves as the missiles. He reports the Successor Qatada saying the same. A Successor is one of the generation after the Companions, the people who met and followed the Prophet (ﷺ). On this reading the verse mistakes meteors for stars. It also gives them a purpose no one can check.
“And we have, (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with Lamps, and We have made such (Lamps) (as) missiles to drive away the Evil Ones, and have prepared for them the Penalty of the Blazing Fire.”
Explains that meteoroids are space rocks ranging from dust grains to small asteroids, and that when they enter the earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up they are called meteors, or "shooting stars". Several meteors an hour can usually be seen on any clear night. Some meteor showers come every year, or at regular intervals, as the earth passes through the dusty trail a comet has left; the Perseids, which peak around 12 August, are pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Explains the lamps as the stars, called lamps because they give light, and restates the verse: God made the lamps with which He adorned the lowest heaven missiles for the devils, with which they are pelted. He then reports the Successor Qatada: God created these stars for three things, as an adornment for the lowest heaven, as missiles for the devils and as signs to guide by; whoever reads anything else into them speaks from his own opinion, misses his share, loses his portion, and takes on what he has no knowledge of.
The missile is a flame
Three other passages tell of devils and jinn who try to overhear heaven. The jinn are unseen beings that God (﷾) made from fire. Each passage names what drives them off: a shihab, a flame. The Qur'an uses the word once more, for the burning brand that Moses hoped to bring his family from a fire (27:7). In 37:10 the flame pursues the devil with piercing brightness. In 15:18 it is bright to see. In 72:8-9 the jinn say they found heaven filled with guards and flames (shuhub). They say a flame now lies in wait for any who listen. None of these passages says that a star leaves its place. Two of them describe a bright flame in pursuit, which is what a meteor looks like. Critics ask how a flame could hurt the jinn, whom the Qur'an says God (﷾) made from fire. But being made from a thing is no shield against it. A man made from clay is still hurt by a thrown brick.
“We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars,- (For beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious evil spirits, (So) they should not strain their ears in the direction of the Exalted Assembly but be cast away from every side, Repulsed, for they are under a perpetual penalty, Except such as snatch away something by stealth, and they are pursued by a flaming fire, of piercing brightness.”
“It is We Who have set out the zodiacal signs in the heavens, and made them fair-seeming to (all) beholders; And (moreover) We have guarded them from every cursed devil: But any that gains a hearing by stealth, is pursued by a flaming fire, bright (to see).”
“'And we pried into the secrets of heaven; but we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. 'We used, indeed, to sit there in (hidden) stations, to (steal) a hearing; but any who listen now will find a flaming fire watching him in ambush.”
“Behold! Moses said to his family: "I perceive a fire; soon will I bring you from there some information, or I will bring you a burning brand to light our fuel, that ye may warm yourselves.”
“He created man from sounding clay like unto pottery, And He created Jinns from fire free of smoke:”
How the commentators read it
Ibn Kathir, a 14th-century scholar, and al-Qurtubi, a 13th-century scholar, read the verse this way centuries before modern astronomy. Ibn Kathir explains the lamps as the planets and fixed stars. Fixed stars are the ordinary stars, which keep their places relative to each other, unlike the planets. He says "them" means lamps as a kind, not those very lamps. The devils, he says, are not pelted with the stars in the sky but with flames below them. Al-Qurtubi reads "We made their flames (shuhub) missiles", with the word "flames" understood, and takes his proof from 37:10. On this reading, he says, the lamps neither pass away nor are thrown. He also reports a second view: "them" means the stars, but the star itself does not fall. Something separates from it, without lessening its light. Where the flame comes from was these scholars' own reasoning. Ibn Kathir says the flames may be drawn from the stars, and adds "Allah knows best". The Qur'an calls the missile a flame and does not say where it comes from. Al-Tabari explains the flame of 37:10 as bright and blazing. He reports al-Suddi, an early commentator: a flame that burns the devil when he is pelted with it.
Explains the lamps as the planets and fixed stars placed in the lowest heaven. He says "We have made them missiles" refers to lamps as a kind, not to the lamps themselves, because the devils are not pelted with the stars that are in the sky but with shooting flames below them, which may be drawn from them; and Allah knows best.
Explains the lamps as the stars, called lamps because they give light. He reads "We made them missiles for the devils" as "We made their flames (shuhub) missiles", with the word "flames" understood, and gives as his proof 37:10, where the eavesdropper is pursued by a piercing flame; on this reading, he says, the lamps neither pass away nor are thrown. He also reports a second view, which Abu Ali gave to someone who asked how the stars can be an adornment if they are missiles that do not last: "them" refers to the lamps, but the star itself does not fall; something separates from it and is thrown, without lessening its light or its form. He also quotes al-Qushayri, who thought it better than Abu Ali's answer to say that the stars are an adornment before the devils are pelted with them.
Explains the shihab thaqib that pursues the eavesdropper as a bright, blazing flame, and says the interpreters said the like. Among the reports he gives, al-Suddi says it is a bright flame that burns the devil when he is pelted with it, and Ibn Zayd that thaqib means kindled, as a man says "kindle your fire".
Near flames, far stars
Al-Qurtubi also records how two earlier scholars, al-Naqqash and Makki (Qur'an scholars of the 10th and 11th centuries), told the missiles apart from the stars. The pelting "stars" are the ones people see swooping down. Their motion can be seen because they are near to us. The motion of the stars that run their courses is not seen. He adds that the fixed stars do move, but their motion is not seen because they are so far away. He also reports the scholars' two explanations of a swooping star. It may be as it looks, and turn to fire when it reaches the devil. Or the devil may be pelted with a flame of fire from the air, which looks to us like a star travelling by night. So these scholars placed the missiles near the earth and the stars far beyond them.
Says that the pelting stars are the ones people see swooping down, and quotes al-Naqqash and Makki: these are not the stars that run their courses in the sky, because the motion of those cannot be seen, while the motion of the pelting ones can be seen, because they are near to us. He adds that the flames are not among the fixed stars, since their movement is seen, while the fixed stars move but their movement is not seen because of their distance. He explains thaqib as bright.
Explains a shihab as a bright star (kawkab), so called because its glitter is like fire, and says that in the language a shihab is a blazing fire. He reports the scholars giving two explanations of the swooping stars we see: they may be as they appear and become fire when they reach the devil, or the devils may be pelted with a flame of fire from the air, which looks to us like a star travelling by night.
A shooting star in the hadith
A man of the Ansar, the Muslims of Medina who took in the Prophet (ﷺ), told Ibn Abbas about one night. Ibn Abbas was a Companion and the Prophet's (ﷺ) cousin. The Companions were sitting with the Prophet (ﷺ) when a star was thrown and shone out. The Arabic word is najm, a star, just as English says shooting star. No one takes either to mean that a sun has fallen. The Prophet (ﷺ) asked what they used to say of such a sight before Islam. They said they used to say: tonight a great man was born, and a great man died. He told them it is not thrown for anyone's death or birth. The jinn who snatch what they overhear from heaven, he said, are pelted with it. He said the same of the eclipse on the day his own son died. The sun and moon, he said, are eclipsed for no one's death or birth.
Ibn Abbas reports that a man of the Ansar, one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) Companions, told him that one night, as they sat with the Prophet, a star was thrown and shone out. The Prophet asked what they used to say before Islam when such a star was thrown. They said they used to say that a great man had been born that night and a great man had died. He told them it is not thrown for anyone's death or birth. When our Lord decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him, then the dwellers of each heaven in turn, and the news is passed down from heaven to heaven until it reaches the lowest; the jinn snatch what they can overhear and throw it to their allies, and they are pelted with it. What they pass on as it was is true, but they mix lies into it and add to it.
Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba reports that the sun eclipsed on the day the Prophet's (ﷺ) son Ibrahim died, and people said it had eclipsed because of Ibrahim's death. The Prophet said that the sun and the moon do not eclipse for the death or the birth of anyone, and told them to pray and call on Allah when they see an eclipse.
Commentators who took the stars as missiles
Some commentators did take the stars themselves as the missiles. Al-Tabari restates the verse that way. He also reports the Successor Qatada: God (﷾) created the stars as an adornment, as missiles for the devils, and as signs. Al-Qurtubi quotes al-Qushayri, an earlier scholar, too: the stars are an adornment before the devils are pelted with them. None of them says how the pelting happens. Al-Tabari speaks as the hadith does, where a meteor is a thrown star. He explains the flames of 72:8 as "the stars with which the devils were pelted". Qatada's words are a Successor's opinion, not a saying of the Prophet (ﷺ). A commentator's reading is not the verse. The Qur'an's own word for the missile is a flame.
Explains the lamps as the stars, called lamps because they give light, and restates the verse: God made the lamps with which He adorned the lowest heaven missiles for the devils, with which they are pelted. He then reports the Successor Qatada: God created these stars for three things, as an adornment for the lowest heaven, as missiles for the devils and as signs to guide by; whoever reads anything else into them speaks from his own opinion, misses his share, loses his portion, and takes on what he has no knowledge of.
“'And we pried into the secrets of heaven; but we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. 'We used, indeed, to sit there in (hidden) stations, to (steal) a hearing; but any who listen now will find a flaming fire watching him in ambush.”
Explains the shuhub of 72:8, the plural of shihab, as the stars with which the devils were pelted, and says the interpreters said the like. On 72:9 he explains the flame lying in wait as a flame of fire set in wait for the listener.
Explains the lamps as the stars, called lamps because they give light. He reads "We made them missiles for the devils" as "We made their flames (shuhub) missiles", with the word "flames" understood, and gives as his proof 37:10, where the eavesdropper is pursued by a piercing flame; on this reading, he says, the lamps neither pass away nor are thrown. He also reports a second view, which Abu Ali gave to someone who asked how the stars can be an adornment if they are missiles that do not last: "them" refers to the lamps, but the star itself does not fall; something separates from it and is thrown, without lessening its light or its form. He also quotes al-Qushayri, who thought it better than Abu Ali's answer to say that the stars are an adornment before the devils are pelted with them.
Ibn Abbas reports that a man of the Ansar, one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) Companions, told him that one night, as they sat with the Prophet, a star was thrown and shone out. The Prophet asked what they used to say before Islam when such a star was thrown. They said they used to say that a great man had been born that night and a great man had died. He told them it is not thrown for anyone's death or birth. When our Lord decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him, then the dwellers of each heaven in turn, and the news is passed down from heaven to heaven until it reaches the lowest; the jinn snatch what they can overhear and throw it to their allies, and they are pelted with it. What they pass on as it was is true, but they mix lies into it and add to it.
Meteors before Islam
The jinn in 72:8-9 say they found heaven filled with guards and flames. They say whoever listens now meets a flame lying in wait. That describes a stronger guard, not the first meteor. Sahih al-Bukhari 4921 describes the same change from the jinn's side. The Prophet (ﷺ) had set out for the market of 'Ukaz. By then the devils had been cut off from the news of heaven, and flames had been sent against them. Some of the jinn who searched for the cause found him leading the dawn prayer, and heard the Qur'an. The hadith of the meteor shows that the Arabs had watched meteors before Islam and read them as omens. Al-Qurtubi reports that the early generations differed on whether the devils were pelted before the Prophet's (ﷺ) mission. Some said no star was thrown in the centuries between Jesus and the Prophet (ﷺ). Al-Qurtubi judges the other view sounder, and the view of most. The devils were pelted before, and the guard was increased when the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent. That, he says, is what "filled" means. He also suggests how the reports agree. Before the mission the devils were pelted at some times and from some sides. After it they were pelted from every side.
“'And we pried into the secrets of heaven; but we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. 'We used, indeed, to sit there in (hidden) stations, to (steal) a hearing; but any who listen now will find a flaming fire watching him in ambush.”
Ibn Abbas reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) set out with a group of his Companions for the market of 'Ukaz. By then the devils had been cut off from the news of heaven, and flames had been sent against them. The devils went back and said so, and were told that only something that had happened could have cut them off, and to search the east and the west of the earth. Those who went towards Tihama came upon the Prophet at Nakhla, leading his Companions in the dawn prayer. They listened to the Qur'an and said that this was what had cut them off from the news of heaven. Then God revealed to the Prophet the words of the jinn, at the opening of Surat al-Jinn.
Ibn Abbas reports that a man of the Ansar, one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) Companions, told him that one night, as they sat with the Prophet, a star was thrown and shone out. The Prophet asked what they used to say before Islam when such a star was thrown. They said they used to say that a great man had been born that night and a great man had died. He told them it is not thrown for anyone's death or birth. When our Lord decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him, then the dwellers of each heaven in turn, and the news is passed down from heaven to heaven until it reaches the lowest; the jinn snatch what they can overhear and throw it to their allies, and they are pelted with it. What they pass on as it was is true, but they mix lies into it and add to it.
Reports that the early generations differed on whether the devils were pelted before the Prophet's (ﷺ) mission or only from then on. He gives the view that the pelting happened before it and was increased at the mission, which he says is what "filled" means in 72:8 and is the view of most, and he judges it the sounder view, because of 72:8 and because of the report of Ibn Abbas that the Companions had taken meteors, before Islam, as a sign that a great man had been born or had died.
Says that the scholars differed on whether the pelting came before the Prophet's (ﷺ) mission, or after it and because of it. He suggests a way to reconcile the reports: those who said the devils were not pelted with stars before the mission meant that they were not pelted so as to be cut off from hearing. They were pelted at some times and not at others, and from some sides and not from others, and "cast away from every side" (37:8) may point to this. When the Prophet was sent, the guarding of heaven was increased, and flames that had not been there before were made ready for them, so that they were driven from every side of heaven.
Why heaven is guarded
The guard belongs to the Qur'an's teaching about revelation. It says the devils did not bring down the revelation and could not. They have been removed far from even a chance of hearing it. The hadith of the meteor describes what the eavesdroppers are after: news of what God (﷾) decrees, passed down from heaven to heaven. They snatch it and throw it to their allies, mixed with lies. In Sahih Muslim it stands among the reports that forbid soothsaying, which is claiming to know the unseen. Critics say the eavesdropping jinn come from the beliefs of pagan Arabia, whose soothsayers claimed that jinn brought them news from heaven. The Qur'an does not endorse the soothsayers. It says the devils descend on every lying, wicked person, and that most of them are liars. The flames are sent against those who try to steal from heaven, so the revelation cannot reach a soothsayer. The Qur'an answers that claim from the jinn's own mouth. They say they used to sit and listen, and now a flame lies in wait (72:9). So it explains the soothsayers' claim, and puts the revelation beyond their reach.
“No evil ones have brought down this (Revelation): It would neither suit them nor would they be able (to produce it). Indeed they have been removed far from even (a chance of) hearing it.”
“Shall I inform you, (O people!), on whom it is that the evil ones descend? They descend on every lying, wicked person, (Into whose ears) they pour hearsay vanities, and most of them are liars.”
Ibn Abbas reports that a man of the Ansar, one of the Prophet's (ﷺ) Companions, told him that one night, as they sat with the Prophet, a star was thrown and shone out. The Prophet asked what they used to say before Islam when such a star was thrown. They said they used to say that a great man had been born that night and a great man had died. He told them it is not thrown for anyone's death or birth. When our Lord decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him, then the dwellers of each heaven in turn, and the news is passed down from heaven to heaven until it reaches the lowest; the jinn snatch what they can overhear and throw it to their allies, and they are pelted with it. What they pass on as it was is true, but they mix lies into it and add to it.
“'And we pried into the secrets of heaven; but we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. 'We used, indeed, to sit there in (hidden) stations, to (steal) a hearing; but any who listen now will find a flaming fire watching him in ambush.”
What can be tested, and what cannot
There is one fair test for what any scripture says about the sky. What can be seen and measured can be checked: a distance, a size, the order of the planets. An unseen purpose cannot. The Puranas, Hindu scriptures of the smriti (remembered tradition) layer, make many claims of the first kind. The Vishnu Purana gives the sun's distance from the earth in leagues, an old measure of distance. It puts the moon as far again beyond the sun. Figures like these can be checked against the sky. Qur'an 67:5 and the verses beside it speak of two things anyone can see. They are the lights that adorn the night sky and the flames that streak across it. They give no distance or size for either, and no order of the planets. Then they say what the flames are for. The Qur'an speaks of the wind the same way. God (﷾) sends the winds as heralds of good news and to carry the ships, though the winds follow the physics of the air. A regular cause and a purpose are not rivals. Meteors can be seen on most clear nights, and some showers return every year, as the earth crosses the dusty trail a comet has left. The God (﷾) who sends the wind by the laws of the air can send a flame by the laws of falling dust.
“Among His Signs is this, that He sends the Winds, as heralds of Glad Tidings, giving you a taste of His (Grace and) Mercy,- that the ships may sail (majestically) by His Command and that ye may seek of His Bounty: in order that ye may be grateful.”
“The solar orb is situated a hundred thousand leagues from the earth; and that of the moon an equal distance from the sun. At the same interval above the moon occurs the orbit of all the lunar constellations. The planet Budha (Mercury) is two hundred thousand leagues above the lunar mansions.”
Explains that meteoroids are space rocks ranging from dust grains to small asteroids, and that when they enter the earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up they are called meteors, or "shooting stars". Several meteors an hour can usually be seen on any clear night. Some meteor showers come every year, or at regular intervals, as the earth passes through the dusty trail a comet has left; the Perseids, which peak around 12 August, are pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Unseen is not the same as false
A critic may call the purpose unfalsifiable, which means it cannot be tested. It is. So is every claim about the unseen in every religion. Examples are that the soul outlives the body, or that there are angels, devas (divine beings in Hinduism) or jinn. Unfalsifiable does not mean false. It means observation cannot settle the matter. The Qur'an itself says that none in the heavens or on earth knows the unseen except Allah (﷾). This page makes no scientific claim for the verse. It shows that where the verse speaks of what can be seen, it says nothing false.
“Say: None in the heavens or on earth, except Allah, knows what is hidden: nor can they perceive when they shall be raised up (for Judgment).”
The objections answered
Qur'an 67:5 — Surat al-Mulk (The Sovereignty), verse 5
“And we have, (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with Lamps, and We have made such (Lamps) (as) missiles to drive away the Evil Ones, and have prepared for them the Penalty of the Blazing Fire.”
Cited for
Stars are suns, far beyond the earth, and they cannot be thrown at anything. A verse that turns the stars into missiles is simply wrong.
The response
The verse says the lamps adorn the lowest heaven and that God (﷾) made them missiles. It never says that a star leaves the sky. The parallel verses name what pursues the devil: a flame, "of piercing brightness" in 37:10. Ibn Kathir says the devils are pelted not with the stars in the sky but with flames below them. Al-Qurtubi says that on his reading the lamps neither pass away nor are thrown.
Where it lands — The Qur'an's missiles are flames in the lowest heaven. No verse on the guarding of heaven says that a star leaves the sky.
Qur'an 67:5 — Surat al-Mulk (The Sovereignty), verse 5
“And we have, (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with Lamps, and We have made such (Lamps) (as) missiles to drive away the Evil Ones, and have prepared for them the Penalty of the Blazing Fire.”
Cited for
In the Arabic, "them" in "We made them missiles" points back to the lamps, so the stars themselves are the missiles. Some early commentators read it that way.
The response
Ibn Kathir answers this directly: the pronoun stands for lamps as a kind, not those very lamps. The devils, he says, are not pelted with the stars in the sky. Al-Qurtubi reads "We made their flames (shuhub) missiles", with the word "flames" understood, and takes his proof from 37:10. He also reports a second view, which refers "them" to the stars but says the star itself does not fall. Something separates from it and is thrown. Some did read it as the critic does. Al-Qurtubi quotes one of them, al-Qushayri: the stars are an adornment before the devils are pelted with them. But a commentator's reading is not the verse. The Qur'an's own parallel verses say what is thrown: a flame.
Where it lands — However the pronoun is read, the Qur'an's parallel verses name the missile, and it is a flame, not a star leaving the sky.
Tafsir al-Tabari, on 67:5
Explains the lamps as the stars, called lamps because they give light, and restates the verse: God made the lamps with which He adorned the lowest heaven missiles for the devils, with which they are pelted. He then reports the Successor Qatada: God created these stars for three things, as an adornment for the lowest heaven, as missiles for the devils and as signs to guide by; whoever reads anything else into them speaks from his own opinion, misses his share, loses his portion, and takes on what he has no knowledge of.
Cited for
Rujum means things thrown. The early commentator al-Tabari reads the verse as making the lamps that adorn the lowest heaven the missiles. He reports the Successor Qatada: God created the stars as an adornment, as missiles for the devils and as signs to guide by. Al-Bukhari quotes Qatada's words too, in a chapter heading of his Sahih. So the stars themselves are the missiles, and the reading "flames" came later.
The response
Al-Tabari and Qatada restate the Qur'an's own words, and neither says how the pelting happens. Al-Tabari speaks as the hadith does, where a meteor is a thrown star. He explains the flames (shuhub) of 72:8 as "the stars with which the devils were pelted", and the flame of 37:10 as bright and blazing. Qatada's words are a Successor's opinion. In al-Bukhari they stand in a chapter heading, with no hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ) under it. And the flame is no later idea. It is the Qur'an's own word for the missile in 15:18, 37:10 and 72:8-9.
Where it lands — Al-Tabari and Qatada restate the Qur'an's words without saying how the pelting happens. The Qur'an's own word for the missile is a flame.
NASA, "Meteors and Meteorites: Facts"
Explains that meteoroids are space rocks ranging from dust grains to small asteroids, and that when they enter the earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up they are called meteors, or "shooting stars". Several meteors an hour can usually be seen on any clear night. Some meteor showers come every year, or at regular intervals, as the earth passes through the dusty trail a comet has left; the Perseids, which peak around 12 August, are pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Cited for
A meteor is a grain of dust or a small rock from space burning up in the earth's air. It is a natural event, not a weapon aimed at devils.
The response
The Qur'an does not deny what a meteor is made of. It calls the missile a flame, and a meteor is exactly that to the eye: a streak of fire across the lowest heaven. What the Qur'an adds is what God (﷾) uses it for. Knowing how a thing happens does not show that it has no purpose. The Qur'an says God (﷾) sends the winds as heralds of good news, though they follow the physics of the air.
Where it lands — Science says what a meteor is; the Qur'an says what it is for. The two do not conflict.
NASA, "Meteors and Meteorites: Facts"
Explains that meteoroids are space rocks ranging from dust grains to small asteroids, and that when they enter the earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up they are called meteors, or "shooting stars". Several meteors an hour can usually be seen on any clear night. Some meteor showers come every year, or at regular intervals, as the earth passes through the dusty trail a comet has left; the Perseids, which peak around 12 August, are pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Cited for
Meteor showers come on the same nights every year, when the earth crosses the dust a comet has left behind. Something that regular is not aimed at anyone.
The response
The Qur'an gives purposes to the most regular events in nature. It says God (﷾) sends the winds as heralds of good news and to carry the ships. A regular cause and a purpose are not rivals. Nor do the Qur'an or the hadith make meteors signs about people on earth. The Prophet (ﷺ) rejected that very idea: he said they are not thrown for anyone's death or birth. The only target they name is the eavesdropper in the unseen.
Where it lands — A regular law of nature and a purpose given by its Maker go together in the Qur'an, as they do for the wind.
Qur'an 37:6-10 — Surat al-Saffat (Those drawn up in Ranks), verses 6-10
“We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars,- (For beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious evil spirits, (So) they should not strain their ears in the direction of the Exalted Assembly but be cast away from every side, Repulsed, for they are under a perpetual penalty, Except such as snatch away something by stealth, and they are pursued by a flaming fire, of piercing brightness.”
Cited for
Devils eavesdropping on heaven cannot be observed or tested. A claim that cannot be tested is worthless.
The response
It cannot be tested. Neither can any claim about the unseen in any religion: that the soul outlives the body, or that there are angels, devas or jinn. That does not make such claims false. It means observation cannot settle them. This page makes no scientific claim for the verse. It shows that where the verse speaks of what can be seen, it says nothing false.
Where it lands — Where the verse speaks of what can be seen, it says nothing false. Its purpose belongs to the unseen, which the Qur'an says only Allah (﷾) knows.
Qur'an 37:6-10 — Surat al-Saffat (Those drawn up in Ranks), verses 6-10
“We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars,- (For beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious evil spirits, (So) they should not strain their ears in the direction of the Exalted Assembly but be cast away from every side, Repulsed, for they are under a perpetual penalty, Except such as snatch away something by stealth, and they are pursued by a flaming fire, of piercing brightness.”
Cited for
Critics ask why an all-knowing God would speak of meteors as missiles against devils. They say it is a belief of pagan Arabia, where soothsayers claimed that jinn brought them news from heaven.
The response
The soothsayers claimed news from heaven through the jinn, and people read meteors as omens of a great man's birth or death. The Qur'an and the Prophet (ﷺ) answer both. The jinn themselves say they used to listen, and that now a flame lies in wait (72:9). The revelation is guarded, and the devils are kept far from even a chance of hearing it. The Qur'an says they descend on every lying, wicked person, and most of them are liars. None but Allah (﷾) knows the unseen. The Prophet (ﷺ) told his Companions that a meteor is thrown for no one's death or birth. In Sahih Muslim that hadith stands among the reports that forbid soothsaying.
Where it lands — The verses do not endorse the soothsayers: they put the revelation beyond the devils' reach and call those the devils descend on liars. The Prophet (ﷺ) used a meteor to end an old omen.
Qur'an 72:8-9 — Surat al-Jinn (The Jinn), verses 8-9
“'And we pried into the secrets of heaven; but we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. 'We used, indeed, to sit there in (hidden) stations, to (steal) a hearing; but any who listen now will find a flaming fire watching him in ambush.”
Cited for
The jinn say they used to listen and now meet flames, as if meteors began with the Prophet (ﷺ). Sahih al-Bukhari 4921 says flames were sent against the devils in his time. Early reports say no star was thrown before. But meteors fell long before him.
The response
The verse says the jinn found heaven filled with guards and flames, and that whoever listens now meets a flame lying in wait. That is a stronger guard, not the first meteor. Sahih al-Bukhari 4921 tells the same change from the jinn's side. They had been cut off from the news of heaven, and flames sent against them, so they searched for what had happened. Neither text says that no meteor had fallen before. The Companions told the Prophet (ﷺ) that before Islam they had taken meteors as signs of a great man's birth or death. The early reports that no star was thrown before are neither the Qur'an nor the Prophet's (ﷺ) words. Al-Qurtubi judges it the sounder view, and the view of most, that devils were pelted before the mission. He suggests that they were pelted then at some times and from some sides, and after it from every side.
Where it lands — The Qur'an speaks of a guard made stronger at the Prophet's (ﷺ) mission, not of meteors beginning then.
Qur'an 55:14-15 — Surat al-Rahman (The Beneficent), verses 14-15
“He created man from sounding clay like unto pottery, And He created Jinns from fire free of smoke:”
Cited for
Critics say the Qur'an makes the jinn out of fire, so a flame could not harm them.
The response
The Qur'an says man was made from clay and the jinn from fire. That is what each was made from, not a promise that nothing can harm it. A man made from clay is still hurt by a thrown brick. And 67:5 itself says that the Penalty of the Blazing Fire is prepared for the devils.
Where it lands — Being made from fire does not make the jinn safe from fire. Being made from clay does not make a man safe from a brick.
Perspectives
The critic's reading
Qur'an 67:5 makes the lamps of the sky, the stars, into missiles against devils. Stars are distant suns that cannot be thrown. A shooting star is only a grain of dust or rock burning up in the air. So, say critics, the verse mistakes meteors for stars.
Qur'an 67:5 says God adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and made them missiles against the devils.
Rebuttal
The verse does say this. But it never says that a star leaves the sky. The parallel verses name the missile, a flame, and Ibn Kathir reads "them" as lamps of that kind, not those very lamps.
Ibn Kathir explains the lamps of 67:5 as the planets and fixed stars.
Rebuttal
True. The same Ibn Kathir says the devils are not pelted with the stars in the sky but with flames below them. For him "them" means lamps as a kind, not those very lamps.
Al-Tabari takes the lamps that adorn the lowest heaven to be the missiles. And he reports Qatada's words: the stars were created as adornment, as missiles, and as signs.
Rebuttal
Some did read it so, but neither says how the pelting happens. Like the hadith, al-Tabari calls the flames of 72:8 "the stars with which the devils were pelted", as a meteor is a thrown star. Qatada's words are a Successor's opinion, and the Qur'an's own word for the missile is a flame.
A shooting star is a meteor. It is a meteoroid, a grain of dust or a small rock from space, burning up in the earth's atmosphere.
Rebuttal
That is true, and the Qur'an does not deny it. It calls the missile a flame, and to the eye a meteor is a streak of fire across the sky. Knowing how a thing happens does not show it has no purpose, as with the winds.
The verse therefore mistakes meteors for stars and gives them a purpose from myth.
Rebuttal
The verse never says a star leaves the sky. And the Qur'an's own word for the missile is a flame. The Qur'an answers the fortune-tellers from the jinn's own mouth: they once listened, and now a flame lies in wait (72:9). It says the devils come down on liars. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said a meteor is thrown for no one's death or birth.
The Islamic perspective
Qur'an 67:5 describes what anyone can see: lights that adorn the night sky, and flames that streak across it. Its missiles are those flames. An authentic hadith calls them thrown stars, just as English calls them shooting stars. The stars themselves are not thrown, as Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi explain. The purpose the verse gives belongs to the unseen, which no observation can test. The verses teach that heaven is guarded, and that the devils are kept far from hearing the revelation. And the Prophet (ﷺ) used a meteor to correct an old omen: it is thrown for no one's death or birth.
Qur'an 67:5 says God (﷾) adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and made them missiles. It does not say that any lamp leaves the sky.
The Qur'an names what drives off the eavesdropping devils a shihab, a flame. It uses the same word for a burning brand from a fire.
Ibn Kathir says the devils are pelted not with the stars in the sky but with flames below them.
Al-Qurtubi reads the missiles as the lamps' flames. He says that on this reading the lamps neither pass away nor are thrown.
Al-Qurtubi records that the pelting stars are near and seen to move. The stars that run their courses are far away, so their motion is not seen.
In Sahih Muslim, a Companion describes a meteor as a thrown star. The Prophet (ﷺ) says it is not thrown for anyone's death or birth. And he says it is used to pelt the jinn who listen in secret at heaven.
The verse gives no distance or size for the lights of the sky, and no order of the planets.
The Qur'an gives purposes to regular events in nature. For example, it says God (﷾) sends the winds as heralds of good news and to carry the ships.
A regular natural cause does not rule out a purpose. And no observation can prove or disprove the purpose these verses give.
Qur'an 72:8 says heaven was found filled with guards and flames. Al-Qurtubi explains this as a guard that was increased when the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent. And he judges it the sounder view that devils were pelted before then too.
The Qur'an teaches that heaven is guarded, so that the devils cannot listen to the Exalted Assembly. It teaches that they are kept far from hearing the revelation. And it teaches that no one but Allah (﷾) knows the unseen.