The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 376
CH. 15 AL-HIJR seek to represent the teachings of the Prophets as their own. In this way they seek to deceive other people into believing that the Prophets have brought no new thing and that they too have access to that knowledge which the Prophets of God claim to possess. Some of them even go so far as to pretend that it is from them that the Prophets stole their knowledge. But, just as a stolen dress does not fit the body of the thief, similarly the teachings which are stolen from the Prophets do not fit in with the false beliefs of those who steal them and consequently their theft becomes easily exposed. مبين The words, But if anyone hears stealthily, make it clear that in verse 17 the words, "the heaven" represent the spiritual system, and not the physical firmament, for the stealing away of the Word of God has nothing to do with the physical heavens. The word (bright) which means both a thing that is bright in itself and a thing that illuminates others (2:169) and which has been added to the word (flame) in the present verse also, shows that the verse speaks of no physical or material flame. The physical (flame) either means a flame of fire or the light which appears in the sky and looks like a shooting star. It is superfluous to qualify a thing which itself is bright by the epithet (bright). But if the heavens be taken to mean the spiritual heavens and ✓ (flame) be taken as meaning a Prophet of God who brings with him the illuminating light of heavenly signs and fights the evil machinations of those who seek PT. 14 to tamper with the Word of God, then the word (bright) can be used as quite an appropriate adjective to the noun (flame), for in this case this word would express an additional idea by referring to the bright signs shown by the Prophets. Stars in these verses represent God's Prophets, while (bright flame) or (penetrating flame) occurring in 37:11 represent the Prophet of the day, for although every Prophet is a star and serves as an ornament for the spiritual heaven, yet every Prophet is not always acting as (flame) destroying the satans who tamper with religion. This is done only by the Prophet of the day or by a living Prophet whose prophet- hood knows no end and whose Law is always in force. When the people of the time of such a Prophet become corrupt and God raises from among his followers a Reformer or subordinate Prophet, in that case also the Master-Prophet is called a (flame), because it is his spiritual power and influence which works through the subordinate Prophet. According to this significance of the word, Moses, Jesus, and other past Prophets may indeed be called the stars of the spiritual heavens, but they cannot be called they have now ceased to be the means for the destruction of satans. But the epithet of (flame) will always apply to the Holy Prophet, for his mission will continue till the end of days and Divine Reformers will continue to be raised from among his followers who, by receiving spiritual power and influence from 1584 (flames), for