Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
SÛRAH LXXXV
Al-Burûj takes its name from a word in verse 1, which I have translated “mansions of the stars,” The word has the meaning of towers or mansions and is applied to the signs of the Zodiac. Verses 4 to 7 are generally taken to refer to the massacre of the Christians of Najrân in Al-Yaman by a Jewish king Dhû Nawâs, an event of great historical importance since it caused the intervention of the Negus and led to the Abyssinian supremacy in the Yaman which lasted until the War of the Elephant (Sûrah CV) in the Prophet’s year of birth. Professor Horowitz thinks that the words “owners of the ditch, of the fuel-fed fire” refer not to any historical event but to the condition of all persecutors in the hereafter.1
An early Meccan Sûrah.
The Mansions of The Stars
1. By the heaven, holding mansions of the stars,
2. And by the Promised Day.
3. And by the witness and that whereunto he beareth testimony,
4. (Self-)destroyed were the owners of the ditch
5. Of the fuel-fed fire,
6. When they sat by it,
7. And were themselves the witnesses of what they did to the believers.1
1 See “Islamic Culture” (Hyderabad, Deccan), April 1929.
2 Or it might be: “(Self-)destroyed were the owners of the trench of fuel-fed fire (i.e. hell) when they took their ease on earth and were themselves the witnesses,” etc.
