Research Information System
Ankara Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakultesi Dergisi, vol.65, no.2, pp.869-901, 2024 (Scopus, TRDizin)
In this study, the verses in the Qur’an about celestial bodies are analysed within the framework of pre-Islamic Arab culture and beliefs. There are many verses in the Qur’an about the sky, celestial bodies and celestial events. This situation has brought along the problem of whether the phenomena related to the sky have an important counterpart in the masses who were the addressees of the revelation at the time of its revelation. The Qur’an does not aim to give scientific information about astronomy and meteorology. However, despite this, the fact that the Qur’an frequently includes some celestial elements makes it important and necessary to analyse the verses related to the sky in terms of the belief and cultural structure of the period. For this reason, this study aims to determine the general situation regarding the celestial bodies among the ignorant Arabs, to describe them briefly and to reveal the historical background on which the verses were revealed. It is aimed to draw attention to the fact that there is a strong relationship between the verses and the cosmological understanding and belief systems that constitute the conception of God and the universe of the interlocutors in the environment of their revelation. In this respect, the study is limited to the verses in the Qur’an in which the words shams, ḳamar, shi‘rā, najm/nujūm, kawkab/kawākib, burūj, shihāb, maṣābīḥ, falak, etc. appear. However, some verses that mention the subject of mughayyabāt khamsa and rain are included in the scope of the subject due to the fact that they contain information about the star cult in the ignorant period and the exploitation of the beliefs of the diviners about the stars. The understanding of an issue in the Qur’an is mostly based on the relationship between the ‘speaker-addressee and the word’ as of the period in which the verses were revealed. For this reason, in our study, the verses related to the celestial bodies are presented in a general integrity by centring on the cultural background of the addressee audience and the main goals and discourses of the Qur’an. In order to express how the interlocutors may have understood the verses, the customs and traditions of the pre-Islamic ignorance regarding the beliefs related to the celestial bodies are included and the subject is treated in a way to provide brief information by establishing the connection of the verses with this ground. Therefore, rather than classical exegetical research, the study represents a comprehensive approach to the ground on which the verses related to the celestial bodies were revealed, based on the information provided by the literature of anwā’, especially the literature of anwā’, jāhiliyya poetry, hadith, history, and siyar. As a result, the study reveals that the Qur’an, in the verses related to the celestial bodies, generally aims to correct and transform the polytheistic and astrological beliefs of the ignorance period in line with the tawhid belief.