Surah Al-Hijr (15) — Ayah 18

The tafsir of this verse may be read with the following verses.

18. 1. Its meaning is that the devils go to the heavens to eavesdrop, upon whom the shooting stars fall, from which some die and some are saved, and some manage to hear. In the hadith, its explanation comes as follows. The Prophet ﷺ says, "When Allah makes a decision in the heavens, the angels hear it and flutter their wings or arms, as if it is the sound of a chain on a rock. Then, when the fear of Allah is removed from the hearts of the angels, they ask each other, 'What did your Lord say?' They say, 'He said the truth, and He is the Most High, the Great.' (After this, Allah's decision is conveyed from above to below, one after another.) At this moment, the devils secretly listen. And these devils who secretly listen are positioned one above the other at short distances, and after hearing a part of the command, they whisper it into the ear of their friend, the astrologer or soothsayer, and he mixes it with a hundred lies and narrates it to the people." (Summarized. Sahih Bukhari, Tafsir Surah Al-Hijr)

18. But if a devil tries to eavesdrop, a bright flaming fire pursues him [9].

[9]
The Reality of the Shooting Star:

For the explanation of this verse, consider the following hadith: Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah ؓ says that the Prophet ﷺ said: When Allah Almighty decides a command in the heavens, the angels, in order to carry out His command, flutter their wings with utmost humility, producing a sound like the striking of a chain on a smooth stone. In this way, Allah conveys His message to the angels. Then, when the fear is removed from their hearts, the distant angels ask the nearer ones: What did your Lord say? They reply: He spoke the truth and decreed rightly. The (devils) who eavesdrop on these words hear them, and they go up one above another. Sometimes it happens that a flame of fire is thrown at the devil who is listening, and it burns him before he can convey the message to the devil below. And sometimes the flame reaches him after he has conveyed the message, so the upper devil succeeds in passing the message to the lower one. In this way, the message reaches the earth. Then that message is placed on the tongue of a soothsayer (magician, astrologer), who mixes a hundred lies with it and relates it to the people. Then, if any part of his statement turns out to be true, people say: Look, this astrologer told us that such and such would happen at such and such a time, and it turned out to be true. This is the statement that was stolen from the heavens. [بخاري۔ كتاب التفسير سورة سبا]

In this verse, the words "shihabun mubeen" are used, and in another place, the words [10: 37] are used, which mean a piercing, bright flame. At night, sometimes such flaming stars are seen, which in our language we call "falling stars," and we see a flame traveling rapidly through the sky and then suddenly extinguishing. It is possible that these are the very stars that burn and destroy the devils, which are nowadays called "shooting stars" in astronomical terminology, and which are produced in large numbers in the atmosphere. But most of them are lost in the atmosphere, and sometimes they fall to the earth. If all these stars were to fall to the earth, it might become impossible for humans to survive on this earth. This is only the system of Allah Almighty, Who keeps everything under His control. And it is also possible that the "shooting star" mentioned in the Book and Sunnah is of a different kind than the well-known shooting star, which human knowledge has not yet reached.