Jochen Katz wrote:
And We have (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with lamps,
and we have made such (Lamps as) missiles to drive away Satans, ...-- Sura 67:5
The above appears to be an adapted translation from Yusuf Ali. Usually Arberry is more literal in his translations; he translates this verse as:
And We adorned the lower heaven with lamps, and made them things to stone Satans; and We have prepared for them the chastisement of the Blaze.
Note that the Arberry translation does not say they are to "drive away" Satans; these words are also not found in the Pickthall or Asad translations.
We have indeed decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars, (for beauty) and for guard against all obstinate rebellious Satans.
(So) they should not strain their ears in the direction of the Exalted Assembly but be cast away from every side.
-- Sura 37:6-8
The above is from the Yusuf Ali translation.
See also Suras 15:16-18, 55:33-35 etc. which seem to speak about the same thing.
The stars were created by Allah as missiles to throw at the devils? In order to not let them eavesdrop on the heavenly coucil? Not exactly a "scientific" world view.
Jochen misinterprets the meaning of these verses. When they are understood correctly, we see that they constitute no problem regarding the Qur'an and science.
What is meant by these verses? Marmaduke Pickthall writes, in a short comment on 67:5 in his translation of the Qur'an:
On the authority of a tradition going back to Ibn `Abbas, the allusion is to the soothsayers and astrologers who saw the source of good and evil in the stars.
Muhammad Asad's commentary on 67:5, in his translation and commentary to the Qur'an, reports that Baydawi also said that the allusion here is to astrologers, who are here denoted as "Satanic" due to their misguidance in trying to foretell the future.
Given this information, a clear understanding presents itself. Astrologers and soothsayers observe celestial phenomena, such as the positions of the planets and stars in the sky, and occurrences such as meteors (or "shooting stars"), in order to try to foretell the future. However, the Qur'an replies to them, saying that these people are "Satanic." It furthermore says (in 67:5) that, rather than being a source of guidance for them, these celestial phenomena are there to "stone" them. This means, their misuse of celestial phenomena, and misguidance, will be a source of punishment for them on that Day when all will be held to account.
The other verses say that the heavens are made "secure" from these "Satanic" astrologers and soothsayers. Regarding this, Muhammad Asad, in his commentary on 15:17, writes:
The statement that God has made the heavens "secure" against such satanic forces obviously implies that He has made it impossible for the latter to obtain, through astrology or what is popularly described as "occult sciences," any real knowledge of "that which is beyond the reach of human perception" (al-ghayb).
Thus we see, that when properly understood, these verses present no problem regarding science, because they are not talking about celestial phenoema as objects of scientific study, but instead talking about celestial phenomena as sources of misguidance for soothsayers and astrologers. In brief, the Qur'an simply says about them that for astrologers, their misguidance regarding celestial phenomena will be a source of punishment for them, and that they can gain no information about the future by trying to look at the stars.
Fariduddien Rice