Who were these people?

[ShahnazZ]

:salam2: I hope you are all in the best state of health and Iman.

Recently, an uncle of mine told me a story regarding Jibril a.s. and a group of people that knew magic. The emphasis was particularly on astronomy and how this particular civilization had somehow learned how to use the stars to predict the future. Without going into too many details, this civilization was also supposedly one of the ancient civilizations that had received the Divine Punishment and the town had been eradicated by Jibril a.s.

Now, regardless of all the research I've done, I haven't found proof of this incident occurring anywhere or of any civilization that practiced astronomy to such an extent. Before anyone mentions them, I don't think this has anything to do with the case of the angels Harut and Marut since I haven't seen any mention of Jibril a.s. in their story but I could be wrong. I asked my uncle if it was possible that he was mistaken about this story since he couldn't tell me what town or civilization it was or if there was a prophet sent to them, but he told me that this story was actually related to him and others by an Imam during a Jummah khutba at his masjid.

Any information on this would be appreciated.

JazakAllah khair!

 

[muslimda3ee]

:salam2:

The ones who worshipped the stars are the sabians. there name is الصَّابِئُونَ, in Arabic.

sayidna Ibrahim, as, meet people(who worshiped stars) on his migration too after he left the people that threw him in the fire. He tried to reason with them, and bring them to guidance.

Sabians destruction, if there was, I don't know. And I don't believe they were destroyed. As Allah, swt says in Surat Almaida(5) verse 69, that they will be spared if they believe in Allah and his Prophet, Muhammad, PBUH. If they were destroyed then there would of been no reference to them accepting the message.

It could be possible that your uncle is mixing up the destruction of the people of Lut, as. That is when Jibreel, puh, meet the prophet Ibrahim, as, as a human form and told his wife, that she will bear a child, also he informed the prophet, that he was on his way to prophet lut, as; to destroy the people. Prophet Ibrahim, as, was saddened as he feared for lut. The angel, jibreel, pbh, said he will spare lut and his children.

really I have no time right now to be very thorough in explaination, but posted to get you in the right direction. Basically, we know from the Quran, there is mentioning of people worshiping the stars. One the Sabians and the others that prophet Ibrahim, as, came across them in his travels.

wa Allah ya'lam

 

[ShahnazZ]

The Sabians are mentioned in the Quran as a former group of Ahl Al-Kitab.

“Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians [wa’l-saabi’een ], whoever believes in Allaah and the Last Day and does righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”

[al-Baqarah 2:62]

According to my research, not much is known about them except that they followed the Zabur given to Sayyidina Dawud a.s. They were supposedly a "kind of Christian." They were said to have followed a monotheistic faith. Regarding the star-worshipping, some of them believed the angels dwelled in different stars and often "spoke" to them. Some of them were hanifs and others were mushriks.

I don't believe this is the group my uncle was speaking about since I also doubt they received any Divine Punishment as they were formerly included as part of the Ahl Al-Kitab.

I also don't think he was confused with the people of Sayyidina Lut a.s. MashAllah, he's extremely learned when it comes to Islam and he wouldn't have confused the two stories.

JazakAllah khair for your input. Your mentioning the Sabians is now making me wonder about the Magians lol. I'll look them up.

 

[muslimda3ee]

:salam2:

well it sounds like to me then it must be a Harun Yahya story. Where he tried to tie in the destruction of the Romans, Pompie, to the Quran.

I remember seeing it in Arabic a long time ago. But I never paid it any attention. I can't even remember much of what was said in the documentary.

The Romans/Greeks, pre Jesus, PBUH, used to follow the Greek Gods system, where they named the planets and start alignments, as Gods. And he somehow tied, the destruction of pompie, into a description given in the Quran. But I never heard any sheiks discuss it. I never verified what he said either.

But that might possibly be the source your uncle is implying.


side note: "Artemis" : was described as the Moon Goddess, by some of the Greeks. I am not 100% sure, but I remember reading that somewhere. kind of gives you a feel of things lately.

 

[ahmed_indian]

when the ppl can put lies in taurat and injeel, when the ppl can bring fabricated hadiths....its not difficult for them to make-up stories.

wht i mean is it might be true or false. maybe they added/deleted frm the real incident and brought up this.

better to ask for the source frm the imam (if possible) and verify it.

and Allah knows best.