called a kāfir” (N. art. rajm). Thus a plain verse of the Holy Qur’ān which really condemns the practices of diviners and soothsayers has been misinterpreted to mean that the stars were used as missiles for the devils who went up to heaven. Reference to this subject is contained in two other places in the Holy Qur’ān: “Surely we have adorned the lower heaven with an adornment, the stars. And (there is) a safeguard against every rebellious devil. They cannot listen to the exalted assembly and they are reproached from every side, (being) driven off, and for them is a perpetual chastisement; except him who snatches away but once, then there follows him a brightly shining flame” (37:6-10). “And certainly We have made strongholds in the heaven and We have made it fair-seeming to the beholders, and We guard it against every accursed devil, but he who steals a hearing; so there follows him a brightly shining flame” (15:16-18).35 On both these occasions, the principle is again stated in forcible words that the soothsayers and diviners have no access to heaven or the stars on which they base their conjectures; it is they again who are here called the rebellious or accursed devils—“They cannot listen to the exalted assembly.” But we are also told that “they are reproached from every side, being driven off,” i.e., their own votaries do not honour them, and they are reproached because what they assert proves untrue and therefore they live in perpetual torture. And then there is an exception: “Except him who snatches off but once”. Now this snatching away of the soothsayers, after we are told that they are reproached from every side and driven off, clearly means nothing but that occasionally their conjecture turns out to be true. The same idea is expressed in the second verse by the words “he who steals a hearing.” It is of course not meant that the Divine secrets are being discussed aloud somewhere in heaven and that the devil is hiding and overhears them. Divine revelation, as already shown on the authority of the Holy Qur’ān, is entrusted to the Faithful Spirit, that is Gabriel, who, in turn, discloses it to the heart of the Holy Prophet — there is no question of overhearing in this process.36 It has also been established on the authority of the Holy Qur’ān that the devils cannot ascend to heaven, that they have no access to Divine secrets. It would, therefore, be a travesty of all these clearly established principles to say that the devils can overhear the Divine