The worldly life is the nearest, because it is the closest of the heavens to the people. Its meaning is: the lowest heaven is from you. The lamps are the lights, and the stars are called by this name. People adorn their mosques and their homes with the openings of the lamps. It is said: 'And we have adorned the ceiling of the house in which you gathered with lamps, meaning with lamps whose illumination does not compare to your lamps.' We have also added to that other benefits: we have made them as missiles against your enemies, for the devils who lead you from light to darkness, and you are guided by them in the darkness of land and sea. Qatadah said: Allah created the stars for three purposes: as adornment for the sky, as missiles against the devils, and as signs by which to be guided. Whoever interprets them in any other way has taken on what he has no knowledge of. And from Muhammad ibn Ka'b: 'By Allah, in the sky there is no star for anyone among the people of the earth, but they seek divination and take the stars as an excuse.' The missiles are the plural of rujm, which is a source named for what is thrown. The meaning of them being missiles for the devils is that the shooting stars that descend to strike those who steal from the heavens are separate from the fire of the stars, not that they are stoned with the stars themselves, because they are fixed in their orbit as they are. This is only like a spark taken from a fire, and the fire is stable and complete, not diminishing. It is said: from the devils that are stoned is one whom the shooting star kills, and some of them are made mad. It is said: its meaning is that we have made them as assumptions and missiles of the unseen for the devils of mankind, who are the astrologers. Al-Zamakhshari took the devils literally and reported from some that its meaning is: 'And we have made them as assumptions and missiles of the unseen...' Ahmad said: 'This is an aside. When the warning of the devils was mentioned, it was an aside to the warning of the disbelievers in general, and Allah knows best.' And We have prepared for them the punishment of the blazing fire in the Hereafter after the punishment of being struck by shooting stars in this world.