When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was finally sent, they released their livestock and set their slaves free.

ʿAbd Yā Layl said, “Look carefully: if the stars being struck are the ones you recognize, it portends mankind’s extinction; but if they are unknown, then some new affair has arisen.” They looked and saw that the stars were indeed unfamiliar. He therefore said, “Hold back.” They restrained themselves, and only a short while passed before news of the Prophet’s emergence ﷺ reached them.

Al-Bayhaqī (1) and al-Ḥākim relate—through the route of al-ʿAwfī—from Ibn ʿAbbās: “During the interval between Jesus and Muḥammad—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them—the sky nearest the earth was not guarded.” Those who negated its being guarded must mean that it was not guarded with stringent vigilance, and the wording should be understood in that sense, for an authentic ḥadīth (2) recorded by ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) states:

“While the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting, a star was hurled and blazed brightly. He asked, ‘What did you used to say when this occurred?’ They replied, ‘We would say that a great man has died or a great man has been born.’ He said, ‘No; rather…’ ” and he went on to narrate the rest of the report as already cited when speaking of the creation of the heavens and the stars they contain at the very beginning of creation—and to Allah belongs all praise (3).

Ibn Isḥāq, in the Sīrah (4), also recounts the episode of the shooting stars and reports that the elder of Thaqīf said to his people, while observing the sky, “Whether they are the well-known signs of heaven or something else” (5); yet he names that elder as ʿAmr ibn Umayyah. Allah knows best.

Al-Suddi said: “The sky is guarded only when a prophet is on earth or Allah’s religion is manifest. Before Muḥammad ﷺ the devils had taken their seats in the lowest heaven, listening to whatever commands were issued there. When Allah sent Muḥammad ﷺ as a prophet they were pelted one night, and the people of al-Ṭāʾif were terrified. They cried, ‘The inhabitants of heaven have perished!’ because of the fierce flames and the erratic shooting stars they saw, and they began freeing their slaves and turning their livestock loose.

ʿAbd Yā Layl ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUmayr said to them, ‘Woe to you, people of al-Ṭāʾif! Keep hold of your possessions and examine the constellations. If you find them fixed in their positions, the people of heaven have not perished; rather, the matter comes from Ibn Abī Kabshah. But if you do not find them, then the people of heaven have indeed perished.’ They looked and saw the stars fixed, so they stopped squandering their wealth.

That same night the devils panicked and came to Iblīs. He said, ‘Bring me a handful of soil from every land.’ They brought it; he sniffed it and said, ‘Your man is in Mecca.’ He then dispatched seven jinn from Naṣībīn. They arrived in Mecca and found the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the Sacred Mosque, reciting the Qur’an.