from Abū Hurayrah in a report traced back to the Prophet: “The darkening one is the star.” Ibn Zayd said that it is the Pleiades. Diseases and plagues would become more prevalent when they set and subside when they rose. Some people have thought that this prophetic report conflicts with the interpretation that it means the night, so they treated it as a separate interpretation and explained its “settling” as its coming to rest.

Ibn Qutaybah said: “It is also said that the darkening one is the moon when it is eclipsed and turns black, and that ‘settles’ means that it enters an eclipse.”

This interpretation is weak. What the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said cannot be opposed by anyone else’s words, for he speaks only the truth. He did not instruct ‘Ā’ishah to seek refuge from the moon when it was eclipsed, but when it was visible. Allah Most High says:

“We made the night and the day two signs. We erased the sign of the night and made the sign of the day illuminating.”

The moon is the sign of the night. Likewise, the stars rise and become visible at night. His instruction to seek refuge from this is therefore an instruction to seek refuge from the sign of the night, which indicates it and marks its presence. The presence of an indicator necessarily entails the presence of what it indicates. Thus, when the evil of the moon is present, the evil of the night is present. The moon also has effects that other things do not, so there is all the more reason to seek refuge from the evil arising from it.

This is like his statement concerning the mosque founded upon piety:

“It is this mosque of mine.”

Yet the verse unquestionably includes the Mosque of Qubā’. Likewise, he said of those gathered beneath the cloak:

“These are the members of my household.”

Yet the Quran includes his wives within his household. Such singling out is because what is singled out has a greater claim to the description. Thus, of all things present at night, the moon most warrants seeking refuge from its evil. Night is dark, and roaming through it are the devils