…at yet another devoutly righteous, still another time an open sinner, then learned, then ignorant; at one moment forgetful and at the next mindful—yet none of these changes is ushered in by any celestial influence that would tip the scale toward one of the two opposing conditions. Even within a single land, a single town, or a single region, people’s inner states vary dramatically, although the town’s ascendant has not altered and the newly occurring heavenly configurations may be virtually identical. A full exposition of this belongs elsewhere.

If some imagine that everything beneath the celestial sphere has no cause except the shifting aspects of the heavens and the conjunctions of the stars, theirs is among the most corrupt of claims; hence the adherents of this view are among the most ignorant, mendacious, self-contradictory, and bewildered of people.

The bewilderment of astronomers over the Kaʿba and the awe and majesty it commands:

Precisely because of this, they have been confounded by Mecca—may Allah exalt it—and by the supposed ascendant under which, in their reckoning, the city was founded: how it has enjoyed such immense felicity and preserved this majestic House through the long sweep of centuries. No one has ever meant it harm without Allah’s vengeance overtaking him, as occurred with the People of the Elephant, and no enemy has ever gained mastery over it. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was not its enemy; he never intended to demolish or injure it in any respect, nor did he ever hurl stones at it with a catapult. He was merely besieging Ibn al-Zubayr, who, together with his followers, had taken refuge in the Mosque and were the ones catapulting stones at him and his men—not aiming at the Kaʿba, nor seeking to destroy it. Not a single stone of al-Hajjaj ever struck the Sacred House.