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A Vision at the Lote Tree, and a Moon Split as a Sign

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A Vision at the Lote Tree, and a Moon Split as a Sign

Hizb 53 closes Adh-Dhariyat with brief further mention of Thamud and of Noah's people, and the statement that jinn and mankind alike were created for no purpose but to worship God. It then carries the whole of At-Tur, Mount Sinai, swearing by the mountain itself and answering the accusation that the Prophet was merely a poet or a man touched by madness, before describing Paradise in some detail.

An-Najm, the Star, follows in full, opening with an oath by the star and describing a vision granted to the Prophet, understood in later tradition as connected to the night journey and an encounter at the Lote Tree of the utmost boundary, the furthest point of created reality the vision reaches. The sura firmly rejects the pre-Islamic Arabian goddesses Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat, and states that no soul carries another's burden and that a person receives only what they themselves have strived for.

The hizb closes carrying the whole of Al-Qamar, the Moon, with the account of the moon splitting as a sign witnessed by the Meccans, before beginning a cycle of destruction narratives, Noah, Ad, Thamud, Lot, Pharaoh, each closing on a repeated refrain asking how severe God's punishment and warning proved to be.

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