adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the
stars;"

"And we have guarded them against every rebellious satan."--Sura XXXVII,
verses 6, 7.

"... And we have furnished the lower heaven with lights and have
protected it...."--Sura XLI, verse 11.

The Koran further says that the soothsayers impart to their votaries or
to those who go to consult them what they have heard from other people
and are liars:--

"They impart what they have heard, but most of them are liars."--Sura
XXVI, verse 223.

It is nowhere said in the Koran that the stars are darted or hurled at
the Satans. Sura LXVII, verse 5, literally means, "of a surety we have
decked the lower heaven with lights and have made them to be (means of)
'_Rojum_' conjectures to the (or for the) devils, _i.e._ the
astrologer." The primary meaning of _Rajm_ is a thing that is thrown or
cast like a stone: pl. '_Rojum_,' but it generally means speaking of
that which is hidden, or conjecturing or speaking by conjecture, as in
Sura XVIII, verse 21. In Sura XIX, verse 47, the word "_La-arjomannaka_"
has been explained both ways, meaning (1) "I will assuredly cast stones
at thee," and (2) "I will assuredly say of thee, (though) speaking of
that which is hidden (from me) or unknown (by me), what thou dislikest
or hatest." _Vide_ Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, page 1048.]

[Sidenote: Rapid stride of Islam at Medina.]

20. Next year twelve new converts were made from persons who had come to
see the Prophet from Medina. They returned as missionaries of Islam, and
Islam spread rapidly in Medina from house to house and from tribe to
tribe. The Jews looked on in amazement at the people whom they had in
vain endeavoured from generations to convince of the errors of
polytheism, and to dissuade from the abominations of their idolatry,
suddenly of their own accord casting away idols and professing belief in
the one True God.[42] Thus speedily without let or hindrance, force or
compulsion, did Islam take firm root at Medina and attain to a full and
mature growth. There remained not a single house among the Aws and
Khazraj tribes[43] of Medina in which there were not believing men and
women, excepting the branch of the Aws Allah, who were not converts till
after the siege of Medina. At this time there were many Moslems in
Mecca, Medina, and Abyssinia, and not a single one of them could be said
to have been converted to Islam by compulsion: on the contrary, they
were used to be