"We know not whether evil be meant for them that are on earth, or whether their Lord meaneth true guidance for them."—Sura LXXII, verses 8-10.
So the pretenders of hearing the discourses of heavenly bodies being quite harassed by the extraordinary showers of the falling stars, and the appearances of numerous comets, had stopped their divination. This was taken notice of in the Koran:—
"They overhear not exalted chiefs, and they are darted from every side."
"Driven off and consigned to a lasting torment; while if one steal by stealth then a glistering flame pursueth him."—Sura XXXVII, verses 8-10.
"Save such as steal a hearing, and him do visible flames pursue."—Sura XV, verse 18.
"The satans were not sent down with this Koran. It beseemed them not, and they had not the power. For they are far removed from the hearing."—Sura XXVI, verses 210-212.
As an instance of terror and bewilderment caused by meteors and shooting stars among credulous people, I will quote the following anecdote:
About the middle of the tenth century an epidemic terror of the end of the world had spread over Christendom. The scene of the last judgment was expected to be in Jerusalem.
In the year 999 the number of pilgrims proceeding eastwards, to await the coming of the Lord in that city, was so great that they were compared to a desolating army. During the thousandth year the number of pilgrims increased. Every phenomenon of nature filled them with terror. A thunderstorm sent them all upon their knees. Every meteor in the sky seen at Jerusalem brought the whole Christian population into the streets to weep and pray. The pilgrims on the road were in the same alarm. Every shooting star furnished occasion for a sermon, in which the sublimity of the approaching judgment was the principal topic (vide Extraordinary Popular Delusions by Charles Mackay, LL.D., London, pp. 222 and 223).
It was a conceit or imposture of the Kahins to pretend that their demons had access to the outskirts of the heavens, and by assiduous eavesdropping secured some of the secrets of the upper world and communicated the same to the soothsayers or diviners upon earth. The Jews had a similar notion of the demons (schedim), learning the secrets of the future by listening behind the veil (pargôd). The Koran falsified them in their assertions. It says that the heavens (or the stars) are safe and protected against the eavesdropping (or enchantments) of the soothsayers.