6:96-97
6:96
He it is that cleaveth the daybreak (from the dark): He makes the night for rest and tranquillity, and the sun and moon for the reckoning (of time): Such is the judgment and ordering of (Him), the Exalted in Power, the Omniscient.
6:97
It is He Who maketh the stars (as beacons) for you, that ye may guide yourselves, with their help, through the dark spaces of land and sea: We detail Our signs for people who know.
Quran 56:75-76:
Then I swear by the setting of the stars, and indeed, it is an oath – if you could know –great.
The following excerpt is taken from “Quran: A Reformist Translation” by Edip Yuksel under the commentary of the above verses:
The Qur’ān frequently draws attention to the cosmos as a sign of divine order, describing the vastness of creation through references to stars, their positions, and their movements. Contemporary reflection on astronomy and cosmology—revealing billions of galaxies and stars governed by consistent gravitational laws—has led some modern interpreters to reconsider the meaning of Qur’ānic oaths related to the “positions of the stars.” Classical exegetes, however, generally understood these expressions as referring to the setting places or stations of celestial bodies, or to their fading at the end of time rather than to specific astrophysical phenomena (The Study Quran, n.d.). Some recent commentators propose that such verses may symbolically allude to astronomical structures such as quasars or black holes, which represent regions of intense gravitational collapse or energy concentration within the universe (Ünal, 2015, pp. 1034–1035).
Similarly, interpretations of Qur’ān 81:15, which mentions the “retreating stars,” vary among scholars. The Arabic term khunnas has been interpreted as referring either to stars or to planets whose apparent motions in the sky include periods of retreat, concealment, or shifting trajectories. These observable variations in motion correspond to astronomical phenomena that can be explained through planetary mechanics, including principles such as Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion (The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English, n.d., note 2533).
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References:
Emerick, Yahiya. The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an in Today’s English (p. 827). Unknown. Kindle Edition
Nasr, Hossein (2015). Study Quran.
Unal, Ali (2006). The Quran with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English. (p.1034-1035)
Yuksel, Edip. Quran: a Reformist Translation (Koran, Kuran in Modern English) (p. 341). Brainbow Press. Kindle Edition.