8. ‘But now when we sought to reach heaven, we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires (shooting-stars).³

3. As mentioned in sūrah 15: 17–18, note 5, and sūrah 67: 5, note 4, shooting stars are fired to prevent the jinn from reaching the heaven or to repulse them from its doors.

Contact between fortune-tellers and jinn and/or devils has a certain function in certain sort of fortune-telling. The spying devils, who are the representatives of the foulness and wickedness on the earth, attempt to soil the clean and pure realm of the heavens that are inhabited by pure beings, and spy on the talk of their inhabitants in the name of some disbelieving jinn and their human companions who try to mislead people, particularly through sorcery, mediumship, and soothsaying. God allowed them to grab some snatches of information from their talks before the advent of His Last Messenger. However, just prior to his advent, He shut the gates of the heaven to them completely. When they try to reach the heaven, they find it filled with strong guards who hurl missiles at them. If anyone from among them is able to grab something, they are pursued (and destroyed) by a shooting star dispatched by the angels on guard there.