Sura Najm--- Continued

Vision of the prophet SAWS
The prophet is said here to be looking at things nobody has seen although the Angel had appeared to previous prophets and Maryam AS (S. Maryam Aya 16-17) and in addition he saw "lote-tree beyond which none may pass" and that something shrouded it (God does not give details as the details have nothing to do with instruction.) I would also not go into those details. One comes across all kinds of "explanations" in books of tafsir and hadeeth which are just exaggerations, imaginations etc. of the (respectable ) companions, but they were only human. So I would suggest ignoring these embellishments.
Vision, as you know involves the process of imaging in the eye stimulating the rods and cones of retina and stimuli carried through the optic nerves up to geniculate ganglia and then the optic radiations spreading into the "Visual cortex" (area 17) and its further connections to other areas of the brain. Appears simple but it becomes complicated when you consider how the images are recognized by the brain. In very simple words for understanding it I would say that connections with memory areas of the brain help in recognizing. That is where the "patterns" are kept telling us that is a dog or a man or who the person is. Now the prophet looks at the grand figure of the archangel Gabriel, a magnificent sight and he "speaks" to make the prophet understand who he is as the prophet is familiar with the voice ( from the cave of Hira). The awe and his powers are described and the prophet is mentally and physically prepared for these unususal sighting experiences. If now the hadeeth says, "he fell down and lost consciousness till the angel wiped his mouth of the saliva and brought him back to consciousness" (and Ibn-Kathir says it is a weak hadeeth), I feel somewhat uneasy why such things continue in the ahadeeth literature), we have to throw such descriptions out. It is on these weak stories the orientalists thrive on their biased opinions and label the prophet as "epileptic". I have avoided many other stories telling about "nervousness and depression" of the prophet S. when there was a break in the Wahi for some time (Futart-ul-WaHi) that "he would go on the mountain to make himself fall from it". That is not the personality of the prophet S. I know of. (How did they knw why he was going on the mountain?)
Anyway coming back to his vision I would draw your attention to two ayat.
"The prophet's heart (and mind), in no way falsified that which he saw."
Maudoodi says :
Dil nay uss main jhoot nah milaya.
Asad says similar things in English. Maulana M. Shafi in his "Márif-ul-Quran" says the same but in explanation makes the following statement:
"Aankh nay jo kuch dekha hay qalb nay bhi uskay idraak main koi ghalti nahin ki aur iseeghalti ko ayat main lafz-e-Kazdb say tábir kiya hay" ( Whatever was seen by the eye, the heart also did not make a mistake in understanding. That mistake has been alluded to by the word "lie")
This comes closer to understanding the meanings, although all mufassireen have done their part in explaining and written at length about it.
That is the "Heart" I had mentioned above as "figurative" heart. What the prophet S. saw with his eyes and recognized the grand figure of Jibreel AS.
The second aya is "Sight never swerved, nor did it go wrong"
Pickthal says, "The eye turned not aside nor yet was overbold".
M.M Shafi says, "Behki nahin nigah aur na had say badhi"
Maudoodi says similar things.
The fact is that the prophet is in the unseen world and lot of "Unseen" objects are in his view. Both Mauddodi and M. Shafi explain that in such a situation where you are looking at strange things you are likely to "look around" in amazement and wonder and curiosity. The prophet S. was aware of his position and nearness to Allah and kept his calm and high deference and would not "look around", so the "sight did not turn aside or go overbold" (overbold is better alternative than go wrong for "Tagha", just like Shafi's "had say nahin badhi"
There is no doubt that these are extra-ordinary words and God Almighty has used these inimitable expressions for us to understand clearly what WaHi is and the next few ayat bring out other aspects why God has chosen here to describe the process of revelation.
Let me first give you a brief summery of the story which is well recorded in sahih ahadeeth that explain the contents of this Sura mubaraka.
The Story of Satanic Verses
First the next ayat: (19 to25)
"Afaraitum-ul-Laata wal-Uzza" ( Have ye seen Lat and Uzza?)
wa Manatath-thaliat-al-ukhra (And another, the third (goddess) Manat)
a-lakumuzd-zdakaru wa lah-ul-untha (What! For you the male sex and for Him the female?)
tilka izdan qismatun dhiza (behold, such would be indeed a division, most unfair)
in heya illa asmaa-un sammaitumooha antum (These are nothing but names which ye have
wa abaa-o-kum ma anzala-Allahu biha min devised ye and your fathers for which Allah
sultanin, inyattabi-óona illadz-dzanna wa ma has sent down no authority. they follow nothing
tahwal-anfus, wa laqad jaa-ahum-minr-rabbi but conjecture and what their souls desire,
him-ul-huda even though there has already come to them guidance fron their Lord.
um lil-insani ma tamanna (Nay! shall man have (just) anything he hankers after?
falillahil-aakhiratu wal oola (But it is to Allah that the End and the Beginning belong)

As I said before this was the revelation during early period of prophethood when he recited the sura in the Haram sharif and at the end he went into sajdah (prostration) and all the Muslims as well as the non-Muslims followed suite. (Maybe the non-Muslims later realized that they made a mistake) The Mushrikeen or the non-Musl;ims started saying that,
"we also performed sajdah because we heard the prophet saying (after thalitha-tal-ukhra) something like this:
Tilka ghuraniqat-ul-óla, wa inna shafaáthunna laturja" . So we thought he has come back to our deen now."
(meanings of this--- these are highly regarded goddesses and their intercession is definitely accepted)
These words they claim, and unfortunately some well-known Muslim scholars (Maudoodi gives the names of Hafiz Ibn Hajr, Abu Bakr Jassas, Zamakhshari and Ibn Jareer) agree that the prophet did "utter" and later "cancelled" (mansookh).
The best and worth reading discussion on these "Satanic Verses" is given by Maudoodi Rahemahullah in discussion of Ayat 51 and 52 of Sura Hajj (22nd sura) Basically what Maudoodi says is that the verses dont fit in the rest of the picture which is against the goddesses or their being highly regarded and secondly the Mushrikeen were overwhelmed by the power of the passages and in that awe performed the sajdah.
The ayat of sura 22 are:
"Never did We send an apostle or a prophet before thee, but, when he framed a desire, Satan threw in some (vanity) into his desire: but Allah will cancel anything that Satan throws in, and Allah will confirm (and establish) His signs: for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom"
Now, if you see why Allah SWT has mentioned all these things related to WaHi, it starts making sense in which it is shown
That the Messenger Angel has extra-ordinary powers and is strictly faithful in discharging his duties (ameen) and cannot be ättacked"by anybody including Satan during the performance of such duties.
The prophet is extremely careful in listening and seeing. (see my "human being" aspects of the prophet I wrote before on November 7th.
Moreover I would like you to see the verses of S. al-Haaqqah 69th sura (aya 44-45-46:
Änd if the apostle were to invent any sayings in Our name, We should certainly seize him by his right hand and We should certainly then cut off the artery of his heart"
These are extremely harsh words God has used against the prophet and how then anybody can dare interpose any words in His sacred and well-guarded message to corrupt it.
I have given very brief account but surely you can look it up for more knowledge. So you can see that the "Satanic Verses"were a known catchy phrase already known to Muslims before Rushdie embarked on his propaganda against Islam under the guise of "freedom of speech".