شِهَابٌ
1.
, in its primary acceptation, A
شُعْلَة [i. e. either brand or flame (apparently the former, agreeably with what follows,)] of fire: (TA:) or a
شُعْلَة
of fire gleaming or radiating: (S, K:) according to ISk, a firebrand; i. e. a stick in which is fire: or, according to AHeyth, originally, a piece of wood, or stick, in which is fire gleaming or radiating: (Az, TA:) plural شُهُبٌ, (S, K,) and some allow شُهْبٌ, (TA,) and شُهْبَانٌ (Akh, S, K) and شِهْبَانٌ, (K,) which is strange, (TA,) and أَشْهُبٌ, (K,) which last is [a plural of pauc., but] thought by IM to be a quasi-plural n. (TA.) The reading بِشِهَابِ قَبَسٍ, instead of بِشِهَابٍ قَبَسٍ, in the Qur'an, 27:7, is an instance of a word prefixed to another identical therewith. (Fr. L.)
2.
Hence, [A shooting, or falling, star;] a star, or the like of a star, that darts down [or is hurled] by night; and particularly after a devil; as occurring in the Qur'an, 15:18 and] xxxvii. 10; and in a tradition; respecting the attempt of a devil to hear, by stealth, words uttered in heaven. (TA.)
3.
[Hence also,] الشُّهُبُ signifies The shining, or brightly-shining, stars: (K:) or the seven stars [or planets; meaning, not the Pleiades (which are called النَّجْمُ), but the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn: the first three of which are said by Freytag to be called صِغَارُ الشُّهُبِ]. (TA.)
4.
For another meaning assigned in the K to الشُّهُبُ, see الشُّهْبُ, voce أَشْهَبُ.
5.
شِهَابٌ also signifies (tropical:) One who is penetrating, sharp, or energetic, in an affair; (K, TA;) as being likened to the [shooting] star. (TA.) One says, إِنَّ فُلَانًا لَشِهَابُ
حَرْبٍ (tropical:) Verily such a man is one who is penetrating, sharp, or energetic, in war. (S, A. *) And هٰوءُلَاءِ شُهْبَانُ الجَيْشِ (tropical:) [These are the braves, or heroes, of the army]. (A.)
6.
Also the name of A certain devil: occurring in a tradition: hence the Prophet changed the name of a certain man [originally] thus named. (TA.)