1640, by Edward William Lame is, in brief, as follows: The...

1640, by Edward William Lame is, in brief, as follows: The term / Sabi'un / in the Kur'an is said to mean: 'Those who depart from one religion to another (The Sabians,) said to worship the stars secretly, and openly to profess themselves to belong to the Christians: They are called / as-sabi'ah / and / as-sabi'un/: and they assert that they are of the religion of Sabi the son of Sheyth (or Sheth) the son of Adam: their appellation may also be pronounced / as-sabiyun / or the Sabi'un are a certain class of the people who possess revealed scripture: or a people whose religion resembles that of the Christians, except that their Qiblah is towards the place where blows the (south, or southerly, wind called) Jannb...

or according to some, their Qiblah is the Ka'bah: and they assert that they are of the religion of Noah. It is said that they are thus called in relation to Sabi the son of Lamak (or Lamech), the brother of Noah. It is said that they are worshippers of angels: and it said that they are the worshippers of the stars: and that their appellation is Arabic; from / saba / he departed from a religion '; or from / saba / he inclined because of their inclining from Truth to falsehood.

Another idea about 'Sabians', the appellation mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, is what the known scholar, Raqib, cites in his book, 'Mufradat’.

He says*:* "They are a group of followers of Noah (as), and their name mentioned along with the names of Believers, Jews and Christians, is also an evidence that they have been a religious group of people, believing in one of the heavenly religions who believed in God and the Hereafter, too." Some other commentators have said that the idea that some have called them pagans and star worshippers, or some others have considered them Zoroastrians, does not seem right, because Sabians believed that: first, the heavenly Holy Books were revealed to Adam (as) and then to Noah (as) and after him to Sam (as), then to Ram (as) and thereafter to Abraham (as), then to Moses (as) and after him to John (as) the son of Zachariah, all of which were sent rightfully and Divinely.

Who are the 'People of the Book'? The Qur'anic phrase / 'ahlul kitab / ' the People of the Book' has occurred in more than 30 different verses of the Qur'an where it mostly means both the Jews and the Christians or either of them.