Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions

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Taken from Zekeriya Kazvinî's "Acaib-ül Mahlûkat" (The Wonders of Creation). Translated into Turkish from Arabic. Istanbul: ca. 1553.
This map depicts "a traditional Islamic projection of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf".^[1]

Islamic scriptures imply, adhere to, and describe a flat-Earth cosmography (arranged in a geocentric system) which conceives of the earth as existing in the form of a large plane or disk. While knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth has existed to a greater or lesser degree since at least the classical Greeks (4th Century BCE), such knowledge prominently entered the Islamic milieu in the 9th century CE when many Greek texts were translated into Arabic for the first time under the sponsorship of the Abbasid caliphate.

Today, some Islamic scholars claim that Islamic scriptures and their first audiences were fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth and that this was also a consensus view of early scholars. Evidence does not support any of these claims, despite oft-cited statements from the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm (see below). Critics note that clear descriptions and assumptions made in the Qur'an, hadith, tafsirs, and writings of early Islamic scholars demonstrate that Muhammad and his companions did not know the Earth was spherical but in fact held it to be flat and disk like, and this is the framework within which the Qur'an operates.

The later idea that Islamic scriptures themselves indicated a spherical Earth was a creative act of reinterpretation. Similarly, attempts to explain Quranic verses about the earth only in terms of local flatness at a human level are often challenged by critics using contextual arguments.

Greek astronomical knowledge

Ptolemy’s Almagest, written in the mid 2nd century CE, was translated into Arabic in the 9^th century CE after the Qur’an had been completed and standardized. Ptolemy recorded in book five of the Almagest the discovery of Hipparchus, and of Aristarchus before him, that the sun is much larger than the earth and much more distant than the moon, as well as the Aristotelian view which maintains that the Earth is spherical and that the heavens are celestial spheres.^[2] Indian and Sasanian mathematical astronomy works for calculating the apparent movements of the sun, stars and planets were translated into Arabic from the 8th century CE.^[3]

Kevin Van Bladel, Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University^[4], writes:

Earlier in the same paper, Van Bladel describes how Christian theologians in the region of Syria in the sixth century CE shared the view that the Earth was flat and the heaven, or series of heavens was like a dome or tent above the Earth, based on their reading of the Hebrew and New Testament scriptures. This was a rival view to that of the churchmen of Alexandria who supported the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic view of a spherical Earth surrounded by spinning celestial spheres.^[5] He summarizes as follows:

David A. King, Professor of History of Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, writes:

Michael Hoskin and Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University^[6], write:

Ahmed Dallal, president of the American University in Cairo, writes in regards to scientific astronomical knowledge advancing across the early caliphate:^[7]

Mohammad Ali Tabatabaʾi and Saida Mirsadri of Tehran University note in their paper surveying Qur'anic cosmography that the Qur'an "takes for granted" the flatness of the earth, a common motif among the scientifically naive people at that time, while it has "not even one hint of a spherical earth"^[8] They also note that the pre-Islamic poet Umayya ibn Abī al‐Ṣalt (d. 5 / 626) described the earth as a carpet (bisāṭan, like Quran 71:19) and likened it to the uplifted heavens.

Damien Janos in another paper on Qur'anic cosmography has similarly noted that while the exact shape of its boundaries are not described, "what is clear is that the Qurʾān and the early Muslim tradition do not uphold the conception of a spherical earth and a spherical universe. This was a view that later prevailed in the learned circles of Muslim society as a result of the infiltration of Ptolemaic astronomy".^[9]

Direct references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an

The Qur'an frequently describes, in explicit terms, the creation of "al-ard", which can be translated as either "Earth" or "land", as a flat structure. The use of metaphors and words intimately associated with flat objects (such as beds and carpets) is especially common in cases where the context of the verse makes it clear that the word "al-ard" is being used to describe the creation of the Earth at the beginning of time alongside the creation of the "heavens" (rather than in the more limited sense of a certain portion of "land"). The best example of this is perhaps verse 88:20.

The same term 'al-ard' is even used to describe the creation of the next Earth after judgement day,^[10] and is commonly used alongside 'the heavens' (i.e. the heavens and the Earth) as a reference to the whole Islamic conception of the universe - it's meaning of the whole Earth can be seen in further verses where it is used on QuranCorpus.

Qur'an 2:22 - firashan ("thing spread to sit or lie upon")

فِرَٰشًا = firashan = a thing that is spread upon the ground, a thing that is spread for one to sit or lie upon.^[11]

Qur'an 13:3 - madad ("extend", "stretch out")

مَدَدْ = madad (madda) = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand^[12]

The Quran describes a reversal of this process occurring on the last day. It says the mountains will be removed and the earth left as a level plain (Quran 18:47 and Quran 20:105-107, discussed in more detail below) while Quran 84:3 says the Earth will be muddat i.e. the Arabic verb madad in the passive voice.

Qur'an 15:19 - madad ("extend", "stretch out")

مَدَدْ = madad = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand^[12]

See also Mountains cast into the Earth regarding the wording about mountains here and in a few similar verses.

Qur'an 20:53 - mahdan ("bed")

مَهْدًا = mahdan = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse^[13]

Sinai 2023 notes that also in Quran 13:18, hell that is called a mihād, a “resting-place spread out.”^[14] This may give further weight to the seven earths found in Quran 65:12 being flat discs one above the other as discussed in the hadith section below, with the lowest being hell as was believed by a number of early and medieval Muslims as this IslamQA post shows.^[15]

Qur'an 43:10 - mahdan ("bed")

مَهْدًا = mahdan = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse^[16]

Qur'an 50:7 - madad ("extend", "stretch out")

مَدَدْ = madad = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand^[12]

Qur'an 51:48 - farasha ("spread out") and mahidoon ("spreaders")

فَرَشَْ = farasha (verse 2:22 uses this word in the noun form) = spread or expand, spread a bed or carpet^[17]

الْمَهِدُونَ = mahidoon from مهد = make plain, even, smooth, spread a bed^[18]

A hadith in Ibn Majah uses the plural noun furushaat to mean "beds":

Qur'an 71:19 - bisaatan ("carpet")

بِسَاطًا = bisaatan = A thing that is spread or spread out or forth, and particularly a carpet (from the same root we also have بَسَاطٌ = basaatun = Land, expanded and even; and wide or spacious).^[19]

This appears to be paraphrasing a similar pre-Islamic poem mentioning the creation and spreading of the Earth attributed to ʿAdī ibn Zayd (wa-basaṭa l-arḍa basṭan), who's motif can be traced back to at least the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah 42:5 and 44:24, Palms 136:6).^[20]

A hadith in Tirmidhi uses the word bisaatan to describe the spreading or rolling out of a mat:

Qur'an 78:6-7 - mihadan ("bed")

مِهَٰدًا (same as مَهْدًا mahdan) = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse^[21]

Qur'an 79:30 - daha ("spread out wide")

دحو = dahawa = spread out or forth, expand, make wide.^[22]

The word dahaha ("He spread it out") also appears in a poem about the creation of a flat earth attributed to the pre-Islamic poet Zayd b. 'Amr, who reportedly was a monotheist who met Muhammad before his prophetic career began. The poem is certainly a very early demonstration of the meaning of the word dahaha in this context since it is recorded in the biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767 CE) and must pre-date that work.^[23] Like the Quran, the poem says "He spread it out" (daḥāhā) i.e. the earth, then even clearer than the Quran, saw that it was level (استوت istawat^[24]) on the water (i.e. flat), "and set firm the mountains on it" (arsā ʿalayhā l-jibālā, very similar to wa-l-jibāla ʾarsāhā in verse 32 of the Quranic passage).

Similar language is found in the Bible. See Isaiah 42:5 and particularly Psalms 136:6.

For further discussion of this word and of modern claims attempting to associate it with the shape of eggs, see the dedicated section below.

Qur'an 88:20 - sutihat ("spread out flat")

سَطَحَ = sataha = spread out or forth, expand

The word sataha is used to describe making the flat top or roof of a house or chamber and making a top surface flat. Words derived from the same root mean: the flat top surface or roof of a house or chamber, a bounded plane in geometry, a level place upon which dates can be spread, a rolling pin (which expands the dough), plane or flat.^[27] Indeed, the modern Arabic phrase used to refer to the "flat earth" today is الأرض مسطحة (al-ard musattaha)^[28], the word musattaha is from the same root as the word sutihat.

In the tafsir Al-Jalalayn (from the 15th century) the word sutihat is used to explain that the Earth is flat. The author of this section, al-Mahalli (d. 1460), maintains that the flat-earth is the opinion of the scholars of the revealed law.

Qur'an 91:6 - taha ("spread out")

طحو / طحى = taha = Spread out, expand, spread on the ground.^[29]

Indirect references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an

In addition to direct references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an, where the original creation of the Earth is explicitly described using terms that denote a flat object, there are many indirect references to the shape of the Earth in contexts not related to the initial creation of the planet. These indirect references, poising themselves as describing the Earth as it exists rather than how it was created are, in a sense, stronger testimony to the cosmology of the Qur'an.

Since explicit cosmological descriptions are uncommon in societies with a uniform and common cosmology (due to the simple fact that no one needs state that which everyone knows), otherwise unrelated descriptions of phenomenon occurring within the confines of a given society's cosmology can often serve as the strongest evidence of their cosmological beliefs.^[30]

Qur'an 18:86 and 18:90 - setting and rising places of the sun

A flat conception of the Earth is the only sort that permits the setting and rising places of the sun to be visited. Contemporary 7th-century Arabic and Syriac poems telling the same legend suggest that early Muslims understood the story literally, as do early tafsirs and narrations therein (see main article).

Qur'an 2:187 and 17:78 - fasting and prayer times

This verses outlines some of the requirements of the fourth Pillar of Islam, fasting: one can not eat, drink, or have sexual intercourse between "dawn" and "nightfall". The Qur'an conceives of itself as containing guidance for all people in all times in all places, yet the instructions contained here are, taken literally, impracticable for those who live near the North and South poles of the globe, where a single day/night cycle can take any where from weeks to months. While Islamic scholars were and are content to permit exceptions to the literal meaning of the verse for those who live in extreme climes, the original authors and audiences of Islamic scriptures do not seem to have appreciated this problem. Based on this evidence, the earliest believers were either mistaken about the details of the dynamic system existing between the rotating Earth and the star it orbits or, more likely, simply unaware of the system altogether.

Similar scriptural instructions for worship based on the position of the Sun relative to the observer confirm the implications of the Quran 2:187.

For instance, in Aberdeen, Scotland, the time between the night prayer (Isha) and the dawn prayer (Fajr) is around 4 and a half hours in June, such that a practicing Muslim would be required to regularly awaken around 3:20am for prayer. These matters are further complicated by the increasingly relevant and real cases of space travel, and even simply travel through the air aboard a plane, as it is not entirely clear whether someone flying in or opposite the direction of the sun would be required to repeat or skip certain prayers due to the rapidly changing time of day. By these appearances, the rituals and instructions set out in the Qur'an were intended for the more limited audience and understanding of a 7th-century desert city.

Before embarking on the 1985 Discovery space shuttle flight he had been chosen to serve on as payload engineer, Saudi prince Sultan bin Salman, the first Muslim in space, said the following memorable lines to Sheikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, later the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia:

Appeal is sometimes made to a lengthy hadith in which Muhammad instructs Muslims to make an estimate of prayer times in the last days when the Dajjal comes and when one day will be like a year, then like a month, and then like a week. It is argued on this basis that Muhammad provided a principle by which people at extreme latitudes should fast and pray.

Critics note a number of shortcomings with this argument: Firstly, this hadith contains only an instruction for the end of time and when the whole world will have some very long days. The question remains why there are not specific instructions for praying (not to mention fasting) near the polar regions on our round planet. While a stretched analogy can be made with polar regions where the sun cannot be seen rising or setting at all for months at a time, places such as the north of Scotland in the example above still have very short nights in summer yet maintain a 24 hour day-night cycle all year round. This is not like the month or year long days affecting the world in the hadith. A further problem is that the hadith does not explain how an estimate is to be made. The assumption must be that in the last days scenario, people can use the intervals they had been used to in normal times and that this is possible all over the world (which therefore must also be flat). However, on our round earth, people in the polar regions cannot in any sense "estimate" what their prayer (and fasting) intervals would normally be when the sun no longer rises or no longer sets each day. Instead, typically they have to chose the times pertaining at the nearest lower latitude, or if possible, to pray (and fast) at the prescribed times if there is still some brief period of daytime (or night).

The hadith further demonstrates a flat earth and pre-scientific worldview. On a round earth, there would equally be a long night for half the world. Crops would soon fail on both the daylit and night sides of the earth during the day lasting a year and the day lasting a month. The world would starve before the other events could unfold.

Qur'an 2:144 - praying towards the Ka'bah

Top-left: Due to the sphericity of the earth, a prayer in any direction will point towards the sky/outer-space, not Mecca.
Top-right: People who are located on the opposite 'side' of the earth would have to pray vertically down towards the center of the earth, and would also be guilty of blasphemy, as they would also be defecating in exact direction of the Ka'bah..
Bottom-left: One is also always simultaneously praying with their face and backside aimed towards the Ka'bah, especially if located on the Ka'bah's antipode.
Bottom-right: From the Ka'bah's antipode, any direction is facing 'towards' Mecca and consequently, there is no one direction that would be the correct one.

This verse instructs prayer towards the Ka'bah (the word qiblah referring to the direction that one has to face in order to pray towards the Ka'bah). Taken literally, "turning one's face" toward the Ka'bah is only possible on a flat Earth, since on a spherical Earth, facing any direction when located anywhere other than the immediate vicinity of the Ka'bah will point along a tangent to the Earth's surface and ultimately off into outer-space, not Mecca. For this reason, the great circle method from spherical geometry is used. Nevertheless, other Islamic practices such as defecting opposite the Ka'bah and sleeping facing the Ka'bah are thereby complicated. Indeed, in facing the Ka'bah perfectly, one's hind side would also, on a sphere, necessarily face the Ka'bah with equal perfection.

Other problems emerge as well. The Americas are largely contained in the hemisphere of the antipode (point directly opposite on a sphere) to Mecca. The great circle lines across the continent diverge from the antipode before they start to converge when they enter the hemisphere of Mecca, causing people north and south across the Americas to face away from each other as they pray, with those on the west coast of North America even facing Northwards over the Arctic. To many this feels unnatural or uncomfortable, so among American Muslims the rhumb line method is often preferred (a rhumb line appears as a straight line on Mercator projection world maps). The two very different methods can lead to disagreement and criticism among Muslims in the same country. Another difficult implication is that a person located at the antipode of Mecca itself would simultaneously be facing toward and directly away from Mecca no matter which direction they turned, a situation similar to that a person attempting to pray within the walls of the Ka'bah itself.

While a non-literal reading of the passage helps to escape some of these implications, critics argue that it remains the case that the author of the verse did not appreciate the complications with his instruction to face the Ka'bah, suggesting that he held the Earth to be flat.

Qur'an 18:47 - when the mountains are removed, the entire Earth will be apparent

بَارِزَةً = baarizatan = Wholey, or entirely, apparent or manifest, Land that is open, apparent, or uncovered, upon which is no mountain or any other thing.^[31]

Also in accord with this picture are Quran 31:10 and similar verses which state that mountains were cast upon the earth to prevent it from shaking and Quran 78:6-7 (quoted above) in which Allah spread out the earth and made the mountains as pegs.

Similar language about the removal of mountains leaving a level plain appears in the Bible:

Qur'an 20:105-107 - when the mountains are scattered, the Earth is a level plain

The word فَيَذَرُهَا Fayatharuha ('And he will leave it') has the feminine 'ha' suffix, meaning 'it'. "It" here almost certainly refers to the Earth, which is not explicitly mentioned, and is a feminine noun. Similarly the word translated 'Wherein' is فِيهَا feeha (literally 'in it') and has the feminine 'it' suffix too. Since there are no other singular feminine nouns in these verses and due to the context provided by Quran 18:47, it is clear that the pronoun is referring to al-ard (the Earth).

قَاعًا = qaAAan = an even place; plain, or level, land that produces nothing; plain, or soft, land, low, and free from mountains.^[32]

صَفْصَفًا = safsafan = a level, or an even, tract of land or ground.^[33]

عِوَجًا = AAiwajan = crookedness, a curvity, bending, winding, contortion, wryness, distortion, or uneveness^[34]

أَمْتًا = amtan = curvity, crookedness, distortion, or uneveness; ruggedness and smoothness in different places; depression and elevation; small hills and hollows.^[35]

Whereas "AAiwajan" and "amtan " may refer to individual portions of land being flat, "qaAAan safsafan" appears to characterize the Earth as a whole as a "level, barren plain".

Qur'an 69:14 - the Earth and mountains will be lifted

In a verse about the last day, the Quran 69:14 states that the earth and mountains will be lifted and crushed. The context makes clear that this is a statement concerning the earth as a whole. Such imagery is fully in line with a flat earth worldview, but harder to reconcile with a spherical surface.

The verb used to say the earth and mountains "are lifted" is ḥumilati حُمِلَتِ which is used in the sense of taking up or carrying a load.^[36]

The word translated levelled (dakkatan, meaning pounded down to ground level^[37]) in the above verse occurs three times in various forms in another verse about the earth:

Qur'an 17:37 - you will not tear / pierce the earth

The verb translated "tear" is kharaqa, which meant to make a hole in, perforate, pierce, or bore through something or to tear or rent such as a cloth, and appears also in Quran 18:71 when Allah's servant makes a hole in a ship.^[38] The verse seems to imply that the earth has the kind of predominantly two dimensional shape to which this verb is often applicable, even if humans lack the power to do so.

Qur'an 26:28 - Lord of the east and the west and what is between them

This verse says Allah is Lord of the east and the west "and what (is) between them" (wamā baynahumā with dual pronoun suffix). The same Arabic words are also used in verse 24 earlier in the same dialogue with Pharaoh, where Moses describes Allah as "The Lord of the heavens and earth and that between them". Clearly, the meaning in verse 28 is that Allah is Lord of the entire earth, but the phrase attributed to the prophet Moses and narrated approvingly in the Quran here naturally evokes a flat earth conception.

Qur'an 55:17 - Lord of the two easts and the two wests

Classical tafsirs unanimously^[39] understand this verse as a reference to the two easts, or rising places (almashriqayni), and the two wests, or setting places (almaghribayni) of the sun on the summer and winter solstices. This accords with the literal meanings of mashriq^[40] and maghrib^[41]. Similarly, verse 70:40 (Quran 70:40) was classically understood to refer to all the different places where the sun rises and sets between these ranges (almashariqi waalmagharibi).^[42] Taken literally, these descriptions can only concord with a flat Earth, as on a spherical Earth, the "two Easts" and "two Wests" are only relative and everchanging positions lacking any definite, physical nature - that is, there is no place on Earth that could be definitely and universally described as "one of the two Easts", for instance such that Allah could be "Lord of it".

Qur'an 57:21 - a garden, its width like the width of the heaven(s) and the earth

The words ʿarḍuhā kaʿarḍi ("its width is like the width") refer to the breadth, width, or side of something.^[43]

Some academic scholars cite this verse in support of their argument that the Quranic heavens are flat layers above a flat earth (see Cosmology of the Quran). In a very similar verse, the garden's width is as the heavens plural and the earth (Quran 3:133). This interchangable width of the heaven singular (57:21) or heavens plural (3:133) may lend further support to that view. The verse most naturally indicates that the author imagined the heaven or heavens to be of similar width to the earth, whether they were imagined to be dome shaped or flat layers, and that the earth's flatness makes for an ideal width yardstick, though other interpretations are possible.

Qur'an 2:22 - the heavens are a canopy / building

The word translated as canopy is binaa or binaan ( بِنَاء ). This word means building, structure, edifice or tent.^[44] In his tafsir for another verse, Quran 2:29, Ibn Kathir uses the same word for his analogy of the earth and seven heavens as a multi-story building.

A similar concept occurs in the Bible (another Quranic parallel with Isaiah chapter 40 is shown in the Q. 18:47 section above):

Flat Earth in the hadiths

While the Islamic tradition maintain and modern academics contest whether so-called authentic hadiths can be reliably traced back to the prophet and his companions, all agree that hadiths, whether authentic or inauthentic represent the beliefs of various populations among the earliest Muslims. That is, even if a hadith is weak, it's fabrication, existence, and circulation attest to the simple fact that at least some early Muslims, even if this did not include Muhammad and his companions, believed that hadith's contents.

This said, there exist a variety of hadiths in canonical and authentic collections of hadith that explicitly and implicitly attest and adhere to a flat Earth. Countless weak hadiths can be counted which, in addition to these authentic hadiths, reflect the beliefs before the translations of Greek astronomy and philosophy had taken hold, and confirm that the earliest Muslims believed in a flat earth.^[45]

Seven stacked earths

Main article: Science and the Seven Earths

Various narrations describe seven stacked flat earths (not spherical layers, طوّقه means put on a neck-ring^[46]):

This daif (weak) hadith elaborates what some early Muslims (if not Muhammad) thought about the shape of the world:

Setting and rising place of the sun

The following hadith is graded Sahih by Dar-us-Salam (Hafiz Zubair 'Ali Za'i) and has a chain of narration graded as Sahih (authentic) by al-Albani.

A similar, more elaborate hadith in Sahih Muslim (shown below) describes a cycle in which Allah instructs the sun to go and rise "from its rising place" (min matli'iha مَطْلِعِهَا - this word also occurs as matli'a ash shamsi "the rising place of the sun" in Quran 18:90). One day, it will instead be told to go and rise "from the place of your setting" (min maghribiki مِنْ مَغْرِبِكِ), so it goes and rises "from the place of its setting" (min maghribiha مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا ). The latter phrase also appears in all the simpler narrations of this hadith despite often being mistranslated as "in the west".^[47] The sun is commanded to go to some particular place. The words "matli'" and "maghrib", when juxtaposed, refer to a "rising place" and "setting place", while the words "al mashriq" and "al maghrib", when juxtaposed, refer more generically to "the east" and "the west", although some English translations attempt to obscure this detail. The use of the words "matli'iha" and "maghribiha" in reference to specific locations as opposed to general directions is further confirmed by the lack of the definite article (al-) and usage of possessive pronouns (-ha) which make these "the sun's matli'" and "the sun's maghrib" - if the narration were referring to the "east" and "west" generically, the hadith would not refer to "the sun's east" and "the sun's west".

Ends of the Earth

Allah in the last third of the night

The following two narrations alluding to the optional Tahajjud prayer state that there is a particular time of night when Allah approaches the nearest heaven and invites supplications. This concept could only make any sense at all in a flat earth worldview, not in a spherical world in which it is always night-time somewhere.

The hadith also appears in Sahih al-Bukhari ("to us" is not present in the Arabic).

Flat Earth in tafsirs

The spring where the sun sets

Early Tafsirs (commentaries on the Quran from Muslim Scholars) had no issue stating that the Quran supports a flat Earth cosmology. In fact the earliest surviving authentically attributed tafsir, Tafsir Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (d. 767 CE), i.e. who lived closer to the time of Muhammad than any other scholar, says on verse 18:86 that this means the sun is setting in a muddy spring, which is only possible on a flat (and geocentric) Earth.

In the tafsir of al-Tabari (b. 224 AH / 839 CE) for Quran 18:86, the following remarks are made about the nature of the spring into which the sun sets. For another, full English translation of the relevant page in al-Tabari's tafsir see this article. The similar sounding words hami'ah (muddy) and hamiyah (hot) seem to have become confused at some point in the transmission of the Qur'anic script:

So he says of the Basran reading of the Qur'an:

And he says of the Kufan reading of the Qur'an:

Early authorities such as Ibn 'Abbas explain this to mean that the sun sets in black mud:

This Ibn ‘Abbas narration from Sa'id ibn Jubayr has a trustworthy chain of narrators according to hadith scholars.^[49] Abu Salih, another companion of Ibn ‘Abbas, made a very similar report narrated through another chain recorded by al-Farra (d. 822 CE) in his Ma'ani al-Qur'an regarding this verse:

Al-Tabari (d. 923) in his History of the Prophets and Kings and al-Baydawi (d. 1286) in his tafsir mention the opinion that the sun has 360 springs into which it can set. A similar idea is found in the so-called pre-Islamic "Jahili" Arab poems.

A longer list of scholars who took this as literal can be found in this reddit thread on R/CritiqueIslam, where one can see it only become 'metaphorical' as Ptolemy's round Earth views became more widely accepted. As historian of science James Hamman notes, when the translation movement began in the late eighth century, the study of the Koran was already a mature discipline. And since the Koran was the product of a very different environment from multicultural Baghdad, its world picture didn’t cohere with the cosmology transmitted by the foreign sciences of Indian and Greek astronomy.^[50]

The sky as a dome above the Earth

Al-Tabari in his tafsir for Quran 2:22 includes narrations from some of the earliest Muslims about the sky being a dome or ceiling over the Earth:

Ibn Kathir in his tafsir for Quran 13:2 has more narrations of the sahabah and tabi'un (2nd generation) on this topic:

Seven flat Earths

Ibn Kathir records that Mujahid said that the seven heavens and the seven Earths are on top of one another. Many similar narrations demonstrate that this type of cosmology was the standard understanding among Muhammad's companions.

The Earth on the back of the Islamic Whale

Al-Tabari's tafsir regarding Quran 68:1, which mysteriously starts with the Arabic letter Nun, records, along with many other classical tafsirs and sahih narrations^{[51][52][53][54]}, that one of the interpretations among sahabah such as ibn 'Abbas was that the 'nun' is a whale on whose back the Earth is carried (other interpretations were that "Nun" is an inkwell or a name of Allah). While there may not have been a consensus on the existence of the whale, the plausibility and acceptability of the idea implies a flat Earth and radically non-modern cosmology.

Mount Qaf

Similarly Surah 50 begins with the Arabic letter Qaf, which Scott Noegel and Brannon Wheeler (2010) note many Muslim exegetes take to refer to Mount. Qaf (Q 50:1) as a “world mountain,” which surrounds the earth and holds up the sky, thus connecting the heavens and the earth.^[55] This (a mountain that surrounds the world) is of course only possible on a flat Earth. It was even associated with the mythical city of “Jabalq,” allegedly to be located in the extreme east or west, at the edges of the earth.^[56]

Classical perspectives

Knowledge of the spherical nature of the Earth existed, at the very least, for nearly a millennium prior to the emergence of Islam in the 7th century. However, due to the non-uniform distribution of knowledge across the world and the pervasive assumption of a flat-Earth in Islamic scriptures, it is widely held that Muhammad and his companions were almost certainly ignorant of the matter. In the absence of explicit and authentic formulations from Muhammad and his companions on the topic, however, full confidence is impossible and modern inquirers are left to infer the cosmology of the earliest Muslims on the basis of indirect scriptural allusions. Such allusions are plenty and uniformly point to the assumption of a flat-Earth.

Militating against these appearances are statements from the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm, who are often cited as evidence^[57] of an early Islamic consensus on a spherical earth. While the notion of a spherical earth had undoubtedly entered the Islamic milieu in the centuries following Muhammad's death to a limited extent, claims of anything approaching an early consensus on a spherical earth are unfounded, and attempts to extend this to Muhammad's generation, entirely fanciful.

Al Mawardi (d. 1058)

Al-Mawardi (d. 450 / 1058 CE), in his commentary on Quran 13:3, regards that verse as a counter-argument to those who claim the Earth is shaped like a ball.^[58]

Ibn Hazm (d. 1064)

One of the three that Ibn Taymiyyah cites, Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) of Cordoba, asserts that while there is sound evidence that the Earth is round, common people and some non-leading Muslim scholars may think otherwise. Still, he maintains, none of the leading scholars of Islam deny that the Earth is round.^[57]

This can be taken as evidence that it was not uncommon for uneducated lay persons living in Muslim lands in the 11th century to still believe the Earth to be flat. It is likewise clear from the arguments marshalled by Ibn Hazm that, by his time, members of the scholarly class had, in addition to their round-Earth-friendly interpretations of scripture, solid astronomical reasoning on which to base their belief in the round Earth. The same can be said about the other followers of Imam Ahmad cited by Ibn Taymiyyah (see below).

Al-Qurtubi (d. 1273)

Al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE), another prominent exegete, in his commentary on Quran 13:3 regards that verse as a counter-argument to those who claim the Earth is shaped like a ball.^[59]

Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328)

In one oft-cited work^[57], Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) references Abu’l-Husayn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn al Munadi as saying that the scholars from the second level of the companions of Imam Ahmad (d. 241 AH / 855 CE) – i.e. the early Hanbalis – maintained there was consensus among the scholars that both heaven and Earth are balls, the latter consensus being based on astronomical reasoning. However, this evidence does not help determine earlier beliefs, since from the 8th century CE onwards, Muslims had access to Greek and Indian astronomical scholarship, which had already come to learn of the Earth's spherical form (see above). The term 'consensus' (ijma) has been used in different ways by different scholars, but essentially means the agreement of Muslim scholars, or, ideally, also of the salaf (the first generations of Muslims)^[60]. In this case, it is used to claim the consensus of the scholars, not that of the salaf, and certainly not that of Muhammad and his companions.

In another instance^[61], Ibn Taymiyyah, answering a question about the shape of the heavens and Earth, cites Abu’l-Husayn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn al Munadi (a second time), Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE), and Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH / 1064 CE) as saying that there is a consensus that the heavens are round. In this instance, Ibn Taymiyyah makes no mention of the shape of the Earth. He further mentions that these authorities have provided evidence for the shape of the heavens from the Qur'an, sunnah, and narrations from the companions (sahabah) and second generation.

Evidence cited by Ibn Taymiyyah

Ibn Taymiyyah proceeds to directly give this evidence for the round shapes of the heavens from the Qur'an, sunnah, and narrations from the early Muslims. Here, he argues that a round heavens and Earth is supported by what specialists on tafsir and language have said about certain words in the Qur'an.

The Qur'an verses cited by Ibn Taymiyyah in support of the round shape of the heavens are Quran 21:33, Quran 36:40, Quran 39:5, and Quran 67:5). These evidences are, however, indirect, and rely on what Ibn Taymiyyah and those he references argue is implied by their extrapolations on the grammatical nuances of the verses discussed. The solitary piece of direct evidence that Ibn Taymiyyah brings from the companions about the round shape of the heavens is a narration where Ibn 'Abbas and others comment on Quran 36:40, which describes the heavenly bodies swimming in a falak (rounded course):

A whirl or whorl was a small wheel or hemisphere that was constructed around a spindle for the purpose of clothes-making^[62]. As the sun and moon appear to arc across the sky, even those who imagined the Earth was flat and the heavens a dome (or a sphere) would also imagine some path for the two celestial bodies to continue beneath the Earth upon setting so they could return the for the following day and night cycle. In his commentary on another, related verse (Quran 31:29), Ibn Kathir quotes Ibn Abbas again, saying exactly this. The sun runs in its falak (فَلَكهَا) in the sky / heaven (السَّمَاء) during the day, and when it sets it runs during the night (بِاللَّيْلِ - omitted from the translation) in the very same "falak" beneath the Earth until it rises from its rising place (من مشرقها - translated below as "in the east").^[63]

Ibn Taymiyyah follows this with a hadith recorded in Sunan Abu Dawud which, unlike the above sahih hadith, is graded as "da'if" or weak (see: Sunan Abu Dawud 4726 (Dar-us-Salam Ref) and in which Muhammad forms a dome with his fingers above his head and proceeds to say that Allah's throne is above the heavens. Ibn Taymiyyah here interprets the narration to mean that the throne is dome shaped.

Finally, Ibn Taymiyyah cites the following hadith from al-Bukhari and, returning to his reliance on indirect grammatical nuance, argues that if the structure (the hadith refers to "Jannah" or Paradise in particular, rather than Heaven in general) described below has a "midmost" part, then it must be spherical, for only spherical structures have such a "midmost" point.

Given that Ibn Taymiyyah cited the above-mentioned scholars, the narrations he uses to argue for the spherical shape of the heavens (when asked about the shape of both the heavens and Earth), were most probably the best available. Stronger and clearer evidence might reasonably be expected if a consensus for the round shape of the Earth (in addition to that of the heavens) went back to Muhammad and the companions.

Ibn Kathir (d. 1373)

Ibn Kathir says the heavens are a dome or roof or like the floors of a building over the Earth which is its foundation in his tafsir for verses 2:29, 13:2, 21:32, 36:38, and 41:9-12. It is also clear like those before him he is directly aware of astronomers theories.

Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli (d. 1460)

In Tafsir al-Jalalayn, started by Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli (d. 1460) and completed by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505), a different majority view is asserted. This relevant portion of the Tafsir is authored by al-Mahalli):

The word "sutihat" in Quran 88:20 means "laid out flat".

See also their commentary on 91.6, 71.19, 13.3, 15.19, 51.48, 79:30 etc.

Others

Many further examples of scholars expressing a flat earth interpretation of the Quran are collated in another article. One can see that all early mufassirūn (Quranic scholars who wrote commentaries/tafsirs) (which can be viewed directly on tafsir.com) that commented on the relevant verses took the view the Qur'an was describing a flat earth with the sun literally setting in a muddy spring.

Adding to these lists of mufassirūn we can almost certainly add the main compliers of the hadith (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i and ibn Majah), who were themselves extremely important scholars in early Islam. As while they may not have had a 100% consistent view of the cosmos in every aspect, it is clear they adhere to the ancient flat-Earth (with seven flat earths) geocentric worldview, as they would unlikely have trusted or contained so many statements in their collections (such as mentioned above), had they known or believed them to conflict directly with reality or the Qur'an.

These interpretations contrast with claims of an Islamic scholarly consensus for a round earth. As Dr Omar Anchassi says 'It is clear that the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic vision of the cosmos remained contested by theologians of all stripes to the end of the fifth/eleventh century'^[65] in his article 'Against Ptolemy? Cosmography in Early Kalām' (2022).

Modern perspectives and criticisms thereof

Qur'an 22:61 and 31:29 - night and day merging

Today, it is sometimes advanced that the word "Merging" here means that the night slowly and gradually changes to day and vice versa. This phenomenon, it is then argued, can only take place if the earth is spherical. If the earth was flat, there would have been a sudden change from night to day and from day to night.

However, every person who ever believed in a flat Earth, in so far as they had seen the sun setting and rising, understood that the transition from day to night and vice versa was a gradual and not sudden one. The key difference between a flat earth cosmology and modern cosmology in this regard is that a flat earth cosmology does not permit variant time zones across the surface of the planet, since day is day for everyone and night is night for all. Several other hadith confirm this ignorance of variant day times, most famously perhaps the hadiths describing the day of judgement as beginning one morning when the Sun "rises from the West". A sahih hadith in Ibn Majah attests that later on that same day, "at forenoon", the "Beast will emerge". This narrations vividly illustrates the scriptural notion of a common time-of-day taking place worldwide.

39:5 - night and day wrapped over each other

In the very similar verse 39:5 the word يُكَوِّرُ yukawwiru (he overlaps / winds around^[66]) is used. The verb كور was used for, among other things, wrapping a turban around a head. Today, it is also sometimes argued that this wrapping connotation of the word comports with a spherical conception of the Earth.

While the words used in 39:5 and 21:33 do not violate a spherical model of the Earth, they are also equally comfortable with a flat model of the Earth. Since all positive evidence in the Islamic scriptures demonstrates that the earliest Muslims though the Earth to be flat, and since these two verses do not contradict that worldview, the simplest explanation of these verses is to relate them to Quran 21:33 and Quran 36:40 which describe the motions of the night, day, sun and moon in a "falak", now popularly translated as "orbit", but meaning a circuitous path, celestial sphere or, more likely, a hemisphere (see Geocentrism and the Quran). Also relevant are Quran 7:54 where Allah "covers" the night with the day (or possibly vice versa) and Quran 36:37 where Allah strips the day from the night.

Verse 39:5 specifically describes Allah overlapping (or wrapping) the night and the day over each other, with no mention of the Earth, its shape or its rotation. Critics further argue that in any case, these two verses are largely irrelevant to the question of the Earth's shape, as it is possible for one to "wrap around" and "orbit" an object of any shape, whether it be flat or spherical.

It is further worth noting that contrary to a claim sometimes found on English-language Islamic websites, the verb yukawwiru (يُكوِّر) in this verse (overlap/wind around) is not in any way related to the modern Arabic word for "ball" (كرة).^[67] Nor is yakawwiru (from the root kaf-waw-ra ) related to an entirely different root (ك ر ي kaf-ra-ya) from which certain words mean spherical or sphericalness.^[68]

For further discussion, see Geocentrism and the Quran.

Qur'an 79:30 - daha ("spread out", said to mean "ostrich egg")

Verse 79:30 uses the word دَحَىٰهَآ (dahaha), commonly translated as ‘He spread it’ or ‘He stretched it’, to describe to describe a step in the creation of the Earth. Today, it is sometimes argued that word means something to the effect of "he made it to be like an ostrich egg", the implication being that because an ostrich egg is both spherical and slightly oval-shaped, it is comparable to the shape of the Earth. Such a translation and interpretation is, however, not backed by any dictionary of classical Arabic and features in no authoritative translation or tafsir of the Qur'an.

The هَا (-ha) suffix pronoun meaning literally "her" is also repeated in the surrounding verses as a literary device, all referring the different acts of creation Allah is imparting upon the Earth and "the heaven":

Authoritative translations of the Qur'an do not read anything to the effect of an ostrich egg into the verse (see: Quran 79:30):

Some less reliable translations, such as the one rendered by the controversial Rashad Khalifa and the notoriously edited and confessedly non-literal QXP translation (indeed, the QXP translation is better described as a tafsir rather than a translation of the Qur'an, comparable in style to Tafsir al-Jalalayn)^[70] have interpolated the ostrich-egg theory into the verse:

Daha as derived from duhiya and related to madaahi

The specific argument often advanced today is that that word daha may derive from the word duhiya, which is said to mean "ostrich egg".^[71] The idea here is that, if these words derive from the same root, they both carry the same "signification" of oval-shaped roundness, and, since the Earth is not perfectly spherical but rather slightly oval, this common "signification" serves as evidence that Qur'anic cosmology is essentially modern. Further buttressing this claim, it is argued, are: another sense of the word daha (which means "he threw" or "he cast", referring particularly to the casting of a madaahi into its udhiyah)^[72], the word madaahi (which refers to a small stone or similar object in the shape of a "small round cake of bread")^[73], and udhiyah (which refers to a small hole, roughly the size of the madaahi, into which the madaahi is to be cast as part of a game)^[73]. All these terms carrying a similar "signification" of roundness, it is thus concluded, make it so that the creation of the Earth described in 79:30 implies roundness.

Critics argue that such a reading is bereft of any linguistic basis or traditional and scriptural precedent.

Definitions

Almost every word in Arabic is formed of a root consisting of three letters to which have a variety of vowels, prefixes, and suffixes have been added. For instance, "ka-ta-ba" (to write) is the root for words including kitab (book), maktaba (library), katib (author), and maktoob (written).

Duhiya is derived from "da-ha-wa" (دحو)^[22], just like the verb dahaha (دَحَىٰهَآ) in 79:30 (the final -ha being a pronoun suffix meaning "it"). The word Duhiya, while sometimes used in contexts relating to ostrich eggs, is not attested to actually mean "ostrich egg" in any dictionary.

The entry in Lisan al-Arab contains Arabic poems whose usage of the word daha serves as proof for the definition provided by the dictionary

The modern usage of words derived from the same root as daha, as found in Hans Wehr, is also strongly indicative of the word's original meaning.

Dahaha used for a flat earth in pre-Islamic poetry

As discussed in more detail above in the section Qur'an 79:30 - daha ("spread out wide"), a pre-Islamic (or at least very early) arabic poem attributed to Zayd b. 'Amr used daḥāhā "He spread it out" to very explicitly describe the spreading of a flat earth.

Tradition and scripture

Tafsirs explain that this verse describes the Earth to be flat. A brief example of this is found in Tafsir al-Jalalayn. The word translated "He made it flat" is a verbal form of the word for carpet used in Quran 71:19 discussed above, meaning to spread out, expand, stretch forth.

There is no mention of the Earth being shaped like an ostrich egg in scripture, however the word "ostrich egg" does appear in a hadith in Ibn Majah, and nothing approximating the words dahaha or duhiya is used. Instead, an ostrich egg is referred to as بَيْضِ النَّعَامِ (bayd al-ni'aam), the first word (bayd) meaning "egg" and the second word (al-ni'aam) meaning "the ostrich"; the positioning and grammatical qualities of these two words render the phrase possessive, bringing about the meaning "egg of the ostrich" or, more colloquially, "an ostrich egg".

Oblate vs prolate spheroids (earth vs egg shape)

An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid, no matter its orientation. Spheres, oblate spheroids, and prolate spheroids are all fundamentally different shapes defined by different mathematical equations.

In addition to the disagreement of definitions available in dictionaries, translations, and tafsirs with the definitions required to justify this modern reinterpretation, neither of the connections attempted ("ostrich egg" and madaahi) accurately denote or imply the shape of the Earth.

An ostrich egg is a prolate spheroid (a sphere-like shape with pointed poles) like most eggs. This is fundamentally different to the shape of the Earth, which is a very slightly oblate spheroid (a sphere-like shape with flattened poles). The Earth is 0.3% wider at its equator than it is tall between its poles.^[74] This is not merely a matter of perspective or orientation. An oblate spheroid cannot be made prolate simply by rotating it.

The shape of the madaahi, whether in the form of a stone or some other object, is said to be like a "small round cake of bread" or a "قرصة".^[73] Such cakes of bread are defined as being "very small", "of a round, flattened form", like the apparent "disk of the sun"^[75], and, on the whole, far more similar in shape to discs or extremely-oblate spheroids than they are to the only very slightly oblate Earth.

Plate tectonics

One modern Islamic interpretation for verses which mention the spreading of the earth is that Allah is referring to plate tectonics (formerly known as the theory of continental drift). Critics note numerous flaws with this interpretation.

Tectonic history is largely characterised by a cycle of repeated supercontinent formation and breakup, and not a one-off "spreading of the earth" event, as it is sometimes misrepresented on Islamic websites.

Descriptions of the earth as a bed (20:53 and the other mahdan verses) or carpet (71:19), or the use of verbs for the spreading of such an item (51:48) or stretching it out (13:3 and other verses which use madad), spreading to make it wide (79:30) and flat (88:20), do not remotely sound anything like the process of plate tectonics.

Moreover, the tectonic plate interpretation is reliant on the "spread" verbs in such verses, divorcing them artificially from the nouns which describe the earth as something which was laid out (like a bed or carpet). Yet these are obviously all part of a connected imagery.

It is further notable that verses such as Quran 88:17-20 assume that the 7th century listeners are aware of what is being referred to ("Do they not look..."), which can hardly be plate tectonics. Indeed, the earth appears essentially spread out and flat to a scientifically unaware observer. The Judeo-Christian tradition with which the Quran frequently assumes its listeners are familiar uses similar language (see Isaiah 42:5 and Psalms 136:6).

Perhaps most importantly, the spreading out of a flat earth makes sense as a beneficial act of creation for mankind. But it is far less obvious how the process of plate tectonics compares as the same kind of direct benefit as the creation of tracts, rivers and fruits of the Earth mentioned in the same verses. Finally, all these things are consistently described as creation events using verbs in the past tense in Arabic (not always clear in translations), yet all are ongoing processes to this day.

The Earth is flat, but only from a human perspective

The above fatwa, understanding the statements of scripture to simply describe reality as it is perceived by the unaided human eye, represents another common trend among Islamic scholars today. The example of Ibn Baz's fatwa is especially pertinent since he once maintained that the Earth was flat^[76] and, in a fatwa still hosted on his website, asserts that there is no convincing evidence that the sun is larger than the Earth^[77]. Despite the anti-modern nature of views he once held and even, in some cases, apparently held until his passing in 1999, Ibn Baz eventually revised his literal reading of the verses describing the creation and nature of the Earth. Such changes in readings of scripture are characteristic of a large subset of Islamic scholars.

This modern reinterpretation of Qur'anic cosmology significantly aligns with modern science and historiography insofar as it understands the intent of the Qur'an to be based on the worldview of the 7th-century Arabian city where it is said to have been produced - that is, as far as Muhammad and his companions were concerned and could tell, the world was indeed flat, and this is the same perspective assumed by the Qur'an. The Qur'an and its first audience did not know the Earth was spherical and did not say as much. This reading of the Qur'an also benefits from not relying on faulty linguistic, historic, and geometric ideas in order to force fit a round earth reading into the verses. This view is the most common amongst educated Muslims today and is likely to predominate going forward.

On the other hand, critics, in line with academic scholars such as those quoted earlier in this article, argue that the context of most of the relevant verses is expressly the creation of the heavens and the earth and that these are therefore statements about the earth as a whole, even if the main purpose of the verses are to remind the audience how Allah has thereby made the earth traversible and hospitable to humans.

If the Quranic author was describing the earth only as perceived from a 'human' or 'local' perspective, critics note that he could easily have stated so explicitly, or with further context: for example, 'see how the Earth appears spread out like a carpet/bed for you to live on safely', or 'the ground in front of you is spread out'. And/or ignore flat references, focusing on other aspects of nature's beauty and benefits to make the same point, without denoting a cosmological view that has been directly and repeatedly used by devout Islamic scholars throughout history to argue against a round earth.^[78]

See Also

• Cosmology - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Cosmology

• Scientific Errors in the Quran
• Geocentrism and the Quran
• The Islamic Whale

Translations

• A version of this page is also available in the following languages: French, Czech. For additional languages, see the sidebar on the left.

External Links

• Qur'an & Science Problem: The Seven Earths - Their Existence and their Location - answering-Islam.org
• Scholarly consensus of a round earth? - The Islam Issue

References