Geocentrism and the Qur'an

In Islamic cosmology

The Qur'an says that both the sun and the moon swim or float in a circuitous path, celestial sphere or, more likely, a hemisphere (a falak in the Arabic^[1]). It seems that Allah brings the sun from the east, which then goes high above the Earth, and after sunset goes to a resting place. All this takes place around an Earth that is spread out (or flattened) and which possesses a firmament of seven heavens built atop it without visible pillars.

Historical background

Geocentrism is the notion that the Earth is the (immovable) center of our universe, thus all celestial bodies move around it. The ancient Greeks and the Europeans of the middle ages thought that the celestial bodies (the sun, the moon and the 5 known planets) all moved in celestial spheres around a spherical Earth. This was the theory of Ptolemy (d. 170 CE), who was followed by Muslim astronomers from the 9th century CE, though Islamic texts expressing doubts about his ideas started to appear regularly from the 10th century.^[2] Aside from notable exceptions such as Aristarchus of Samos, heliocentrism was only advocated by occasional figures with small followings and widely rejected before the work of Copernicus.

Geocentrism is different from the idea that the Earth is flat. However, while those who believe in geocentrism do not always hold the Earth to be flat, those who hold the Earth to be flat almost invariably believe in geocentrism.

Historical influences on Islamic cosmology

The geocentrism and cosmography in general of the Qur'an shows little or no influence from Ptolemaic concepts of heavenly spheres, each containing a celestial body, according to which paradigm the Qur'an and the word falak came to be interpreted^[1][3] In a paper on Qur'anic cosmography, Damien Janos notes that the "Qurʾānic cosmology stems from a different religious background and it does not contain any conspicuous signs of synthesis or assimilation with the cosmological trends indebted to Ptolemaic astronomy"^[4] and observes that in various respects the two paradigms are incompatible, particularly as the celestial bodies move in the lowest part of the seven heavens in the Qur'anic model.^[5] Rather, the Qur'an is more reflective of its Biblical and Mesopotamian predecessors (see also Cosmology of the Quran). In the same paper Janos does, however, theorise that the Qur'anic falak may contain Greek influence given how often it was interpreted in terms of circularity or sphericity by Muslim scholars. He also considers as a possible hypothesis that both the falak and seven heavens "can be construed as having not a fully spherical shape, but rather a hemispherical or domed-shape", and the sun would transit back to its origin in the east "via an underground passage", which "finds some support in traditional Arabic reports [...] and seems to have Mesopotamian antecendents".^[6]

The Qur'an in several places and contexts advances or alludes to descriptions of the heavenly bodies which explicitly or implicitly entail a geocentric model of the solar system. Seven such distinct assertions form the crux of the discussion on geocentrism in the Quran.

First is the strongly implied idea that both the courses or orbits (falak) taken by the sun and moon should be visible to the people addressed in the Qur'an. Second is the Quran's assertion that the moon follows the sun. The "floating" or "swimming" (the verb جري) of the sun is always mentioned with that of the moon, and in these verses they are nearly always mentioned in the context of night and day.^[7]

Third, in Quran 36:37-40, which is a passage about night and day, right after describing the change from day to night the passages states that the sun runs on to a designated resting place (see footnotes regarding the Arabic word here, which differs from similar verses).^[8][9] There are also sahih hadith that use the same Arabic word as in Quran 36:38 to identify "a resting place" as part of the sun's daily cycle.^[10] An alternative view is that this refers to the sun's final resting on the last day rather than some temporal location. Another similar sahih hadith apparently supports this view.^[11] Whichever meaning was originally intended, the sun's movement is nevertheless mentioned right after describing day and night, just as the next verse mentions the different mansions appointed for the moon each night. The whole passage is about day and night and the sun and moon's movement in that context.

Fourth is the idea that the sun and moon each float in an orbit (Quran 21:33 and Quran 36:40), or more precisely, each in a falak, a word with various meanings related to the celestial sphere or dome-shaped things, as described in Lane's lexicon of classical arabic.^[1] The main definition Lane provides is of the place of the revolving of the stars, the celestial sphere, generally imagined to be a hemisphere by the Arabs, or the pole of the heavens. The more common English translations, 'orbit', or 'rounded course', seem to be based on the meanings related to roundness or circling. Ibn 'Abbas is recorded in the tafasir (commentaries) of al-Tabari and of ibn Kathir explaining that the sun and moon swimming in a falak means 'in a whirl (whorl), like the whirl of a spindle' (a hemisphere-shaped object).^[12] It may also be based on another ibn 'Abbas comment, as noted by ibn Kathir, that the sun runs in its falak in the sky or heaven during the day, and when it sets, it runs at night in its falak underneath the Earth until it rises in the east.^[13] Al-Tabari further mentions other opinions, such as that it means the pole of the heavens, and similarly, the shape of an iron millstone (or perhaps the iron axis thereof).

Fifth is the statement that "It is not for the sun to overtake the moon", though on the last day they will be joined together, which is thus suggestive of the two bodies orbiting the same central body and while being positioned at a relatively similar distance. Sixth is the idea that stars have certain fixed "settings" (or mawaqi); and while the day, night, the sun and moon are mentioned as all floating in an orbit (falak), while there is no indication of the Earth possessing its own orbit or falak.^[14] And seventh is the verse which approvingly quotes Abraham telling a king that Allah brings the sun from the east and challenging him to bring it from the west, and the verses in the Dhu'l Qarnayn story which describe the setting and rising places of the sun as concrete locations which humans can visit and have visited (and even resided nearby), historically.

The visibility of the sun's movement

Modern Islamic scholars have often argued that references in the Qur'an to the sun's movement concern its 225 million year orbit around our milky way galaxy rather than to a supposed geocentric orbit. Critics have responded that the the author of the Qur'an describes a movement of the sun (as well as of the moon) which he expects its listeners to see and that, for this reason, the reference cannot be to the sun's galactic orbit.

The words 'and that' (wa anna) towards the end of the verse indicate that "Do you not see" applies to the entire verse, suggesting that it is not just the day and night, but also the running of the sun and moon that the 7^th century listeners of the Qur'an were expected to know about. Critics maintain that implication here is that the audience could 'see' the night turn into day and vice versa, and that they could see the sun and the moon running their courses around the earth.

The words "don't you see" (alam tara أَلَمْ تَرَ^[15]) may be interpreted in the sense of "don't you know" or "aren't you aware", but nonetheless function as an appeal to common knowledge. To critics, this common 7^th century Arabian knowledge of geocentrism is erroneous, and in affirming this erroneous perception, the Quran itself may be said to err.

The word translated "running" (yajree يَجْرِىٓ) in this and the next few verses quoted below was used in classical Arabic to describe the physical travelling of heavenly bodies along their courses, and in general means to run, or to flow like water (or even "swim"). It is used two verses later in Quran 31:31 to describe the sailing of ships.^[16]

Quran 13:2 states that the sun and moon running their courses are signs (ayaat) to mankind, implying they are facts known to and appreciated by a 7th century Arabian audience. The verses state that these signs are explained in detail in the Qur'an in order to strengthen the faith of its listeners. Critics argue that this directly undermines the idea that the Quran could have been alluding to the galactic orbit of the sun, for such an orbit was not known to the Quran's audience, and thus could not strengthen their faith, until some fourteen centuries after the Quran's authorship.

Quran 36:37-40 state that the sun follows a daily cycle, which ends every night when the sun goes to its resting place (ِmustaqarrin مُسْتَقَرٍّ)^[9]. As usual in the Qur'an (Quran 13:2 being the only exception), the sun's movement is mentioned in the context of night and day.

The phrase "It is not for the sun to overtake the moon" in Quran 36:40 does not, critics point out, fit a heliocentric perspective, yet is quite natural from a 7^th century perspective where the sun and moon were believed to orbit the same world, and indeed, would one day be joined together (see below). The word translated 'for' in the phrase 'It is not for the sun...' in Quran 36:40 is yanbaghee (يَنۢبَغِى), which means "fitting", "suitable", "proper", "behoves", "right and allowable", "good, "facilitated", "easy", "practicable", or "manageable"^[17] and the word translated 'overtake' is tudrika (تُدْرِكَ), which means "catches up and comes upon".^[18]

Quran 25:45 tells of an indirect observation of the sun's movement.

Aside from other light sources, shadows on Earth are produced when the sun's light is obstructed. The Earth's rotation causes these shadows to change size and lengthen. The above verses state that the reason shadows fluctuate in size rather than being stationary is because Allah has made the sun their guide. Critics note that this appears to confirm the geocentric outlook widely evidenced elsewhere in the Qur'an, for it is only on a geocentric view that shadows would be of fixed length if the sun (rather than the Earth) were not made to do something.

The length of the shadow cast by the sun is also used to determine the start of the Asr prayer time; the apparent movement of the sun is still used to schedule various Islamic rituals, as discussed further below.

The similar size and distance of the sun and moon

In a passage about events on the day of resurrection, the Quran makes an assertion which, critics argue, implies that the sun and moon are of a similar size and are located a similar distance from Earth.

The word translated "are joined" is jumi'a, a verb which means to collect together, gather together, bring together.^[19] Critics note that this would require the moon to travel 98 million miles away from Earth and into the sun, which is over 600 times wider, which is less suitable as an apocalyptic event than if the ancient understanding of the cosmos was correct. To critics, on the ancient view, the collision of the moon and the sun would entail a far more dramatic and apocalyptically appropriate collision of two roughly equivalent celestial bodies in the sky above the Earth.

The course of the sun in relation to the course of the moon

The courses of the sun and the moon are designated as a pair of sorts, and are always mentioned together in the Qur'an.

In the view of critics, this suggests that the sun takes a path or action similar or at least comparable to that of the moon (which goes around earth once per month, and to an ancient person would appear to do so on a nightly basis). The word translated "follow" is used many other places to mean recite, but is primarily defined as "to follow", "go", "walk behind", or "follow in way of imitation" or "of action", and is often used for animals like camels following behind each other.^[20] Critics note that while the moon neither follows behind the sun's movement nor provides its own light like the sun, a pre-modern observer would get the impression that the moon and sun, in a sense, "chase" one another in orbit about the Earth (an impression the Quran appears to agree with).

There are many other verses where the sun and moon are paired. In Quran 36:37-40 the sun's movement (as well as day and night) is a token, or sign, that the hearers can readily observe.

Quran 35:11-13 explains that it is not only humans that were created in pairs (male and female), but also the two bodies of flowing waters (one salty and one sweet), the night and the day, and the sun and the moon.

The shape of the sun's course

Various verses describe the shape of the sun's course. The general scheme involves Allah bringing the sun from east and the sun traveling high and eventually going back down. Critics and modern Islamic scholars agree, however, that most of these verses are comparable to the kind of convenient colloquialisms we still use today (see Quran 20:059, Quran 20:130, Quran 17:078, Quran 6:77-78, and Quran 18:17). Some of these verses, however, have been the object of considerable debate between the two groups.

Quran 2:258 approvingly quotes a few lines from a debate between Abraham and a disbelieving king, where Abraham replies that Allah brings the sun (yatee biashshamsi يَأْتِى بِٱلشَّمْسِ) from the east. The arabic verb and preposition indicate that the sun is conceived of as physically moving.^[21]

Quran 18:84-90 also describes the physical, terrestrial locations where the sun is supposed to rise and set in response to a question about an existing legend. Here, in the Quranic account of life of Dhul Qarnayan or Alexander the Great, the physical setting place of the sun, located in muddy spring, can be seen by human eyes. Indeed, in this account, a human tribe is said to live adjacent to this celestial setting place.

There is historical evidence from early Quranic commentaries and other sources, including contemporary Arabic and Syriac poems of the same legend, to the effect that early Muslims took this account literally.

Critics conclude that the Qur'an is clear about the course of the sun: it does not describe a complete orbit, but rather a rounded course, presumably in a hemisphere (falak^[1]) that has a beginning, an end, and a highest point.

The regular cycle of the sun

According to several verses in the Qur'an, the sun's cycle is repeated on a regular basis and is comparable in this respect to the orbit of the Moon as well as the cycle of night and day.

Husban can mean a number of things: "definite reckoning", "appointed courses", "numbering", "revolving firmament", "running appointed", and "scheduled course". In many English translations the word 'course' or 'celestial sphere' is used. In this verse, the word falak is not used; Quran 55:5 only indicates that the sun and the moon behave in a calculated, scheduled, or otherwise pre-appointed manner. This verse and similar verses are consequently marshalled by critics as further evidence that the Quran espouses a geocentric cosmology, as the sun's daily cycle and the moon's monthly cycle serve ritual timekeeping purposes such as for determining prayer and fasting times in Islam (see next section).

The movement of the sun and timekeeping

In Muhammad's lifetime it was common practice to use the sun and moon for timekeeping, which helps explain the emphasis in the Qur'an on the regulated and scheduled nature of the courses of the sun and moon as a sign from Allah and as a divinely sanctioned monthly calendar (see previous section).

The moon (the sign, or ayah, of the night) is used to count the years, which comprise the twelve lunar months making up the Islamic year, and the sun is to be used to keep track of time. The only solar movement to be used for timekeeping is the apparent daily course of the sun (from east up and then down to the west). To this day, virtually all mainstream Islamic authorities use the (less precise and regularly unpredictable) lunar calendar to determine the date and the apparent position of the sun from any given location to determine the waqt (prescribed time) of daily salats (prayers). In some cases, as with the Burj Khalifa, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world and which is located in the United Arab Emirates, this means that prayer times differ one the top floor of the building from the prayer times on the bottom floor of the building, as the moment of sunset and sunrise varies as one ascends in elevation.

Solar "orbit" and the daily prayers

The only examples of the sun being used for timekeeping in the Qur'an employ the sun's apparent daily movement along the sky. Each of the five daily prayers described either directly or indirectly or alluded to in some manner in the Quran. These references all involve mention of the physical, orbital position of the sun. The first prayer, salat al-fajr, takes place right before sun rise and is mentioned in Quran 17:78, Quran 20:130, and Quran 24:58. The second prayer, salat al-zuhr, takes place right after the sun reaches its zenith, but before the shadow of the Sun becomes twice its length from midday. This prayer is possibly mentioned in Quran 17:78 as prayer at the "decline of the sun". The third prayer, salat al-asr, takes place when the sun is between zenith and sunset, when the length of a shadow of a stick is either once or twice its length. This prayer is mentioned in Quran 2:238 as "the middle prayer" and in Quran 20:130 and Quran 50:39 as the "exhalt[ing of Allah] with praise" before the sun's "setting". The fourth prayer, salat al-maghrib, takes place right after sunset. This prayer is not clearly mentioned, but Quran 20:130 and Quran 50:39 mention the "exhalt[ing of Allah] with praise" before rather than after "sunset". The latter verse also mentions "the two ends of the day". The fifth prayer, salat al-isha, takes place at night, between sunset and sunrise. This prayer is mentioned Quran 11:114, Quran 17:79, and Quran 20:130.

In light of the many verses describing a geocentric system and the difficulties this poses in reconciling the Qur'an with the findings of modern science, many modern Islamic scholars have attempted to re-read the Quran as describing a heliocentric system. A major factor in these re-readings, as mentioned above, has been identifying the "orbit" or falak of the sun described in the Quran as a reference to the sun's orbit in the Milky Way galaxy. Likewise discussed above, Quran 36:40 ('it is not for the sun to overtake the moon...') has been re-read in a manner concordant with a heliocentric model.

Quran 91:1-4

In addition to the above two re-readings, two other verses are advanced to suggest that the author of the Quran was aware of the Earth's rotation about its axis.

In its plain sense, it appears that 'day' and 'night' here may refer to the process of the Earth's rotation revealing and obstructing the view of the sun (though the verse can also fit with a geocentric view where 'day' and 'night' are processes when the sun is above or below the horizon). While modern Islamic scholars frequently use this verse to defend a heliocentric reading of the Quran, critics argue that the verse's agreement with heliocentrism is undermined when certain other verses in the Quran are considered which appear to elucidate its meaning.

In addition, critics argue, because the Earth is actually a globe, there are no specific times 'when' (itha) the day reveals the sun or the night conceals it. Rather, at all times half the Earth is in daytime and half in nighttime, so the sun is at all times being both revealed and concealed. This problem, critics note, would not arise if the word 'when' (itha) were simply removed from these verses (an exclusion the author of Quran, if inclined to heliocentrism, would likely have made).

The other verses considered in this context by critics which use the the same Arabic verb as found in Quran 91:1-4, are said to show that the verb here does not simply signify that the body of the earth is blocking the line of sight to something. Quran 92:1-2 use the same words found Quran 91:3-4, but without the pronoun suffix at the end. Thus, critics conclude, the "night" is when things generally are "covered", and not just the sun on the other side of the Earth. Likewise, the "day" is when things generally are "revealed". In this reading, the verbs employed are used only in a poetic manner.

In Quran 10:27, the night's "cover" (the same verb as in Quran 91:4) is used to apply to all things and not just the sun. As a result, critics argue, it is difficult to interpret the night covering the sun in Quran 91:4 as literally meaning that the body of the earth covers the sun on its other side. The word "pieces" in the translation means portion or piece cut off from the whole.^[22]

The same Arabic word for cover appears again in Quran 7:54, where it is the day doing the "covering", or possibly the other way round (the Arabic is ambiguous and translations differ, while tafsirs take the view that it means either or both). Critics argue that it is far from clear how the verse could be interpreted as describing a rotating Earth blocking the night (however that conception may be interpreted) in a manner analogous to the heliocentric interpretation of Quran 91:4. Critics then assert, instead, that the plain sense of these verses and the Quran at large hold the day and night to be active and physically independent entities.

Quran 39:5

The other verse advanced by modern Islamic scholars as favoring a heliocentric re-reading of the scripture is Quran 39:5. Here the word translated "wraps" (kawwara, as with a turban, for example) is argued to be indicative of the rotation of the Earth.

As with Quran 7:54 and Quran 36:37 and the verses where the day and night (as well as the sun and moon) are said to swim in a falak^[1] (see above), the night and day in this verse are referred to as some kind of entities. Here, critics argue that it would make sense to describe the Earth as passing through night and day or possibly to say that night and day wrap around the earth, as one might spin an item in order to wrap it with something. But, the critics note, the Qur'an instead says that Allah wraps the day and night over one another rather than the earth, suggesting that the night and day possess some manner of corporeal form.

To this, some modern Islamic scholars have responded that 'day' here refers to that half of the Earth that is currently sunward and that 'night' refers to the shadow of the Earth cast by the sun. Critics are, however, unsatisfied with this rebuttal. They note that if this argument is accepted, then in order to make the next phrase work, the 'night' would instead have to refer to that half of the Earth that is currently opposite the sun, and, moreover, the 'day' would have to refer to the light from the sun.

Two verses nearly identical to Quran 39:5 are Quran 31:29 and Quran 35:13 (also containing similar phrasing are Quran 3:27, Quran 22:61, and Quran 57:6) where instead of "he wraps", the verb "he causes to enter" (yooliju) is used. Critics argue that, along with Quran 7:54 where the day is said to "cover" and "chase" the night (or possibly vice versa) and Quran 36:37 where Allah strips the day from the night, these verses present a picture of the day and night successively being wrapped across each other and in so doing covering the other and entering into it. It is in this picture, they note, that night never "outruns" (sabiqu) the day (Quran 36:40).

The argument of timeless comprehensibility

Modern Islamic scholars also make the case that though indirect, Quran 39:5 is as direct a reference to the Earth's rotation as would have permitted the point to be made while keeping 7th century Arabs from immediately dismissing Muhammad's message on grounds of pre-modern incredulity. To emphasize this point, modern Islamic scholars evoke the doctrine of the maximal possible perfection of every verse in the Quran and suggest that Allah struck the perfect balance of simultaneously alluding to modern science while speaking in terms comprehensible to the inhabitants of a 7th century Arabian desert. To this presentation, critics have responded pointing out that Muhammad's message was immediately dismissed and mocked by most of his contemporaries anyways, and that widespread conversion to Islam was more a consequence of Muhammad's later military success than his preaching and doctrine. According to hadith tradition, Muhammad did not hesitate to tell his contemporaries he had met an angel, ridden a winged beast up to Allah, and accomplished other fantastic feats. This having been the case, critics ask why Allah should not simply have gone ahead and stated plainly what he wanted to state, knowing that his message would thereby have increasingly resonated generations later. To critics, the author of the Quran did not see his description of the heavens as scientifically novel or as couched in compromised language for the sake of comprehensibility, but was simply describing the universe he held to exist in common with his audience in order to inspire awe, all while having no real regard for their ridicule or mockery of him.

Ancient and modern Muslim astronomers

Muhammad's Muslim contemporaries all accepted the Qur'an's geocentric cosmology. References in the Hadith of the ansari or others in Muhammad's environment arguing about this point with their prophet or among themselves are nonexistent. Famous Muslim astronomers (people who certainly read, and knew the Qur'an) like the Arab astronomer Ibn al-Shatir and the Persian Nasir al-Din al-Tusi used Greek (geocentric) astronomy to create complex models of the ‘universe’ that were geocentric (to pre-moderns, the 'universe' comprised the local solar system).

In a televised debate aired on Iraqi Al-Fayhaa TV (October 31, 2007), the Islamic astronomer Fadhel Al-Sa'd asserted the following:

In Fadhel Al-Sa'd's view, the moon's diameter is 1,200,000 km, while that of the sun is only 2,400,000 km.

Muhammad's contemporaries

Hadiths graded as authentic by Islamic scholars and found in collections like Sahih Muslim maintain that the sun moves around the earth and goes to its resting place at night, until it is told to return to "its rising place" (matli'iha), a word which also appears in Quran 18:90 when Dhu'l Qarnayn reaches the rising place of the sun (mali'a ash-shamsi).^[23] One day the sun will be told instead to go and emerge "from the place of your setting" (min maghribiki), and so, it will go and emerge "from the place of its setting" (min maghribiha), often mistranslated as "the west" in other narrations of this prophecy, despite the possessive suffix and lack of definite article^[24]. The direct address to the sun and possessive pronouns show that this is not a mere figure of speech about the rotation of the Earth or the east and the west.

Similar versions of this hadith are found in Sahih Bukhari and elsewhere in Sahih Muslim. In another hadith Muhammad recorded telling the story of an earlier prophet who asked the sun to stop moving, whereafter the sun complied with his request. This hadith is based on the story of Joshua found in the Bible and is also found in Sahih Muslim:

These Hadiths are all deemed 'sahih' (authentic) according to Islamic scholars. According to historians, however, even if these hadiths are not historically reliable, they nonetheless indicate what very early Muslim authorities believed about the sun and are thus useful in interpreting the intended meaning of the Qur'an.

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

• Muhammad's Geocentric Universe - YouTube video