The Islamic Whale: Difference between revisions

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 ==ِTafsir Fath Al-Qadir (by Shawkani)==
-This tafsir is from the 18th century:
+This tafsir is from the 18th century re-affirms the idea that the world is carried on the back of a whale:
 {{Quote|Fath Al-Qadir on 68:1<ref>http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=9&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1</ref>|
 هو الحوت الذي يحمل الأرض
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 ==Hadith Al-Kafi (shia)==
-We can also read about the Islamic whale from the Shia hadiths. This narration explains the connection between the whale and earthquakes:
+Hadith Al-Kafi, one of the most prestigious Shi'ite hadith, also confirms that a whale carries the earth upon its back:
 {{Quote|Al-Kafi, vol. 8, part 6, <ref>Page 45. [https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf Kitab al-Kafi]. Archived at [http://web.archive.org/web/20161227191002/https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf].</ref>|H 14813  –  From  him,  from  Salih,  from  one  of  his  companions,  from Abdul Samad Bin Basheer, who has reported the following: Abu Abdullah (asws) has said that: ‘'''The whale which is carrying the earth''' secretly said to itself that it is carrying the earth by its own strength. So Allah (azwj) the High  Sent to it a fish smaller than a palm’s length, and larger than a finger. So it entered in its gills and shocked it. It remained like that for forty days. Then Allah (azwj) Raised it and was Merciful to it, and Took it out. So whenever Allah (azwj) Intends the earth  to be in a quake, He (azwj) Sends that (small) fish to that (big) fish. So when it sees it, it becomes restless, so the earth gets engulfed by the earthquake’. }}
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 And said Ibn Abbas (ابن عباس) - in his narration - that Nun (النون) is a whale (الحوت) which on it are the Earths (الارضون).}}
-As we see, Ibn Abbas and his narration is deeply respected by both sunni and shia Muslims.
+There is thus attestation of Nun the whale in both the Sunni and Shi'ite tradition.
-==Evidence==
+==The Qur'anic Cosmology vis-à-vis Modern Science ==
-There is no scientific evidence suggesting that there is a big whale carrying the Earth on its back. We know today because of overwhelming evidence that the earth is round, or specifically oblate spheroid (there are no seven flat earths stacked one below the other). We also know that the earth is floating in space and is held in its orbit because of the gravitational force of the sun. There are no gigantic animals holding the earth as the tafsirs and hadith claim.
+The world view evinced in the tasfir is one fundamentally at odds with the modern, scientific understanding of cosmology, earth sciences and geology. The authors of the tafsir tradition and the Qur'an seem to have been operating on the assumption that the earth that the human race inhabits is flat, and moreover it is only one of many different earths. The belief that the world is balanced on the back of a giant cosmological animal is not peculiar to Islam--witness the Hindu tradition of Akupāra (Sanskrit: अकूपार), also know as Kurma and Chukwa, the giant tortoise who supports the 16 elephants who hold up the world, or the myth of the sea turtle Ao whose sawed off legs prop up the world. The idea of a giant an
-Also, mountains are not like pegs. For example volcanic mountains could be considered the opposite of pegs, because they have a flowing lava in the middle. The flowing lava with its high temperature cannot attach the Earth to a big whale.
 ==Other interpretations of Nun==