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Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions
Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth (view source)
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==Indirect references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an== | ==Indirect references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an== | ||
In addition to [[Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth#Direct references to a flat Earth in the Qur.27an|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.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Eustace M. Tillyard|title=The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the Age of Shakespeare, Donne and Milton|isbn=978-0394701622|publisher=Vintage|publication-date=1959}}</ref> | |||
===Qur'an 18:86 - setting and rising places of the sun=== | ===Qur'an 18:86 - setting and rising places of the sun=== | ||
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Hatta itha balagha maghriba alshshamsi wajadaha taghrubu fee AAaynin hami-atin wawajada AAindaha qawman qulna ya tha alqarnayni imma an tuAAaththiba wa-imma an tattakhitha feehim husnan | Hatta itha balagha maghriba alshshamsi wajadaha taghrubu fee AAaynin hami-atin wawajada AAindaha qawman qulna ya tha alqarnayni imma an tuAAaththiba wa-imma an tattakhitha feehim husnan | ||
Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.}} | Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.}}{{Main|Dhu'l-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring}} | ||
A flat earth cosmology is the only sort that permits the setting of the sun in a spring of water. Contemporary Arabic and Syriac poems of the same legend suggest that early Muslims understood the story literally, for while other parts of the story were edited or removed to conform to the early Muslims' religious outlook, the idea that the Sun could set into a spring of water located somewhere in the Western part of the world was allowed to remain. | |||
===Qur'an 2:187 and 17:78 - fasting and prayer times=== | ===Qur'an 2:187 and 17:78 - fasting and prayer times=== | ||