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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 '''QXP:''' And after that He made the earth shoot out from the Cosmic Nebula and made it spread out egg-shaped. ('Dahaha' entails all the meanings rendered (21:30), (41:11)).}}
 ====''Daha'' as derived from ''duhiya'' and related to ''madaahi''====
-Another common argument advanced today is that that word ''daha'' may derive from the word ''duhiya'', which is said to mean "ostrich egg".<ref>[http://www.quranicteachings.co.uk/earth-shape.htm QuranTeachings.co.uk - 79:30]</ref> 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'')<ref>{{Citation|title=Lane's Lexicon|chapter=دحا|page=863}}
+The specific argument often advanced today is that that word ''daha'' may derive from the word ''duhiya'', which is said to mean "ostrich egg".<ref>[http://www.quranicteachings.co.uk/earth-shape.htm QuranTeachings.co.uk - 79:30]</ref> 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'')<ref>{{Citation|title=Lane's Lexicon|chapter=دحا|page=863}}
 See the entry on the same page for مدحاة for the specific connotation and usage of the word in this sense</ref>, the word ''madaahi'' (which refers to a small stone or similar object in the shape of a "small round cake of bread")<ref name=":0">The word مداحي is listed under the entry for مدحاة
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 While persons are entitled to their own religious interpretations of scripture, such a reading is bereft of any linguistic basis or traditional and scriptural precedent.
-====Oblate and prolate spheroids====
+=====Definitions=====
-[[File:oblate-prolate-ostrich.jpg|An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid, no matter its orientation|alt=|thumb]]There are two problems with the egg-shaped Earth claim. One is that their statements about the words daha and duhiya are false, as proven further below. But even if they were right about that, it would prove the Qur'an to be incorrect because while the Earth and an ostrich egg are both [[w:spheroid|spheroids]], they are of fundamentally different types of spheroid.
-The Earth is very nearly, but not absolutely a perfect sphere. It is in fact an oblate spheroid, which means that the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is shorter than the radius to the equator. In other words, there is a [[w:equatorial bulge|very slight bulge]] around the equator. The radius from the centre of the Earth to the north or south poles is 6,357km, and the radius from the centre to the equator is 6,378km, a difference of less than 1 percent. This is caused by the rotation of the Earth around its polar axis, which produces a centripetal force that is greatest at the equator.
-An ostrich egg, much like all eggs, can be described as a prolate spheroid. This is because the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is longer than the radius to the equator, as though it were a sphere that had been pulled from two ends. It certainly is not an oblate spheroid. You can see in the image an oblate spheroid (top left), and a prolate spheroid (bottom left). Even holding an egg on its side (top), you cannot make it look like an oblate spheroid in 3D. The shape of the ostrich egg is in fact like a prolate spheroid (bottom). No matter how you hold the egg, it is a prolate spheroid and not an oblate spheroid.
-In a flat 2d image without texture or shading oblate and prolate spheroids might look the same, but in three dimensions you cannot make one look like the other no matter how you turn it. They are fundamentally different shapes.
-====Daha and Duhiya====
 In Arabic, each word must be derived from its root. The root usually consists of three letters that can be manipulated, by adding vowels, prefixes and suffixes in order to produce different words with different meanings. For example, "ka-ta-ba" (to write) is the root for many words such as kitab (book), maktaba (library), katib (author), maktoob (written), kitabat (writings) et cetera.
 Let's now take the word claimed to mean egg of an ostrich, "Duhiya". This word is ''not'' a root. It is a noun and is derived from "da-ha-wa" (دحو)<ref name="LanesLexiconDaHaWa">دحو dahawa - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000023.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 857</ref>, the same root that the verb "dahaha" (دَحَىٰهَآ) in 79:30 comes from (the 'ha' at the end there is just a pronoun suffix meaning 'it'). Furthermore, Duhiya does not even mean the egg of an ostrich. This is what the most respected dictionaries have to say on this subject:
-=====Lisan Al Arab=====
+======Lisan Al Arab======
 {{quote || الأُدْحِيُّ و الإدْحِيُّ و الأُدْحِيَّة و الإدْحِيَّة و الأُدْحُوّة مَبِيض النعام في الرمل , وزنه أُفْعُول من ذلك , لأَن النعامة تَدْحُوه برِجْلها ثم تَبِيض فيه وليس للنعام عُشٌّ . و مَدْحَى النعام : موضع بيضها , و أُدْحِيُّها موضعها الذي تُفَرِّخ فيه .ِ}}
 Translation: Al-udhy, Al-idhy, Al-udhiyya, Al-idhiyya, Al-udhuwwa:The place in sand where an ostrich lays its egg. That's because the ostrich '''spreads out''' (تَدْحُوه, ''tadhooh'') the earth with its feet then lays its eggs there, an ostrich doesn't have a nest.
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 Then it mentions a couple of Arabic poems that confirm this meaning. Anyone who can read Arabic will find this to be the definitive proof that Daha means to spread out.
-=====Al Qamoos Al Muheet=====
+======Al Qamoos Al Muheet======
 {{quote || (دَحَا): الله الأرضَ
 (يَدْحُوهَا وَيَدْحَاهَا دَحْواً) بَسَطَها}}
 Translation: Allah daha the Earth: He spread it out.
-=====Al Waseet=====
+======Al Waseet======
 {{quote || دَحَا الشيءَ: بسطه ووسعه. يقال: دحا اللهُ الأَرض }}
 Translation: To daha something: means to spread it out. For example: Allah daha the Earth.
-=====Lane's Lexicon=====
+======Lane's Lexicon======
 {{quote ||2=Dahw (دحو)
@@ Line 521: / Line 512: @@
 Note above that Lane also translates ''udhiyy'' (أُدْحِىٌّ) to mean the place in the sand where the ostrich lays its eggs, and not the eggs themselves.
-====Tafsirs on the verse 79:30====
+===== Absence in tradition =====
+======Tafsirs on the verse 79:30======
 The tafsirs explain that this verse describes the Earth to be flat.
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 (And after that He spread the earth) even then '''He spread it on the water'''; it is also said: 2,000 years after that He spread it on the water,
 }}
-===="Ostrich egg" mentioned in a hadith====
+======"Ostrich egg" mentioned in a hadith======
 There is no hadith saying that the Earth is shaped like an ostrich egg. But "ostrich egg" is mentioned in one hadith so we can check whether the word دَحَىٰهَآ (''dahaha'') is used in the original Arabic.
 {{Quote|{{Ibn Majah||4|25|3086}}<ref>https://sunnah.com/urn/1281160</ref>|
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 Of course it isn't, because "ostrich egg" needs two words. "Egg" is بَيْضِ (baydi) and "ostrich" is النَّعَامِ (an-na'ami). So ostrich egg is called ''baydi an-na'ami'' and not ''dahaha'' in Arabic.
-===Earth is flat only from our perspective===
+=====Problems with the "signification" of roundness=====
+[[File:oblate-prolate-ostrich.jpg|An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid, no matter its orientation|alt=|thumb]]
+The Earth is very nearly, but not absolutely a perfect sphere. It is in fact an oblate spheroid, which means that the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is shorter than the radius to the equator. In other words, there is a [[w:equatorial bulge|very slight bulge]] around the equator. The radius from the centre of the Earth to the north or south poles is 6,357km, and the radius from the centre to the equator is 6,378km, a difference of less than 1 percent. This is caused by the rotation of the Earth around its polar axis, which produces a centripetal force that is greatest at the equator.
+An ostrich egg, much like all eggs, can be described as a prolate spheroid. This is because the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is longer than the radius to the equator, as though it were a sphere that had been pulled from two ends. It certainly is not an oblate spheroid. You can see in the image an oblate spheroid (top left), and a prolate spheroid (bottom left). Even holding an egg on its side (top), you cannot make it look like an oblate spheroid in 3D. The shape of the ostrich egg is in fact like a prolate spheroid (bottom). No matter how you hold the egg, it is a prolate spheroid and not an oblate spheroid.
+In a flat 2d image without texture or shading oblate and prolate spheroids might look the same, but in three dimensions you cannot make one look like the other no matter how you turn it. They are fundamentally different shapes.
+=== Earth is flat only from our perspective ===
 {{Quote||According to the people of knowledge the Earth is round. Indeed, Ibn Hazm and other scholars have declared that there is consensus on this matter among the people of knowledge This means that all of the surface of the Earth is connected together so that the form of the planet is like a sphere.