Geocentrism and the Quran: Difference between revisions

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<ref name="LanesLexiconFalak" />). 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.

Immediately after describing the change from day to night the passage states that the sun runs on to a designated "resting place" (ِmustaqarrin مُسْتَقَرٍّ See footnotes regarding the Arabic word here, which differs from similar verses).<ref name="mustaqarrin">A few translations use instead, "appointed term", though in nearly all other verses where we find  mustaqarrin (qaf-ra-ra قرر [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000029.pdf Lane's Lexicon Volume 1 page 2501]) as a participle they translate it as a place of settlement or an abode or resting place. There are other verses (35:13, 31:29, 39:5, 13:2) that mention the sun and moon running (with the same verb as is translated "run" in 36:38) for a term appointed, but these use the words لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى which do indeed mean a term appointed - However, note that mustaqarrin مُسْتَقَرٍّ in 36:38 is a different word.</ref> There is also a sahih hadith that uses the same Arabic word as in {{Quran|36|38}} to identify "a resting place" as part of the sun's daily cycle.<ref>See {{Muslim||159a|reference}} (also {{Bukhari|||4802|darussalam}} and {{Bukhari|||4803|darussalam}} where Q. 36:38 is explained such that the resting place is under the throne)</ref> An alternative view is that this refers to the sun's final resting on the last day rather than some temporal location. Another narration of the same hadith possibly supports this view.<ref>See {{Bukhari|||3199|darussalam}} and {{Bukhari|||7424|darussalam}} where Q. 36:38 is instead mentioned at the end, possibly indicating that the مُسْتَقَرٍّ (resting place) in 36:38 refers to the end of the world when the sun is asked to rise from its setting place (مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا) instead of under the throne each night.</ref> 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.

In any case, vast numbers of interstellar objects (even planets and stars) are not currently in circular orbits but rather are travelling in hyperbolic trajectories (becoming ever straighter), having been dynamically ejected at greater than escape velocity from their solar systems or even from their galaxies (indeed, [[w:Intergalactic_star|intergalactic stars]] have been observed by astronomers).

Critics point out that the 225 million year galactic orbit has no relevance to human time-scales, while the Quran almost always mentions the sun's movement in the context of night and day. Another response is that the entire solar system, and not just the sun, orbits the gravity well of our galaxy. This is considered a problem because therefore the moon can equally be said to orbit the galaxy, yet in verses like {{Quran-range|36|37|40}} the floating of the moon in a falak seems to relate to the phases of the lunar cycle. There is yet another problem discussed in the next section below, which is perhaps even more important.

The words "don't you see" (''alam tara'' أَلَمْ تَرَ<ref>ra-alif-ya راي [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000164.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 998</ref>) 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.

{{Quran|13|2}} and {{Quran|36|38}} state that the running of the sun and moon to an appointed term, or the sun running to its resting place, respectively, are signs (''ayaat'') to mankind, implying they are facts known to and appreciated by a 7th century Arabian audience. Verse 13:2 states 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 remained unknown to the Quran's original audience, and thus could not strengthen their faith, nor anyone's faith, until some fourteen centuries after the Quran's authorship.

In a passage about events on the day of resurrection, the Quran makes an assertion which, critics argue, strongly implies that the sun and moon are of a similar size and are located a similar distance from Earth. As already noted, the Quran says that the moon "follows" the sun ({{Quran-range|91|1|2}}), and "It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day." ({{Quran|36|40}}). Verse {{Quran-range|75|8|9}} adds that on the last day the sun and moon will be brought together:

It is worth noting that the "darkening" of the moon in verse 8 is an Arabic word which in hadiths refers to a lunar or solar eclipse (in this case lunar). However, for a lunar eclipse to occur (when the earth's shadow is cast upon the moon) the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth and thus are not in any sense "brought together". Nor does brought together in verse 9 work as a reference to a solar eclipse (when the sun occasionally casts a shadow of the moon on the earth). The moon is invisible during the portion of a month when it can eclipse the sun since it must be on the daylit side of the earth, and hence the moon does not "darken" or itself become eclipsed (verse 8) as it passes between observers and the sun but rather its silhouette becomes visible.

{{Quran-range|18|83|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 [[Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part One|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.

Indeed, {{Quran-range|91|1|6}} has many of the same Arabic words as {{Quran-range|79|27|30}}: "its morning light" (this time of the sun), "the night", and "the heaven" (singular) "built" by Allah. Putting the two passages together, it seems that the author of the Quran intuitively believed that the night and the sun's morning light were features pertaining to the entire visible heaven. This does not accord in any way with the modern heliocentric understanding of our local solar system.

Another problem is that there is no coherent way to consistently interpret each term in the phrase "wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night" to correspond with scientifically meaningful concepts. For example, if one takes the first half of the phrase to mean that the sunlit side of the Earth revolves into the shadow of the Earth cast by the sun, those definitions of "day" and "night" do not work for the second half of the phrase, "wraps the day over the night". The word "day" would now have to mean the light from the sun and "night" would have to refer to the shadowed side of the earth which rotates into it.

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 [[Jibreel (Angel Gabriel)|angel]], ridden a [[Buraq|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.

It is also notable that no major classical Islamic scholar came up with a heliocentric reading based of the language of the Quran (nor an understanding of our universe close to what we know it is today), as can be seen in their writings, particularly their tafsirs/Quranic commentaries. This includes from the most well-known and influential scholars of all time including al-Tabari,<ref>Commentary from al-Tabari (d. 310 AH) on e.g.: