Science and the Seven Earths

The Qur'an and a number of Sahih Hadith make the claim that there are seven different earths. This concept of multiple different earths or worlds is not unusual in the ancient world; by comparison, in Norse mythology there are nine world or realms counting Hel, the underworld. Some modern du'aah, though, seeking to protect the supposed scientific infallibility of the Qur'an have proposed that this description of seven earths (and also description of seven heavens) actually is a type of scientific miracle whereby the Quran and Sunnah actually predicted the findings of modern earth sciences by over one thousand years. In point of fact no exegete before the modern period ever interpreted the verses this way; such an interpretation is novel and meant to fit the Qur'an into the modern, scientific view of the universe rather than taking the Qur'an and Sunnah as texts of their time and interpreting them in line with their author's intent. Besides ignoring what the texts themselves have to say, these modern apologetic claims themselves ignore or badly mangle the actual earth sciences they are attempting to co-opt in order to justify their claims of an inerrant, scientifically accurate Qur'an and prophetic tradition.

Qur'an and Sunnah

The Qur'an itself makes the claim that there are 7 earths and 7 heavens:

The tradition of the seven earths is also found in hadith collections of Sahih Al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and Tirmidhi:

Although the number is not explicitly given, the plural of word for "earth", "أرض" is used here, أرضين meaning "earths." This is used again in conjunction with the plural of the word سماء "sky" or "heavens", سموات, meaning "heavens":

There is also a Da'if/weak chain (graded by Darussalam) of narration hadith referring to this, and so while it may not come from Muhammad, it does show early (and more contemporary) understanding of the verses which was evidently not a mysterious or confusing concept to them:

Apologetic Claims

Analysis

Seven Layers of Earth's Atmosphere

Before beginning, notice that verse 37:6 says that the stars are in the lowest heaven, and thus the seven heavens cannot mean the Earth's atmosphere.

Nevertheless, let's look again at the apologetic claim:

There is only one atmosphere, but you can classify this one atmosphere by different criteria. If you partition it by temperature, you get 5 layers. By aerodynamical state 4 layers, by radiophysical state 3 layers and by chemical processes 2 layers. There is no classification into 7 layers.

To reach the needed "seven layers" different criteria are being mixed to reach the desired number 7. For example, Earth's atmosphere is commonly divided into five main layers based on temperature. From highest to lowest, these layers are:

1. Exosphere
2. Thermosphere
3. Mesosphere
4. Stratosphere
5. Troposphere

Within the five principal layers which are largely determined by temperature, several secondary layers may be distinguished by other properties:

1. Ozone layer
2. Ionosphere
3. Homosphere and heterosphere
4. Planetary boundary layer^[1]

Apologists include all five principle layers in their count, then arbitrarily add the ozone layer (which is contained within the stratosphere) and the ionosphere (which forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere) to reach the desired number 7.

If two of the secondary layers are included in the total count, there is no logically viable reason to exclude the planetary boundary layer (the part of the troposphere that is closest to Earth's surface) or the homosphere and heterosphere (which are contained within all five principle layers).

Seven Layers of the Earth

Note the same dishonest approach taken to assign seven layers of the atmosphere - i.e. the double counting of layers.

There is also no linguistical evidence or historical examples for 'al-ards' meaning or being used for layer(s) of the planet.

The general scientific view is that the earth is composed of four (the dominant view)^[2][3] or five major layers depending on whether one splits the mantle or not.^[4][5][6]

The five layers are as follows:

1. crust
2. upper mantle
3. lower mantle
4. outer core
5. inner core

There are two ways to classify the composition of the geosphere - chemically, into crust, mantle, and core, or functionally, in the case of the outer layers (crust and mantle) into lithosphere and asthenosphere.^[7][8]

From the evidence above, one can see the apologetic deceit because they double-count the lithosphere/asthenosphere while they also count the crust and upper mantle. Note that this is dishonest because these are alternative classifications.^[9] One cannot honestly count all lithosphere, asthenosphere, crust, and upper mantle together as one would be recounting the same rocks.

Recently new scientific hypotheses proposed by J. Marvin Herndon and Prof Xiaodong Song suggest the inner core may be further subdivided into four layers; the inner core, the innermost core, a sub-shell of fission material and decay products, and a subcore of uranium and plutonium forming the georeactor.^[10] If this new theory is accepted the number of layers of the earth will rise from five to eight.

Apologists sometimes depict the hydrosphere in their diagrams but are themselves inconsistent in counting/not counting it as one of their seven layers. Even on the crust, there are many layers of rocks one below the other.^[11] Their exact number varies from place to place but they can easily number in dozens, and the diversity of these rock layers forms the very basis of geology. Why are apologists ignoring these layers ( e.g. strata) that could easily mean the Earth could be classified as having many more with a natural creation basis of classification?

Seven Continents of the Earth

The same apologists try to hedge their bets by claiming it is either seven layers or seven continents.

The former explanation (seven layers) would seem more accurate as all translations refer to "earth" and not ground. Nevertheless, although the number of continents is traditionally considered seven, some geographers and scientists think there are only six as Europe and Asia are technically a single land mass (i.e. Eurasia) and on the same tectonic plate.^[12] Therefore, the traditional number of seven continents is more a cultural bias than an actual geographical/geological fact stemmed in nature.

Seven Earths

There are some who claim that Allah created seven earths.^[13] This is in fact the correct understanding of verse 65:12 supported by various hadiths and tafsir commentaries. However, we only know of one, our own. To get around this problem, apologists such as Maurice Bucaille claim scientists have just not discovered the other six yet.^[14]

To further complicate matters for apologists, Islamic sources state the seven earths being referred to in verse 65:12 are flat islands, one under the other. For example:

With many classical commentators identifying the word 'sijjinn' in verses Quran 83:7-8 with the lowest Earth (or just below it in hell), or as a place where the book of bad deeds of humans is kept and devils live.^[15][16][17]

Seven Universes

The word that in English is translated for heaven(s) in these verses is samā/سَماء, which can also be translated as sky (which is essentially it's modern meaning in Arabic).^[18] This is separate to 'jannah/جَنَّة', which refers to the paradise supposedly in the afterlife for righteous Muslims - which readers may mistake as being the same given the double meaning (of heaven) in English. However, unlike paradise (jannah), the heaven(s)/skies (samā) are part of the cosmos, with the moon being described as in them (Quran 71:15-16), clouds (Quran 2:164), along with the stars (Quran 41:12) etc.

Modern astronomy and technology has allowed us to see, understand, map and even explore the wider Universe, but never found these 7 skies, nor 7 Earths, which as far as well can tell are listed only as 7 was a superstitious number in antiquity.^[19] Another common apologetic claim is that these seven skies/heavens are actually seven universes which we are yet to discover, and that we know only our one universe so far, often referred to as the lowest/closest heaven.

This is due to the Quran stating the nearest/lowest heaven is adorned with stars which cover the known visible universe (such as Quran 41:12), rather than any philological analysis and ignoring all historical context of the word, which has always meant a 'firmament', or solid layer in the sky to Islamic scholars.^[20] Using the term 'heavens/skies' was common to refer to this in pre-Islamic Christian literature too.^[21]

However, by looking at the >200 timesthey are mentioned in the Quran, there are many problems substituting this meaning as we will see below, with all verses using a form of the word al-samā/سَماء (whether translated as the sky/skies or the heaven/heavens).

Gates and water of the universe

The following verse contradicts such a claim since it says rain was made to fall from heaven. Certainly, rain does not come from outer space, let alone from gates at the edge of the universe which would be ~46.5 billion light years away.^[22] The word used for heaven here is samā, the same as that for the seven heavens.

The gates of the heavens are mentioned elsewhere such as the below, saying even if God opened a gate so the disbelievers could climb up it, they would still not believe.

God is also described as having the keys to these:

It seems that once resurrected, it appears that righteous Muslims will ascend the cosmos to the upper heavens, which are on top of/above each other (Quran 67:3, Quran 71:15)) on judgement day, for whom God will open the gates of the skies for (so they can pass the firmament - gates would not be needed if they were simply layers rather than solid objects):

Which likely then connect to actual paradise (jannah) as they leave the cosmos via ascension (as mentioned above in Q15:14), as paradise (jannah) is also separately described as having it's own gates (e.g. Quran 38:50, Quran 39:73), a common motif in antiquity as Dr Sean W Anthony explains:

Earth created before the universe

The Quran also has the Earth created before the heavens (universes) are created, while the heaven is 'smoke' (see Quran and a Universe from Smoke). Obviously the Earth cannot be created before the Universe is made:

Nor was the universe ever smoke.

The universe as a roof/ceiling/canopy

The sky/heavens are also repeatedly called a roof/ceiling/canopy/building/edifice etc in multiple verses using multiple words, which even being generous as a metaphorical interpretation does not match the description of a complex universe, with the majority in a gaseous state of almost entirely empty space, with structures like stars and planets being extremely sparse throughout the 'void' of space.^[23]

However this description does perfectly match the antiquity view of the sky being a literal solid object, made up of 'firmaments':

The solid universe

Expanding on the descriptions of the sky as a solid object (and the upper skies), like a roof/canopy/ceiling etc; this concept is backed up repeatedly in descriptions from other verses, which unanimously support the solid firmament(s)s view. The mostly gaseous empty state of the universe is in no way reflected in the Qur'an, with the sky(s):

• Raised without pillars that we can see - Quran 13:2

• The sky would fall otherwise - Quran 22:65
• A piece of the sky would fall otherwise - Quran 52:44, Quran 34:9 or could fall - Quran 17:92
• They are strong - Quran 78:12
• And stacked above each other - Quran 67:3 and Quran 71:15
• Can be split open - Quran 25:25

• And can be rolled up Quran 21:104 and Quran 39:67

Which is why the debates around the sky(s) among classical mufassirūn have centred around whether the 'firmament' is flat or domed,^[24] not solid or gas. And none have come up with a picture of the universe like we now know based off their studying of the Qur'an.

The universe as day and night

Main page: Geocentrism and the Quran

The Quran also states that the night and morning are said to be an attribute of the heaven (l-samāu) which God built (banāhā) and raised (rafaʿa) as a ceiling (samkahā) and ordered it (fasawwāhā) when he created the heaven and earth. The possessive hā suffix in laylahā (its night) and ḍuḥāhā (its morning light (translated as 'forenoon' below) relates night and day to the heaven - which does not apply at all to the whole universe.

In reality, the night and day we experience is a feature of the earth's rotation on its axis and is only applicable to Earth itself. There is no sense in which the earth's night and day apply across the wider cosmos as it would need to to be able to substitute the word/modern concept 'universe' with heaven/heavens (samā).

Some Muslim apologists (such as Zakir Naik, as can be see in 3:27 of this YouTube video - along with a response to him) have even claimed that this verse shows scientific foreknowledge of the Big Bang. His claim seems to be that the verse stating the skies and Earth "joined together/ratqan" is referring to the fact that during the big bang all the mass that went on to form the rest of the universe originated from the same point of singularity. There are many issues with this interpretation. These are discussed more in-depth in the page Quran and a Universe from Smoke and the main Scientific Errors in the Quran section. But some of the obvious issues are:

And repeated in Quran 15:85, Quran 19:65, Quran 21:16 and Quran 25:59.

Note: This also separately contradicts Zakir Naik's definition of the heaven(s) as the Earths atmosphere which the clouds are also in, and not between.