Science and the Seven Earths

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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.

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Limb view of the Earth's atmosphere. Colors roughly denote the layers of the atmosphere.

Qur'an and Sunnah

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

ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَٰوَٰتٍ وَمِنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ يَتَنَزَّلُ ٱلْأَمْرُ بَيْنَهُنَّ لِتَعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عِلْمًۢا Allah is He Who created seven Firmaments and of the earth a similar number. Through the midst of them (all) descends His Command: that ye may know that Allah has power over all things, and that Allah comprehends, all things in (His) Knowledge.

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

حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، أَخْبَرَنَا ابْنُ عُلَيَّةَ، عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ الْمُبَارَكِ، حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ أَبِي كَثِيرٍ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ بْنِ الْحَارِثِ، عَنْ أَبِي سَلَمَةَ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ، كَانَتْ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ أُنَاسٍ خُصُومَةٌ فِي أَرْضٍ، فَدَخَلَ عَلَى عَائِشَةَ فَذَكَرَ لَهَا ذَلِكَ، فَقَالَتْ يَا أَبَا سَلَمَةَ اجْتَنِبِ الأَرْضَ، فَإِنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏

"‏ مَنْ ظَلَمَ قِيدَ شِبْرٍ طُوِّقَهُ مِنْ سَبْعِ أَرَضِينَ ‏"

Narrated Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Al-Harith:

from Abu Salama bin `Abdur-Rahman who had a dispute with some people on a piece of land, and so he went to `Aisha and told her about it. She said, "O Abu Salama, avoid the land, for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, 'Any person who takes even a span of land unjustly, his neck shall be encircled with it down seven earths.' "

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":

حَدَّثَنَا آدَمُ، حَدَّثَنَا شَيْبَانُ، عَنْ مَنْصُورٍ، عَنْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ، عَنْ عَبِيدَةَ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ قَالَ جَاءَ حَبْرٌ مِنَ الأَحْبَارِ إِلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ، إِنَّا نَجِدُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلُ السَّمَوَاتِ عَلَى إِصْبَعٍ وَالأَرَضِينَ عَلَى إِصْبَعٍ، وَالشَّجَرَ عَلَى إِصْبَعٍ، وَالْمَاءَ وَالثَّرَى عَلَى إِصْبَعٍ، وَسَائِرَ الْخَلاَئِقِ عَلَى إِصْبَعٍ، فَيَقُولُ أَنَا الْمَلِكُ‏.‏ فَضَحِكَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم حَتَّى بَدَتْ نَوَاجِذُهُ تَصْدِيقًا لِقَوْلِ الْحَبْرِ ثُمَّ قَرَأَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏{‏وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَالأَرْضُ جَمِيعًا قَبْضَتُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَالسَّمَوَاتُ مَطْوِيَّاتٌ بِيَمِينِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ‏}‏‏


Narrated `Abdullah:

A (Jewish) Rabbi came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and he said, "O Muhammad! We learn that Allah will put all the heavens on one finger, and the earths on one finger, and the trees on one finger, and the water and the dust on one finger, and all the other created beings on one finger. Then He will say, 'I am the King.' Thereupon the Prophet (ﷺ) smiled so that his pre-molar teeth became visible, and that was the confirmation of the Rabbi. Then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) recited: 'No just estimate have they made of Allah such as due to Him.' (Qur'an 39.67)
حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ الدَّوْرَقِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الصَّمَدِ، - يَعْنِي ابْنَ عَبْدِ الْوَارِثِ - حَدَّثَنَا حَرْبٌ، - وَهُوَ ابْنُ شَدَّادٍ - حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى، - وَهُوَ ابْنُ أَبِي كَثِيرٍ - عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ، إِبْرَاهِيمَ أَنَّ أَبَا سَلَمَةَ، حَدَّثَهُ وَكَانَ، بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ قَوْمِهِ خُصُومَةٌ فِي أَرْضٍ وَأَنَّهُ دَخَلَ عَلَى عَائِشَةَ فَذَكَرَ ذَلِكَ لَهَا فَقَالَتْ يَا أَبَا سَلَمَةَ اجْتَنِبِ الأَرْضَ فَإِنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏

"‏ مَنْ ظَلَمَ قِيدَ شِبْرٍ مِنَ الأَرْضِ طُوِّقَهُ مِنْ سَبْعِ أَرَضِينَ ‏"


Muhammad b. Ibrahim said that Abu Salama reported to him that there was between him and his people dispute over a piece of land, and he came to 'A'isha and mentioned that to her, whereupon she said:

Abu Salama, abstain from getting this land, for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: He who usurps even a span of land would be made to wear around his neck seven earths.

Apologetic Claims

"Allah is He Who Created seven firmaments and of the earth a similar number. Through the midst of them (all) descends His command: that ye may know that Allah has power over all things, and that Allah comprehends all things In (His) Knowledge. (The Noble Quran, 65:12)"

According to Noble Verse 65:12 above, Allah Almighty created 7 Heavens for form the universe. The new scientific discovery had revealed to us that the earth that we currently live on today is also formed from seven layers. The very bottom layer contains most of the uranium and potonium ("sic") and all the materials that we need to create nuclear weapons and energy. Noble Verse 65:12 above does indeed say that the earth was created with seven layers.
. . .
The Seven "Heavens" refers to the layers of our atmosphere.

1. troposphere
2. stratosphere
3. ozone layer
4. mesosphere
5. thermosphere
6. ionosphere
7. exosphere

The Seven "Earths" refer to the layers that literally make up the Earth

1. crust
2. lithosphere
3. upper mantle
4. astenoshpere ("sic")
5. lower mantle
6. outer core
7. inner core

OR they could refer to the "7 Continents" (in the context that "al-ard" means ground)

1. North America
2. South America
3. Australia
4. Asia
5. Africa
6. Antarctica
7. Europe

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.

Surely We have adorned the nearest heaven with an adornment, the stars


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

The Seven "Heavens" refers to the layers of our atmosphere.

1. troposphere
2. stratosphere
3. ozone layer
4. mesosphere
5. thermosphere
6. ionosphere
7. exosphere

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

The Seven "Earths" refer to the layers that literally make up the Earth

1. crust
2. lithosphere
3. upper mantle
4. astenoshpere ("sic")
5. lower mantle
6. outer core
7. inner core

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

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

The five layers are as follows:

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


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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.[5][6]


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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. 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.[7] 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.[8] 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?

Seven Continents of the Earth

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

OR they could refer to the "7 Continents" (in the context that "al-ard" means ground)
1. North America
2. South America
3. Australia
4. Asia
5. Africa
6. Antarctica
7. Europe

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.[9] Therefore, the traditional number of seven continents is more a cultural bias than an actual geographical/geological fact.

Seven Earths

There are some who claim that Allah created seven earths.[10] 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.[11]

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:

Narrated AbuHurayrah: While Allah's Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companions were sitting clouds came over them and Allah's Prophet (peace be upon him) asked, "Do you know what these are?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger knew best, he said, "These are the clouds (anan), these are the water-carriers of the Earth, which Allah drives to people who do not thank Him or call upon him." He then asked, "Do you know what is above you?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) knew best, he said, "It is the firmament, a ceiling which is guarded and waves which are kept back." He then asked, "Do you know what is between you and it?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) knew best, he said, "Between you and it are five hundred years." He then asked, "Do you knew what is above that?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) best he said, "Two heavens with a distance of five hundred years between them." He went on speaking like that till he counted seven heavens, the distance between each pair being like between Heaven and Earth. He then asked, "Do you know what is above that?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) knew best, he said, "Above that is the Throne, and the distance between it and the (seventh) heaven is the same as that between each pair of heavens." He then asked, "Do you know what is below you?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) knew best, he said, "It is the earth." He then asked, "Do you know what is under that?" On their replying that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) knew best, he said, "Under it there is another Earth with a journey of five hundred years between them," and so on till he had counted seven earths with a journey of five hundred years between each pair. He then said, "By Him in Whose hand Muhammad's soul is, if you were to drop a rope to the lowest earth it would not pass out of Allah's knowledge." He then recited, "He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward, and He is omniscient." (Tirmidhi commented that Allah's Messenger's recitation of the verse indicates that it would go down within Allah's knowledge, power and authority, for Allah's knowledge, power and authority are everywhere, while He is on the Throne, as He described Himself in His Book.)
According to Muhammad b. Sahl b. 'Askar-Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Karim-Wahb, mentioning some of his majesty (as being described as follows): The heavens and the earth and the oceans are in the haykal, and the haykal is in the Footstool. God's feet are upon the Footstool. He carries the Footstool. It became like a sandal on His feet. When Wahb was asked: What is the haykal? He replied: Something on the heavens' extremities that surrounds the earth and the oceans like ropes that are used to fasten a tent. And when Wahb was asked how earths are (constituted), he replied: They are seven earths that are flat and islands. Between each two earths, there is an ocean. All that is surrounded by the (surrounding) ocean, and the haykal is behind the ocean.

Seven Universes

Another common apologetic claim is that these seven heavens are actually seven universes which we are yet to discover, and that we know only our one universe so far.

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. The word used for heaven here is sama, the same as that for the seven heavens.

So We opened the gates of heaven, with water pouring forth.


See Also

  • Harun Yahya - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Harun Yahya
  • Cosmology - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Cosmology

External Links

References

  1. "Atmosphere of Earth", Wikipedia, accessed January 2, 2014 (archived), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth. 
  2. Lisa Gardiner - Structure of the Interior of Earth - Windows to the Universe, January 18, 2010
  3. Eugene C. Robertson - The Interior of the Earth - U.S. Geological Survey, May 21, 2007
  4. Maggi Glasscoe - Structure of the Earth - Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN), August 14, 1998
  5. Dr. Michael Pidwirny - Fundamentals of Physical Geography/ Structure of the Earth - 2nd Edition, 2006
  6. The history of life on Earth - Palaeos
  7. D. F. Hollenbach, and J. M. Herndon - Deep-Earth reactor: Nuclear fission, helium, and the geomagnetic field - PNAS 2001 vol. 98 no. 20 pp 11085-11090
  8. For example, here are the illustrated layers of Zion National Park, Grand Canyon, the Alps and Himalayas.
  9. Matt Rosenberg - Continents - About.com
  10. Layers of the Earth - Justread.20m.com
  11. Dr. Maurice Bucaille - The Bible, The Qur'an and Science/ Confrontation with the data in the Qur'an concerning the creation