Geocentrism and the Quran: Difference between revisions

At first it seems plausible to suppose that 'day' and 'night' refers to the process of the Earth's rotation revealing and obstructing the view of the sun (though the verse also fits with a geocentric view where 'day' and 'night' are processes when the sun is above or below the horizon). But this idea quickly falls apart when comparing with other verses as detailed below, but also even examining the verse in isolation. For the Earth is actually a globe, and there are no specific times 'when' (itha) the day reveals the sun or the night conceals it. Rather at all times half the Earth is in daytime and half in nighttime, so the sun is at all times both revealed and concealed. This problem wouldn't arise if the word 'when' (itha) was absent in these verses.

There are other verses that mention the night covering (with the same Arabic verb as 91.3), which show that the verb in this context does not simply mean the body of the earth blocking the line of sight to something. Verses 92:1-2 use identical words as 91:3-4, but without the pronoun suffix at the end. So the night is when things generally are covered, not just the sun on the other side of the Earth, and the day is when things generally are revealed. Clearly the verbs are meant in a poetic sense.

Indeed, in the verse below the night's cover (same verb as 91:4) can apply to anything, not just the sun, so how can night covering the sun in 91.4 literally mean the body of the earth covering the sun on the other side? (The word "pieces" in the translation means portion or piece cut off from the whole<ref>qaf-taa-ayn [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000244.pdf Lane's Lexicon Suppliment page 2990]</ref>).

{{Quote|{{cite quran|10|27|style=ref}}|they will have no one to save them from Allah; as if their faces are covered with pieces of the dark night}}

With the same arabic word for cover yet again in verse 7:54, this time it is the day doing the covering, or possibly the other way round (the Arabic is ambiguous and translations differ, while tafsirs take the view that it means both) and it is quite a stretch if not impossible to interpret this as the rotating Earth blocking the night (whatever nonsense that could mean) in analogy to their interpretation of 91:4. Rather it seems that the day and night are active entities in the Qur'an.

But as with 7:54 mentioned above and the verses where the day and night (as well as the sun and moon) have a falak (rounded course), it actually indicates that the night and day are active entities rather than any sign that the Earth revolves. You could reasonably describe the Earth as passing through night and day. Perhaps, at a stretch, you could even say that night and day wrap around the earth as you could spin an item in order to wrap it with something. But it would be utter nonsense to describe what really happens by saying that the the day or night wrap each other, for they are always on the sunward and opposite sides of the Earth.  

 

 

There are also two nearly identical verses to 39.5. These are 31:29 and 35:13 (also with the similar phrase are 3:27 22:61 and 57:6) where instead of 'he wraps', the verb 'he causes to enter' (yooliju) is used. Together, along with 7:54 where the day covers and chases the night (or vice versa), they present a picture of the day and night successively wrapping across each other and in so doing covering the other and entering into it, though the night never outruns (sabiqu) the day (36:40).