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The Islamic Whale: Difference between revisions
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→ِTafsir Fath Al-Qadir (by Shawkani)
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==ِTafsir Fath Al-Qadir (by Shawkani)== | ==ِTafsir Fath Al-Qadir (by Shawkani)== | ||
This tafsir is from the 18th century: | This tafsir is from the 18th century re-affirms the idea that the world is carried on the back of a whale: | ||
{{Quote|Fath Al-Qadir on 68:1<ref>http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=9&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1</ref>| | {{Quote|Fath Al-Qadir on 68:1<ref>http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=9&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1</ref>| | ||
هو الحوت الذي يحمل الأرض | هو الحوت الذي يحمل الأرض | ||
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==Hadith Al-Kafi (shia)== | ==Hadith Al-Kafi (shia)== | ||
Hadith Al-Kafi, one of the most prestigious Shi'ite hadith, also confirms that a whale carries the earth upon its back: | |||
{{Quote|Al-Kafi, vol. 8, part 6, <ref>Page 45. [https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf Kitab al-Kafi]. Archived at [http://web.archive.org/web/20161227191002/https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf].</ref>|H 14813 – From him, from Salih, from one of his companions, from Abdul Samad Bin Basheer, who has reported the following: Abu Abdullah (asws) has said that: ‘'''The whale which is carrying the earth''' secretly said to itself that it is carrying the earth by its own strength. So Allah (azwj) the High Sent to it a fish smaller than a palm’s length, and larger than a finger. So it entered in its gills and shocked it. It remained like that for forty days. Then Allah (azwj) Raised it and was Merciful to it, and Took it out. So whenever Allah (azwj) Intends the earth to be in a quake, He (azwj) Sends that (small) fish to that (big) fish. So when it sees it, it becomes restless, so the earth gets engulfed by the earthquake’. }} | {{Quote|Al-Kafi, vol. 8, part 6, <ref>Page 45. [https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf Kitab al-Kafi]. Archived at [http://web.archive.org/web/20161227191002/https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf].</ref>|H 14813 – From him, from Salih, from one of his companions, from Abdul Samad Bin Basheer, who has reported the following: Abu Abdullah (asws) has said that: ‘'''The whale which is carrying the earth''' secretly said to itself that it is carrying the earth by its own strength. So Allah (azwj) the High Sent to it a fish smaller than a palm’s length, and larger than a finger. So it entered in its gills and shocked it. It remained like that for forty days. Then Allah (azwj) Raised it and was Merciful to it, and Took it out. So whenever Allah (azwj) Intends the earth to be in a quake, He (azwj) Sends that (small) fish to that (big) fish. So when it sees it, it becomes restless, so the earth gets engulfed by the earthquake’. }} | ||
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And said Ibn Abbas (ابن عباس) - in his narration - that Nun (النون) is a whale (الحوت) which on it are the Earths (الارضون).}} | And said Ibn Abbas (ابن عباس) - in his narration - that Nun (النون) is a whale (الحوت) which on it are the Earths (الارضون).}} | ||
There is thus attestation of Nun the whale in both the Sunni and Shi'ite tradition. | |||
== | ==The Qur'anic Cosmology vis-à-vis Modern Science == | ||
The world view evinced in the tasfir is one fundamentally at odds with the modern, scientific understanding of cosmology, earth sciences and geology. The authors of the tafsir tradition and the Qur'an seem to have been operating on the assumption that the earth that the human race inhabits is flat, and moreover it is only one of many different earths. The belief that the world is balanced on the back of a giant cosmological animal is not peculiar to Islam--witness the Hindu tradition of Akupāra (Sanskrit: अकूपार), also know as Kurma and Chukwa, the giant tortoise who supports the 16 elephants who hold up the world, or the myth of the sea turtle Ao whose sawed off legs prop up the world. The idea of a giant an | |||
==Other interpretations of Nun== | ==Other interpretations of Nun== | ||