Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions

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Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth (view source)

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'''QXP:''' And after that He made the earth shoot out from the Cosmic Nebula and made it spread out egg-shaped. ('Dahaha' entails all the meanings rendered (21:30), (41:11)).}}
'''QXP:''' And after that He made the earth shoot out from the Cosmic Nebula and made it spread out egg-shaped. ('Dahaha' entails all the meanings rendered (21:30), (41:11)).}}
====''Daha'' as derived from ''duhiya''====
====''Daha'' as derived from ''duhiya''====
Another common argument advanced today is that that word ''daha'' may derive from the word ''duhiya'', which is said to mean "ostrich egg".
Another common argument advanced today is that that word ''daha'' may derive from the word ''duhiya'', which is said to mean "ostrich egg".<ref>[http://www.quranicteachings.co.uk/earth-shape.htm QuranTeachings.co.uk - 79:30]</ref> The idea here is that, if these words derive from the same root, they both carry the same "signification" of oblate (oval-shaped) roundness, and, since the Earth is not perfectly spherical but rather slightly oval, this common "signification" serves as evidence that Qur'anic cosmology is essentially modern. Further buttressing this claim, it is argued, are: another sense of the word ''daha'' (which means "he threw" or "he cast", referring particularly to the casting of a ''madaahi'' into its ''udhiyah'')<ref>{{Citation|title=Lane's Lexicon|chapter=دحا|page=863}}


A further apologetic is to point to a game played by Meccans in their attempt to link dahaha with roundness.
See the entry on the same page for مدحاة for the specific connotation and usage of the word in this sense</ref>, the word ''madaahi'' (which refers to a stone or similar object in the shape of a "small round cake of bread")<ref name=":0">The word مداحي is listed under the entry for مدحاة


{{quote || In 79:30, Allah says,
{{Citation|title=Lane's Lexicon|chapter=مدحاة|page=863}}</ref>, and ''udhiyah'' (which refers to a small hole, roughly the size of the ''madaahi'', into which the ''madaahi'' is to be cast as part of a game)<ref name=":0" />. All these terms carrying a similar "signification" of roundness, it is thus concluded, make it so that the creation of the Earth described in 79:30 implies roundness.


[Transliteration] Waal-arda baAAda thalika dahaha [79:30]
While persons are entitled to their own religious interpretations of scripture, such a reading is bereft of any linguistic basis or traditional and scriptural precedent.
 
The key word in the above verse is “dahaha”. In Arabic, there is a phrase, “iza dahaha” which means “when he throws the stones over the ground to the hole”. The hole is called “Udhiyatun”. “Almadahi” signify round stones according to the size of which a hole is dug in the ground in which the stones are thrown in a game. “Almadahi” also signify a round thing made of lead by the throwing of which persons contend together. So there is a signification of ROUNDNESS in the root of the word “dahaha”. According to some etymologists, the word for the “egg of an ostrich” also has the same root as “dahaha”. They also take from this that the earth is of the shape of the egg of an ostrich. Latest science findings confirm that the earth is not exactly spherical but the earth is an ellipsoid, i.e. flattened by its poles,[ just like the shape of an egg of an ostrich].
 
The Arabic words for “flat” or “level” or “straight shaped” are “sawi” and “almustavi”. There is not a single place in Quran where there is any indication of the earth being “flat” or “straight shaped”. The word “faraash” in 2:22, 51:48; the word “wasia” in 4:97, 29:56, 30:10; the word “mahd” in 20:53, 43:10, 78:6; the word “basaat” in 71:19; the word “suttihat” in 88:20; and the word “tahaaha” in 91:6, all may mean, “to spread”, “to expand” or “to extend” with slight differences in their connotations but none signify the earth being straight-shaped or flat.<ref>[http://www.quranicteachings.co.uk/earth-shape.htm QuranTeachings.co.uk - 79:30]</ref>}}
One of the meanings of dahaha is to 'throw' and that is the derivation of the words 'almadahi and udhiyatun'. It is not anything to do with their shape. In any case, the contention that almadahi and udhiyatun conveys the concept of roundness which they link to the root of dahaha is false for the reason that the 'roundness' of the almadahi and udhiyatun is only in two dimensions. The almadahi is round like a piece of Arab bread (i.e. shaped like a disc) and the udhiyatun is also round in two dimensions.


====Oblate and prolate spheroids====
====Oblate and prolate spheroids====
There are two problems with the egg-shaped Earth claim. One is that their statements about the words daha and duhiya are false, as proven further below. But even if they were right about that, it would prove the Qur'an to be incorrect because while the Earth and an ostrich egg are both [[w:spheroid|spheroids]], they are of fundamentally different types of spheroid.
[[File:oblate-prolate-ostrich.jpg|An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid however you hold it|alt=|thumb]]There are two problems with the egg-shaped Earth claim. One is that their statements about the words daha and duhiya are false, as proven further below. But even if they were right about that, it would prove the Qur'an to be incorrect because while the Earth and an ostrich egg are both [[w:spheroid|spheroids]], they are of fundamentally different types of spheroid.
 
[[File:oblate-prolate-ostrich.jpg|left|480|An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid however you hold it]]


The Earth is very nearly, but not absolutely a perfect sphere. It is in fact an oblate spheroid, which means that the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is shorter than the radius to the equator. In other words, there is a [[w:equatorial bulge|very slight bulge]] around the equator. The radius from the centre of the Earth to the north or south poles is 6,357km, and the radius from the centre to the equator is 6,378km, a difference of less than 1 percent. This is caused by the rotation of the Earth around its polar axis, which produces a centripetal force that is greatest at the equator.
The Earth is very nearly, but not absolutely a perfect sphere. It is in fact an oblate spheroid, which means that the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is shorter than the radius to the equator. In other words, there is a [[w:equatorial bulge|very slight bulge]] around the equator. The radius from the centre of the Earth to the north or south poles is 6,357km, and the radius from the centre to the equator is 6,378km, a difference of less than 1 percent. This is caused by the rotation of the Earth around its polar axis, which produces a centripetal force that is greatest at the equator.
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