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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)
Revision as of 22:20, 9 June 2022
, 9 June 2022Estimate of time argument
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Lightyears (talk | contribs) (To be very clear in the intro that the most common response to this topic is discussed (Ibn Taymiyyah / Ibn Hazm)) |
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Islamic [[scriptures]] imply, adhere to, and describe a flat-Earth cosmography ([[Geocentrism and the Quran|arranged in a geocentric system]]) which conceives of the earth as existing in the form of a large plane or disk. While knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth has existed to a greater or lesser degree since at least the classical Greeks (4th Century BCE), such knowledge prominently entered the Islamic milieu in the 9th century CE when many Greek texts were translated into Arabic for the first time under the sponsorship of the Abbasid [[Khilafah (Caliphate)|caliphate]]. | Islamic [[scriptures]] imply, adhere to, and describe a flat-Earth cosmography ([[Geocentrism and the Quran|arranged in a geocentric system]]) which conceives of the earth as existing in the form of a large plane or disk. While knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth has existed to a greater or lesser degree since at least the classical Greeks (4th Century BCE), such knowledge prominently entered the Islamic milieu in the 9th century CE when many Greek texts were translated into Arabic for the first time under the sponsorship of the Abbasid [[Khilafah (Caliphate)|caliphate]]. | ||
Today, some Islamic scholars claim that Islamic scriptures and their first audiences were fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth and that this was also a consensus view of early scholars. Evidence does not support any of these claims, despite oft-cited statements from the works of [[Islamic_Views_on_the_Shape_of_the_Earth#Classical_perspectives|Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm (see below)]]. | Today, some Islamic scholars claim that Islamic scriptures and their first audiences were fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth and that this was also a consensus view of early scholars. Evidence does not support any of these claims, despite oft-cited statements from the works of [[Islamic_Views_on_the_Shape_of_the_Earth#Classical_perspectives|Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm (see below)]]. Critics note that clear descriptions and assumptions made in the [[Qur'an]], [[hadith]], [[Tafsir|tafsirs]], and writings of early Islamic scholars demonstrate that Muhammad and his companions did not know the Earth was spherical but in fact held it to be flat and disk like, and this is the framework within which the Qur'an operates. | ||
The later idea that Islamic scriptures themselves indicated a spherical Earth was a creative act of reinterpretation. Similarly, attempts to explain Quranic verses about the earth only in terms of local flatness at a human level are often challenged by contextual arguments. | The later idea that Islamic scriptures themselves indicated a spherical Earth was a creative act of reinterpretation. Similarly, attempts to explain Quranic verses about the earth only in terms of local flatness at a human level are often challenged by critics using contextual arguments. | ||
==Greek and Indian astronomical knowledge== | ==Greek and Indian astronomical knowledge== | ||
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{{Quote|{{citation| url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Inside_the_Kingdom/VEYsi7ZmtywC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT99&printsec=frontcover| title=Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia| author=Robert Lacey| publisher=Penguin| date=2009| chapter=Chapter 10| ISBN=9781101140734}}|“‘Look,’” Sultan remembers telling him, “‘we’re going to be traveling at eighteen thousand miles per hour. I’m going to see sixteen sunrises and sunsets every twenty-four hours. So does that mean I’ll get Ramadan finished in two days?' The sheikh loved that one—he laughed out loud.” . . . “It would be no good trying to face Mecca,” remembers the prince. “By the time I’d lined up | {{Quote|{{citation| url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Inside_the_Kingdom/VEYsi7ZmtywC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT99&printsec=frontcover| title=Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia| author=Robert Lacey| publisher=Penguin| date=2009| chapter=Chapter 10| ISBN=9781101140734}}|“‘Look,’” Sultan remembers telling him, “‘we’re going to be traveling at eighteen thousand miles per hour. I’m going to see sixteen sunrises and sunsets every twenty-four hours. So does that mean I’ll get Ramadan finished in two days?' The sheikh loved that one—he laughed out loud.” . . . “It would be no good trying to face Mecca,” remembers the prince. “By the time I’d lined up | ||
on it, it would be behind me.”}} | on it, it would be behind me.”}} | ||
Appeal is sometimes made to a lengthy hadith in which Muhammad instructs Muslims to make an estimate of time for prayers in the last days when the Dajjal comes and when one day will be like a year, a month, or a week. It is argued on this basis that Allah has already revealed how people at extreme latitudes should fast and pray. | |||
{{Quote|{{Muslim|41|7015}}|An-Nawwas b. Sam`an reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) made a mention of the Dajjal one day in the morning.<BR /> | |||
[...]<BR /> | |||
We said: Allah's Messenger, how long would he stay on the earth? He (ﷺ) said: For forty days, one day like a year and one day like a month and one day like a week and the rest of the days would be like your days. We said: Allah's Messenger, would one day's prayer suffice for the prayers of day equal to one year? Thereupon he (ﷺ) said: No, but you must make an estimate of time (and then observe prayer).<BR /> | |||
[...]}} | |||
Critics note a number of shortcomings with this argument: | |||
1) This is only an instruction for the end of time and when the whole world will have some very long days. The question remains why there are not specific instructions for praying and fasting near the polar regions on our round planet.<BR /> | |||
2) While a stretched analogy can be made with polar regions where the sun cannot be seen rising or setting at all for months at a time, places like Scotland in the example above still have very short nights in summer yet maintain a 24 hour day-night cycle all year round. This is not like the month or year long days affecting the world in the hadith.<BR /> | |||
3) The hadith only relates to prayer times, not fasting.<BR /> | |||
4) The hadith further demonstrates a flat earth and pre-scientific worldview. On a round earth, there would equally be a long night for half the world. Crops would soon fail on both the daylit and night sides of the earth during the day lasting a year and the day lasting a month. The world would starve. | |||
===Qur'an 2:144 - praying towards the Ka'bah=== | ===Qur'an 2:144 - praying towards the Ka'bah=== | ||
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“Its cost (must be paid as a penalty).” | “Its cost (must be paid as a penalty).” | ||
}} | }} | ||
====Oblate vs prolate spheroids (egg vs earth shapes)==== | |||
[[File:oblate-prolate-ostrich.jpg|An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid, no matter its orientation. Spheres, oblate spheroids, and prolate spheroids are all fundamentally different shapes defined by different mathematical equations.|alt=|thumb]] | [[File:oblate-prolate-ostrich.jpg|An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid, no matter its orientation. Spheres, oblate spheroids, and prolate spheroids are all fundamentally different shapes defined by different mathematical equations.|alt=|thumb]] | ||
In addition to the disagreement of definitions available in dictionaries, translations, and tafsirs with the definitions required to justify this modern reinterpretation, neither of the connections attempted ("ostrich egg" and ''madaahi'') accurately denote or imply the shape of the Earth. | In addition to the disagreement of definitions available in dictionaries, translations, and tafsirs with the definitions required to justify this modern reinterpretation, neither of the connections attempted ("ostrich egg" and ''madaahi'') accurately denote or imply the shape of the Earth. | ||