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 12:50, 16 June 2022

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79:30 deserves to be in main section too
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(79:30 deserves to be in main section too)
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Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse, And the mountains as pegs?}}
Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse, And the mountains as pegs?}}
مِهَٰدًا (same as مَهْدًا mahdan) = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse<ref>مَهْدً mahdan - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000267.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2739</ref>
مِهَٰدًا (same as مَهْدًا mahdan) = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse<ref>مَهْدً mahdan - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000267.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2739</ref>
===Qur'an 79:30 - ''daha'' ("spread out wide")===
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|79|27|33}}|Are you a more difficult creation or is the heaven? Allah constructed it. He raised its ceiling and proportioned it. And He darkened its night and extracted its brightness.
'''وَٱلْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ دَحَىٰهَآ'''
Waalarda baAAda thalika dahaha
'''And after that He spread the earth.'''
He extracted from it its water and its pasture, And the mountains He set firmly As provision for you and your grazing livestock.}}
دحو = dahawa = spread out or forth, expand, make wide.<ref name="LanesLexiconDaHaWa" />
For further discussion of this word and of modern claims attempting to associate it with the shape of eggs, see the [[Islamic_Views_on_the_Shape_of_the_Earth#Qur'an 79:30 - ''daha'' ("spread out", said to mean "ostrich egg")|dedicated section below]].


===Qur'an 88:20 - ''sutihat'' ("spread out flat")===
===Qur'an 88:20 - ''sutihat'' ("spread out flat")===
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Other geometric problems emerge as well. For instance: the Americas are largely contained in the hemisphere of the antipode (point directly opposite on a sphere) to Mecca. For this reason, among American Muslims the [[W:Rhumb line|rhumb line]] method is often preferred because the great circle lines across the continent diverge from the antipode before they start to converge when they enter the hemisphere of Mecca, causing people north and south across the Americas to face away from each as they pray. Another difficult implication is that a person located at the antipode of Mecca itself would simultaneously be facing toward and directly away from Mecca no matter which direction they turned, a situation similar to that a person attempting to pray within the walls of the Ka'bah itself.
Other geometric problems emerge as well. For instance: the Americas are largely contained in the hemisphere of the antipode (point directly opposite on a sphere) to Mecca. For this reason, among American Muslims the [[W:Rhumb line|rhumb line]] method is often preferred because the great circle lines across the continent diverge from the antipode before they start to converge when they enter the hemisphere of Mecca, causing people north and south across the Americas to face away from each as they pray. Another difficult implication is that a person located at the antipode of Mecca itself would simultaneously be facing toward and directly away from Mecca no matter which direction they turned, a situation similar to that a person attempting to pray within the walls of the Ka'bah itself.


While a non-literal reading of the passage helps to escape these implications, it remains the case that the author of the verse could have used alternative wording to clarify that persons are not literally required to "turn their face" toward Mecca, suggesting that they held the Earth to be flat.
While a non-literal reading of the passage helps to escape these implications, critics argue that it remains the case that the author of the verse could have used alternative wording to clarify that persons are not literally required to "turn their face" toward Mecca, suggesting that they held the Earth to be flat.


===Qur'an 18:47 - when the mountains are removed, the entire Earth will be apparent===
===Qur'an 18:47 - when the mountains are removed, the entire Earth will be apparent===
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While the words used in 39:5 and 21:33 do not violate a spherical model of the Earth, they are also equally comfortable with a flat model of the Earth. Since all positive evidence in the Islamic scriptures demonstrates that the earliest Muslims though the Earth to be flat, and since these two verses do not contradict that worldview, the simplest explanation of these verses is to relate them to {{Quran|21|33}} and {{Quran|36|40}} which describe the motions of the night, day, sun and moon in a "falak",  now popularly translated as "orbit", but meaning a circuitous path, celestial sphere or, more likely, a hemisphere (see [[Geocentrism and the Quran]]). Also relevant are {{Quran|7|54}} where Allah "covers" the night with the day (or possibly vice versa) and {{Quran|36|37}} where Allah strips the day from the night.
While the words used in 39:5 and 21:33 do not violate a spherical model of the Earth, they are also equally comfortable with a flat model of the Earth. Since all positive evidence in the Islamic scriptures demonstrates that the earliest Muslims though the Earth to be flat, and since these two verses do not contradict that worldview, the simplest explanation of these verses is to relate them to {{Quran|21|33}} and {{Quran|36|40}} which describe the motions of the night, day, sun and moon in a "falak",  now popularly translated as "orbit", but meaning a circuitous path, celestial sphere or, more likely, a hemisphere (see [[Geocentrism and the Quran]]). Also relevant are {{Quran|7|54}} where Allah "covers" the night with the day (or possibly vice versa) and {{Quran|36|37}} where Allah strips the day from the night.


Verse 39:5 specifically describes Allah overlapping (or wrapping) the night and the day over each other, with no mention of the Earth, its shape or its rotation. In any case, these two verses are largely irrelevant to the question of the Earth's shape, as it is possible for one to "wrap around" and "orbit" an object of any shape, whether it be flat or spherical. For further discussion, see [[Geocentrism and the Quran#Quran_39:5|Geocentrism and the Quran]].
Verse 39:5 specifically describes Allah overlapping (or wrapping) the night and the day over each other, with no mention of the Earth, its shape or its rotation. Critics further argue that in any case, these two verses are largely irrelevant to the question of the Earth's shape, as it is possible for one to "wrap around" and "orbit" an object of any shape, whether it be flat or spherical. For further discussion, see [[Geocentrism and the Quran#Quran_39:5|Geocentrism and the Quran]].


===Qur'an 79:30 - ''daha'' ("spread out", said to mean "ostrich egg")===
===Qur'an 79:30 - ''daha'' ("spread out", said to mean "ostrich egg")===
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'''Transliteration:''' ''Waal-arda baAAda thalika dahaha''  
'''Transliteration:''' ''Waal-arda baAAda thalika dahaha''  


'''Literal:''' And the earth/Planet Earth after that He stretched/spread it.<ref name="ia-79-30">[http://islamawakened.org/Quran/3/default.htm#003_054 Islam Awakened - Quran 79:30]</ref>  
'''Literal:''' And the Earth after that He stretched/spread it.<ref name="ia-79-30">[http://islamawakened.org/Quran/3/default.htm#003_054 Islam Awakened - Quran 79:30]</ref>  


'''Word by word:''' ''Waal-arda'' وَٱلْأَرْضَ (''wa'' - وَ - and; ''al'' - ٱلْ - the; ''ard'' - أَرْضَ - Earth, feminine in Arabic) ''baAAda'' بَعْدَ (after) ''thalika'' ذَٰلِكَ (that) ''dahaha'' دَحَىٰهَآ (''dahaa'' - دَحَىٰ - [he] spread, verb; ''ha'' - هَآ - her or "it" in the English translation, referring to the Earth)}}The هَا (''-ha'') suffix pronoun meaning literally "her" is also repeated in the surrounding verses as a literary device, all referring the different acts of creation Allah is imparting upon the Earth and "the heaven":{{Quote|{{Quran|79|27-32}}|أَأَنْتُمْ أَشَدُّ خَلْقًا أَمِ السَّمَاءُ ۚ بَنَاهَا 79:27 - Aantum ashaddu khalqan ami alssamao bana'''ha''' - Are ye the harder to create, or is the heaven that He built?
'''Word by word:''' ''Waal-arda'' وَٱلْأَرْضَ (''wa'' - وَ - and; ''al'' - ٱلْ - the; ''ard'' - أَرْضَ - Earth, feminine in Arabic) ''baAAda'' بَعْدَ (after) ''thalika'' ذَٰلِكَ (that) ''dahaha'' دَحَىٰهَآ (''dahaa'' - دَحَىٰ - [he] spread, verb; ''ha'' - هَآ - her or "it" in the English translation, referring to the Earth)}}The هَا (''-ha'') suffix pronoun meaning literally "her" is also repeated in the surrounding verses as a literary device, all referring the different acts of creation Allah is imparting upon the Earth and "the heaven":{{Quote|{{Quran|79|27-32}}|أَأَنْتُمْ أَشَدُّ خَلْقًا أَمِ السَّمَاءُ ۚ بَنَاهَا 79:27 - Aantum ashaddu khalqan ami alssamao bana'''ha''' - Are ye the harder to create, or is the heaven that He built?
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{{Citation|title=Lane's Lexicon|chapter=مدحاة|page=863|url=http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h328,ll=900,ls=h5,la=h1338,sg=h375,ha=h210,br=h325,pr=h55,aan=h185,mgf=h296,vi=h142,kz=h686,mr=h221,mn=h391,uqw=h509,umr=h357,ums=h289,umj=h236,ulq=h696,uqa=h130,uqq=h102,bdw=h298,amr=h220,asb=h280,auh=h558,dhq=h175,mht=h276,msb=h79,tla=h48,amj=h229,ens=h1,mis=h633}}</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.
{{Citation|title=Lane's Lexicon|chapter=مدحاة|page=863|url=http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h328,ll=900,ls=h5,la=h1338,sg=h375,ha=h210,br=h325,pr=h55,aan=h185,mgf=h296,vi=h142,kz=h686,mr=h221,mn=h391,uqw=h509,umr=h357,ums=h289,umj=h236,ulq=h696,uqa=h130,uqq=h102,bdw=h298,amr=h220,asb=h280,auh=h558,dhq=h175,mht=h276,msb=h79,tla=h48,amj=h229,ens=h1,mis=h633}}</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.


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.  
Critics argue that such a reading is bereft of any linguistic basis or traditional and scriptural precedent.  


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