Geocentrism and the Quran: Difference between revisions

The Qur'an says that both the sun and the moon swim or float in a circuitous path, celestial sphere or, more likely, a hemisphere (a ''falak'' in the Arabic<ref name="LanesLexiconFalak" />). It seems that Allah brings the sun from the east, which then goes high above the Earth, and after sunset goes to a resting place. All this takes place around an Earth that is spread out (or flattened) and which possesses a firmament of seven heavens built atop it without visible pillars.

Immediately after describing the change from day to night the passage states that the sun runs on to a designated "resting place" (ِmustaqarrin مُسْتَقَرٍّ See footnotes regarding the Arabic word here, which differs from similar verses).<ref name="mustaqarrin">A few translations use instead, "appointed term", though in nearly all other verses where we find  mustaqarrin (qaf-ra-ra قرر [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000029.pdf Lane's Lexicon Volume 1 page 2501]) as a participle they translate it as a place of settlement or an abode or resting place. There are other verses (35:13, 31:29, 39:5, 13:2) that mention the sun and moon running (with the same verb as is translated "run" in 36:38) for a term appointed, but these use the words لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى which do indeed mean a term appointed - However, note that mustaqarrin مُسْتَقَرٍّ in 36:38 is a different word.</ref> There is also a sahih hadith that uses the same Arabic word as in {{Quran|36|38}} to identify "a resting place" as part of the sun's daily cycle.<ref>See {{Muslim|1|297}} (also {{Bukhari|6|60|326}} and {{Bukhari|6|60|327}} where Q. 36:38 is explained such that the resting place is under the throne)</ref> An alternative view is that this refers to the sun's final resting on the last day rather than some temporal location. Another narration of the same hadith possibly supports this view.<ref>See {{Bukhari|4|54|421}} and {{Bukhari|9|93|520}} where Q. 36:38 is instead mentioned at the end, possibly indicating that the مُسْتَقَرٍّ (resting place) in 36:38 refers to the end of the world when the sun is asked to rise from its setting place (مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا) instead of under the throne each night.</ref> Whichever meaning was originally intended, the sun's movement is nevertheless mentioned right after describing day and night, just as the next verse mentions the different mansions appointed for the moon each night. The whole passage is about day and night and the sun and moon's movement in that context.

The phrase "It is not for the sun to overtake the moon" in {{Quran|36|40}} does not, critics point out, comfortably fit a heliocentric perspective whereby the moon orbits the Earth and the Earth orbits the sun, yet is quite natural from a 7^th century perspective where the sun and moon were believed to orbit the same world, and indeed, would one day be joined together (discussed in another section below). It is also difficult to interpret the verse merely in terms of a visual human perspective since the sun and moon do appear to "catch up" when a solar eclipse occurs. The word translated 'for' in the phrase 'It is not for the sun...' in {{Quran|36|40}} is ''yanbaghee (''يَنۢبَغِى'')'', which means "fitting", "suitable", "proper", "behoves", "right and allowable", "good, "facilitated", "easy", "practicable", or "manageable"<ref>ba-ghayn-ya [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000269.pdf Lane's Lexicon Book 1 page 233]</ref> and the word translated 'overtake' is ''tudrika'' (تُدْرِكَ), which means "catches up and comes upon".<ref>dal-ra-kaf [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000039.pdf Lane's Lexicon Book 1 page 873]</ref>

The last sentence in Arabic is the same in both verses. They state that the sun and moon (and night and day) all "float" or "swim" in an orbit, or more precisely, each in a ''falak'', a word with various meanings related to the celestial sphere or dome-shaped things, as described in Lane's lexicon of classical arabic.<ref name="LanesLexiconFalak" /> The main definition Lane provides is the place of the revolving of the stars, the celestial sphere, generally imagined to be a hemisphere by the Arabs, or the pole of the heavens. The more common English translations, 'orbit', or 'rounded course', seem to be based on the meanings related to roundness or circling. Ibn 'Abbas is recorded in the ''tafasir'' (commentaries) of al-Tabari and of Ibn Kathir explaining that the sun and moon swimming in a falak means 'in a whirl (whorl), like the whirl of a spindle' (a whirl was a hemisphere-shaped object).<ref>The Arabic reads:فِي فَلْكَة كَفَلْكَةِ الْمِغْزَل fee falka, ka-falkati almighzal - [https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=36&tAyahNo=40&tDisplay=yes&Page=3&Size=1&LanguageId=1 al-Tabari] and [https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=36&tAyahNo=40&tDisplay=yes&Page=4&Size=1&LanguageId=1 Ibn Kathir on 36:40] or for an interpretation in English [http://m.qtafsir.com/Surah-Ya-Seen/Among-the-Signs-of-the-Might-a--- qtafsir.com]</ref> Similarly, Ibn Kathir records in his tafsir for 21:33, "Ibn Abbas said, 'Spinning like as spins the spindle in a whirl'".<ref>[https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=21&tAyahNo=33&tDisplay=yes&Page=3&Size=1&LanguageId=1 Ibn Kathir on 21:33] and in English [http://m.qtafsir.com/Surah-Al-Anbiya/In-everything-there-is-a-Sign---- qtafsir.com]</ref> Lane translates the exact same words attributed to Ibn 'Abbas as "the whirl of a spindle...thus called because of its roundness...it is a piece of wood, generally of hemispherical form, or nearly so, through the middle of which the upper part of the spindle-pin is inserted". Such translations may also be based on another Ibn 'Abbas comment, as noted by Ibn Kathir, that the sun runs in its falak in the sky or heaven during the day, and when it sets, it runs at night in its falak underneath the Earth until it rises in the east.<ref>"Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, 'The sun is like flowing water, running in its course [falakha] in the sky [alssama] during the day. When it sets, it travels [at night - bi al-layli (omitted in the translation)] in its course [falakha] beneath the earth until it rises in the east.' He said, 'The same is true in the case of the moon.' Its chain of narration is Sahih."<BR>[http://m.qtafsir.com/Surah-Luqman/The-Might-and-Power-of-Allah-A--- Tafsir ibn Kathir for Qur'an 31:29]<BR>For the Arabic, see [https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=31&tAyahNo=29&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 altafsir.com]</ref> Al-Tabari further mentions other opinions, such as that it means the pole of the heavens, and similarly, the shape of an iron millstone (or perhaps the iron axis thereof).

Some suggest that the word "all" ([https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=kll kullun]) in Q. 21:33 and Q. 36:40 quoted above refers to all heavenly bodies, which would implicitly include the earth. Critics point out that the verses themselves already explicitly state what "all" refers to - they name the sun, moon, night, and day, all of which are described as mobile entities in other verses.

In any case, vast numbers of interstellar objects (even planets and stars) are not currently in circular orbits but rather are travelling in hyperbolic trajectories (becoming ever straighter), having been dynamically ejected at greater than escape velocity from their solar systems or even from their galaxies (indeed, [[w:Intergalactic_star|intergalactic stars]] have been observed by astronomers).

Critics point out that the 225 million year galactic orbit has no relevance to human time-scales, while the Quran almost always mentions the sun's movement in the context of night and day. Another response is that the entire solar system, and not just the sun, orbits the gravity well of our galaxy. This is considered a problem because therefore the moon can equally be said to orbit the galaxy, yet in verses like {{Quran-range|36|37|40}} the floating of the moon in a falak seems to relate to the phases of the lunar cycle. There is yet another problem discussed in the next section below, which is perhaps even more important.

Critics of the galactic orbit interpretation have further responded that the author of the Qur'an describes a movement of the sun (as well as of the moon) which he expects its listeners to see and interpret as a sign, and for this reason the reference cannot be to the sun's galactic orbit.

The words "don't you see" (''alam tara'' أَلَمْ تَرَ<ref>ra-alif-ya راي [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000164.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 998</ref>) may be interpreted in the sense of "don't you know" or "aren't you aware", but nonetheless function as an appeal to common knowledge. To critics, this common 7^th century Arabian knowledge of geocentrism is erroneous, and in affirming this erroneous perception, the Quran itself may be said to err.

{{Quran|13|2}} and {{Quran|36|38}} state that the running of the sun and moon to an appointed term, or the sun running to its resting place, respectively, are signs (''ayaat'') to mankind, implying they are facts known to and appreciated by a 7th century Arabian audience. Verse 13:2 states that these signs are explained in detail in the Qur'an in order to strengthen the faith of its listeners. Critics argue that this directly undermines the idea that the Quran could have been alluding to the galactic orbit of the sun, for such an orbit remained unknown to the Quran's original audience, and thus could not strengthen their faith, nor anyone's faith, until some fourteen centuries after the Quran's authorship.

In a passage about events on the day of resurrection, the Quran makes an assertion which, critics argue, strongly implies that the sun and moon are of a similar size and are located a similar distance from Earth. As already noted, the Quran says that the moon "follows" the sun ({{Quran-range|91|1|2}}), and "It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day." ({{Quran|36|40}}). Verse {{Quran-range|75|8|9}} adds that on the last day the sun and moon will be brought together:

The Arabic word translated as "are joined" is ''jumi'a'', a verb which means to collect together, gather together, bring together.<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume2/00000091.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 455 جُمِعَ]</ref> Critics note that this would involve our moon, which orbits the Earth 93 million miles away from the sun, being brought together with our local star which is over 400 times wider. To say that such mismatched objects will be brought together (jumi'a) in such a scenario would hardly be apt, critics argue, and a very odd apocalyptic event. Rather, the description sits comfortably in the ancient understanding of the cosmos, whereby the sun and moon were assumed to be two roughly equivalent celestial bodies in the sky above the Earth.  

It is worth noting that the "darkening" of the moon in verse 8 is an Arabic word which in hadiths refers to a lunar or solar eclipse (in this case lunar). However, for a lunar eclipse to occur (when the earth's shadow is cast upon the moon) the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth and thus are not in any sense "brought together". Nor does brought together in verse 9 work as a reference to a solar eclipse (when the sun occasionally casts a shadow of the moon on the earth). The moon is invisible during the portion of a month when it can eclipse the sun since it must be on the daylit side of the earth, and hence the moon does not "darken" or itself become eclipsed (verse 8) as it passes between observers and the sun but rather its silhouette becomes visible.

{{Quran-range|18|83|90}} also describes the physical, terrestrial locations where the sun is supposed to rise and set in response to a question about an existing legend. Here, in the Quranic account of life of Dhul Qarnayan or Alexander the Great, the physical setting place of the sun, located in muddy spring, can be seen by human eyes. Indeed, in this account, a human tribe is said to live adjacent to this celestial setting place.

There is [[Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part One|historical evidence]] from early Quranic commentaries and other sources, including contemporary Arabic and Syriac poems of the same legend, to the effect that early Muslims took this account literally.

Indeed, {{Quran-range|91|1|6}} has many of the same Arabic words as {{Quran-range|79|27|30}}: "its morning light" (this time of the sun), "the night", and "the heaven" (singular) "built" by Allah. Putting the two passages together, it seems that the author of the Quran intuitively believed that the night and the sun's morning light were features pertaining to the entire visible heaven. This does not accord in any way with the modern heliocentric understanding of our local solar system.

The other verses considered in this context by critics which use the the same Arabic verb as found in {{Quran-range|91|1|4}}, are said to show that the verb here does not simply signify that the body of the earth is blocking the line of sight to something. {{Quran-range|92|1|2}} use the same words found {{Quran-range|91|3|4}}, but without the pronoun suffix at the end. Thus, critics conclude, the "night" is when things generally are "covered", and not just the sun on the other side of the Earth. Likewise, the "day" is when things generally are "revealed". In this reading, the verbs employed are used only in a poetic manner.

The same Arabic word for cover appears again in {{Quran|7|54}}, where 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 either or both). Critics argue that it is far from clear how the verse could be interpreted as describing a rotating Earth blocking the night (however that conception may be interpreted) in a manner analogous to the heliocentric interpretation of {{Quran|91|4}}. Critics then assert, instead, that the plain sense of these verses and the Quran at large hold the day and night to be active and physically independent entities.

As with {{Quran|7|54}} and {{Quran|36|37}} and the verses where the day and night (as well as the sun and moon) are said to swim in a ''falak''<ref name="LanesLexiconFalak" /> (see above), the night and day in this verse are referred to as some kind of entities. Here, critics argue that it would make sense to describe the Earth as passing through night and day or possibly to say that night and day wrap around the earth, as one might spin an item in order to wrap it with something. But, the critics note, the Qur'an instead says that Allah wraps the day and night over one another rather than the earth, suggesting that the night and day possess some manner of corporeal form.  

Another problem is that there is no coherent way to consistently interpret each term in the phrase "wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night" to correspond with scientifically meaningful concepts. For example, if one takes the first half of the phrase to mean that the sunlit side of the Earth revolves into the shadow of the Earth cast by the sun, those definitions of "day" and "night" do not work for the second half of the phrase, "wraps the day over the night". The word "day" would now have to mean the light from the sun and "night" would have to refer to the shadowed side of the earth which rotates into it.

Modern Islamic scholars also make the case that though indirect, {{Quran|39|5}} is as direct a reference to the Earth's rotation as would have permitted the point to be made while keeping 7th century Arabs from immediately dismissing Muhammad's message on grounds of pre-modern incredulity. To emphasize this point, modern Islamic scholars evoke the doctrine of the maximal possible perfection of every verse in the Quran and suggest that Allah struck the perfect balance of simultaneously alluding to modern science while speaking in terms comprehensible to the inhabitants of a 7th century Arabian desert. To this presentation, critics have responded pointing out that Muhammad's message was immediately dismissed and mocked by most of his contemporaries anyways, and that widespread conversion to Islam was more a consequence of Muhammad's later military success than his preaching and doctrine. According to hadith tradition, Muhammad did not hesitate to tell his contemporaries he had met an [[Jibreel (Angel Gabriel)|angel]], ridden a [[Buraq|winged beast]] up to Allah, and accomplished other fantastic feats. This having been the case, critics ask why Allah should not simply have gone ahead and stated plainly what he wanted to state, knowing that his message would thereby have increasingly resonated generations later. To critics, the author of the Quran did not see his description of the heavens as scientifically novel or as couched in compromised language for the sake of comprehensibility, but was simply describing the universe he held to exist in common with his audience in order to inspire awe, all while having no real regard for their ridicule or mockery of him.

{{Quote|{{Muslim|1|297}}|It is narrated on the authority of Abu Dharr that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) one day said: Do you know where the Sun goes? They replied: Allah and His Apostle know best. He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Verily it (the Sun) glides till it reaches its resting place under the Throne. Then it falls prostrate and remains there until it is asked: Rise up and go to the place whence you came, and it goes back and continues emerging out '''from its rising place''' and then glides till it reaches its place of rest under the Throne and falls prostrate and remains in that state until it is asked: Rise up and return to the place whence you came, and it returns and emerges out from it rising place and the it glides (in such a normal way) that the people do not discern anything (unusual in it) till it reaches its resting place under the Throne. Then it would be said to it: Rise up and emerge out '''from the place of your setting''', and it will rise from the place of its setting. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said. Do you know when it would happen? It would happen at the time when faith will not benefit one who has not previously believed or has derived no good from the faith.}}

{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|60|160}}|Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "The hour will not be established till <b>the sun rises from the West; and when it rises (from the West)</b> and the people see it, they all will believe. And that is (the time) when no good will it do to a soul to believe then." Then he recited the whole Verse (6.158)}}{{Quote|{{Muslim|41|6931}}|Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came to us all of a sudden as we were (busy in a discussion). He said: What do you discuss about? They (the Companions) said. We are discussing about the Last Hour. Thereupon he said: It will not come until you see ten signs before and (in this connection) he made a mention of the smoke, Dajjal, the beast, <b>the rising of the sun from the west,</b> the descent of Jesus son of Mary (Allah be pleased with him), the Gog and Magog, and land-slides in three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia at the end of which fire would burn forth from the Yemen, and would drive people to the place of their assembly.}}

In another hadith Muhammad recorded telling the story of an earlier prophet who asked the sun to stop moving, whereafter the sun complied with his request. This hadith is based on the story of Joshua found in the Bible and is also found in Sahih Muslim<ref>{{Muslim|19|4327}}</ref>:

{{Quote|{{Bukhari|4|53|353}}|…So, the prophet carried out the expedition and when he reached that town at the time or nearly at the time of the ‘Asr prayer, he said to the sun, ‘'''O sun!''' You are under Allah’s Order and I am under Allah’s Order O Allah! '''Stop it (i.e. the sun) from setting.’''' It was stopped till Allah made him victorious…}}

It is also notable that no major classical Islamic scholar came up with a heliocentric reading based of the language of the Quran (nor an understanding of our universe close to what we know it is today), as can be seen in their writings, particularly their tafsirs/Quranic commentaries. This includes from the most well-known and influential scholars of all time including al-Tabari,<ref>Commentary from al-Tabari (d. 310 AH) on e.g.: