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

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The word was used to describe making the flat top or roof of a house or chamber and making a top surface flat.
The word was used to describe making the flat top or roof of a house or chamber and making a top surface flat.


Words from the same root mean the flat top surface or roof of a house or chamber, a flat plane in geometry, a level place upon which dates can be spread, a rolling pin (which expands the dough), plane or flat.<ref>سطَح shataha - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000081.pdf Lanes Lexicon] page 1357</ref>
Words from the same root mean the flat top surface or roof of a house or chamber, a flat plane in geometry, a level place upon which dates can be spread, a rolling pin (which expands the dough), plane or flat.<ref>سطَح sataha - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000081.pdf Lanes Lexicon] page 1357</ref>


=== Qur'an 91:6 - taha (spread out)===
=== Qur'an 91:6 - taha (spread out)===
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Therefore, the '''Earth has been made flat for us in regards to our relationship to it''' to facilitate our lives upon it and our comfort. The fact that it is round does not prevent that its surface has been made flat for us. This is because something that is round and very large, then its surface will become very vast or broad, having a flat appearance to those who are upon it."}}
Therefore, the '''Earth has been made flat for us in regards to our relationship to it''' to facilitate our lives upon it and our comfort. The fact that it is round does not prevent that its surface has been made flat for us. This is because something that is round and very large, then its surface will become very vast or broad, having a flat appearance to those who are upon it."}}


Some Islamic websites attribute the above quote to Sheikh Ibn Bâz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia who believed in a flat earth. They are ignoring that fact that "flat" and "round" have fundamentally different meanings in geometry. Any object, no matter how big or small it is, cannot be round and flat at the same time. To stress further on the apologist's words "its surface has been made flat for us", neither is the surface flat<ref>Humans are unable to see the curvature of the earth from ground level.</ref> nor is it made for us.
Some Islamic websites attribute the above quote to Sheikh Ibn Bâz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, who at one time believed the Earth was flat. While some of the verses quoted in this article make reference to humans, most do not. They are describing what Allah supposedly did when creating the entire Earth, not that the Earth seems flat to a human from a small local perspective on its spherical surface (an illusion that would be dispelled for the Arabs in the 8th century as they gained astronomical knowledge). Moreover, some of these verses also mention Allah placing mountains, or the sky as a ceiling or canopy, and therefore such verses must apply to the Earth's shape as a whole. The argument further ignores the very unambiguous choice of word in verse 88:20 quoted above, which also means a flat surface in geometry. Try as they might, apologists cannot give "flat" and "round" the same meaning.


Allah is not really talking about the (flat) appearance of the earth to us in these verses. Even if he did so, it would be a statement unrelated to science and slightly inaccurate too. The round shape of the earth has been known since pre-Islamic times. Any person who gets this knowledge can easily imagine the roundness of the earth in their mind; it won't continue to appear flat to them anymore.
Most importantly, the argument ignores the indirect and further evidence in the [https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Flat_Earth_and_the_Quran#Further_Proof Further Proof] section above. That section contains the best evidence for a flat Earth cosmography in the Qur'an, stronger even than the verses that directly describe the creation of the Earth.


== Conclusion ==  
== Conclusion ==  
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