Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part Two: Difference between revisions

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 Instead the word “fee” is used, and there does not seem to be any evidence that “it set in a spring of murky water” could be a figurative phrase meaning something else. There is also no evidence in Lane’s lexicon suggesting that such a phrase could be used as a figure of speech.<ref>Lane’s lexicon - [http://www.studyQuran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000024.pdf Volume 6 page 2240] and [http://www.studyQuran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000025.pdf page 2241] - StudyQuran.org</ref> Neither can “fee” mean “behind”.<ref>Lane’s lexicon - [http://www.studyQuran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000250.pdf Volume 6 page 2466] and [http://www.studyQuran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000251.pdf page 2467] - StudyQuran.org</ref> The word “waraa” is used in Arabic to mean behind.
-In any case it would also be a highly misleading figure of speech to say that the sun set in a muddy spring when something else is meant, especially considering the contextual issues discussed above, for example that a few words earlier Dhu’l Qarnayn reached maghriba a'''l'''shshamsi, and the usage of wajada, and that the literal reading reflected a popular legend, and that early Muslims took it literally.
+Most importantly, it would also be a highly misleading figure of speech to say that the sun set in a muddy spring when something else is meant. Abundant evidence set out in earlier sections of this article demonstrates that early Muslims understood it literally. This is unsurprising, especially considering the contextual issues discussed above, for example that a few words earlier Dhu’l Qarnayn reached maghriba a'''l'''shshamsi, and the usage of wajada, and that the literal reading reflected a popular legend.
-If “setting in a muddy spring” in 18:86 communicated a figurative meaning, why is there no evidence of this interpretation, and plentiful evidence that it was understood literally, for centuries until educated Muslim scholars knew that the literal interpretation was problematic?
+If “setting in a muddy spring” in 18:86 communicated a figurative meaning, why is there for centuries no evidence of this interpretation, and plentiful evidence that it was understood literally until educated Muslim scholars learned that the literal interpretation was astronomically problematic?
 As for 18:90, even if the phrase in this verse could be regarded as a figure of speech in the sense that the sun was not exactly overhead during the period when it is described as “rising on a people”, the context of the surrounding words strongly imply that they must at least have been unusually close to it during that part of the day, as discussed above. We can also obviously rule out one literal interpretation where AAala means that the sun was in physical contact with the people as it was rising. That was set up as a straw man by al-Qurtubi (see above) who pretended that it was the only alternative to a figure of speech interpretation.