6,632
edits
Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth (view source)
Revision as of 02:25, 24 July 2020
, 24 July 2020no edit summary
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
Prekladator (talk | contribs) |
mNo edit summary |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{QualityScore|Lead=1|Structure=3|Content=3|Language=3|References=3}} | |||
[[File:Flat Earth The Wonders of Creation.jpg|right|thumb|175px|Taken from Zekeriya Kazvinî's "Acaib-ül Mahlûkat" (The Wonders of Creation). Translated into Turkish from Arabic. Istanbul: ca. 1553. <BR>This map depicts "a traditional Islamic projection of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf".<ref>[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/earth.html Views of the Earth] - World Treasures of the Library of Congress, July 29, 2010</ref> ]] | [[File:Flat Earth The Wonders of Creation.jpg|right|thumb|175px|Taken from Zekeriya Kazvinî's "Acaib-ül Mahlûkat" (The Wonders of Creation). Translated into Turkish from Arabic. Istanbul: ca. 1553. <BR>This map depicts "a traditional Islamic projection of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf".<ref>[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/earth.html Views of the Earth] - World Treasures of the Library of Congress, July 29, 2010</ref> ]] | ||
This article takes a closer look at some of the [[Qur'an|Qur'anic]] verses that imply its author assumed the earth is flat. | This article takes a closer look at some of the [[Qur'an|Qur'anic]] verses that imply its author assumed the earth is flat. | ||
| Line 200: | Line 201: | ||
The Earth is very nearly, but not absolutely a perfect sphere. It is in fact an oblate spheroid, which means that the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is shorter than the radius to the equator. In other words, there is a [[w:equatorial bulge|very slight bulge]] around the equator. The radius from the centre of the Earth to the north or south poles is 6,357km, and the radius from the centre to the equator is 6,378km, a difference of less than 1 percent. This is caused by the rotation of the Earth around its polar axis, which produces a centripetal force that is greatest at the equator. | The Earth is very nearly, but not absolutely a perfect sphere. It is in fact an oblate spheroid, which means that the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is shorter than the radius to the equator. In other words, there is a [[w:equatorial bulge|very slight bulge]] around the equator. The radius from the centre of the Earth to the north or south poles is 6,357km, and the radius from the centre to the equator is 6,378km, a difference of less than 1 percent. This is caused by the rotation of the Earth around its polar axis, which produces a centripetal force that is greatest at the equator. | ||
An ostrich egg, much like all eggs, can be described as a prolate spheroid. This is because the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is longer than the radius to the equator, as though it were a sphere that had been pulled from two ends. It certainly is not an oblate spheroid. You can see in the image an oblate spheroid (top left), and a prolate spheroid (bottom left). Even holding an egg on its side (top), you cannot make it look like an oblate spheroid in 3D | An ostrich egg, much like all eggs, can be described as a prolate spheroid. This is because the radius from its centre to either of its two poles is longer than the radius to the equator, as though it were a sphere that had been pulled from two ends. It certainly is not an oblate spheroid. You can see in the image an oblate spheroid (top left), and a prolate spheroid (bottom left). Even holding an egg on its side (top), you cannot make it look like an oblate spheroid in 3D. The shape of the ostrich egg is in fact like a prolate spheroid (bottom). No matter how you hold the egg, it is a prolate spheroid and not an oblate spheroid. | ||
In a flat 2d image without texture or shading oblate and prolate spheroids might look the same, but in three dimensions you cannot make one look like the other no matter how you turn it. They are fundamentally different shapes. | |||
==== Daha and Duhiya ==== | ==== Daha and Duhiya ==== | ||
| Line 340: | Line 340: | ||
For people who are praying a great distance from Mecca, their qiblah would be somewhere down towards the ground, and the people who are located on the opposite 'side' of the earth would have to pray vertically downward towards the center of the earth. | For people who are praying a great distance from Mecca, their qiblah would be somewhere down towards the ground, and the people who are located on the opposite 'side' of the earth would have to pray vertically downward towards the center of the earth. | ||
So, for example, Muslims in the Solomon Islands in fact blaspheme against Allah, because they defecate downwards toward the direction of the Ka'aba when they answer the call of nature. | |||
For this reason, the [[W:Great circle|great circle]] method came to be used, tracing the shortest distance across the sphere of the Earth towards the Ka'aba. Nevertheless, anywhere on Earth you would be simultaneously praying with both your face and backside aligned along a great circle towards the Ka'aba. At the antipode of Mecca, any direction for all 360 degrees would be facing equally 'towards' and 'away' from Mecca and consequently, there would be no one direction that would be the correct one. | |||
The Americas are mostly in the hemisphere of this antipode to Mecca. There, 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. | |||
===Qur'an 18:47 - Without mountains the Earth will be entirely apparent=== | ===Qur'an 18:47 - Without mountains the Earth will be entirely apparent=== | ||
| Line 399: | Line 396: | ||
{{quote || These Ayat indicate that Allah started creation by creating earth, then He made heaven into seven heavens. This is how building usually starts, with the lower floors first and then the top floors, <ref>[http://tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=2&tid=1494 Tafsir 'ibn Kathir]</ref> }} | {{quote || These Ayat indicate that Allah started creation by creating earth, then He made heaven into seven heavens. This is how building usually starts, with the lower floors first and then the top floors, <ref>[http://tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=2&tid=1494 Tafsir 'ibn Kathir]</ref> }} | ||
===Flat Earth Beliefs of Muhammad and His Followers=== | |||
If the Quran claimed that the Earth is spherical, Muhammad and his followers, who spoke the Arabic language of that time, including respected interpreters such as Ibn 'Abbas, would have shown some inkling of this knowledge. Instead, hadith narrations record only flat Earth beliefs (see the article [[Did Muhammad and the early Muslims know that the Earth is round|Did Muhammad and the Earliest Muslims Know the Earth is Round?]]). Some even held a belief that the Earth is placed on the back of [[The Islamic Whale|"the whale"]]. | |||
== General Apologetics == | == General Apologetics == | ||