Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth

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Taken from Zekeriya Kazvinî's "Acaib-ül Mahlûkat" (The Wonders of Creation). Translated into Turkish from Arabic. Istanbul: ca. 1553.
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".[1]

Islamic scriptures imply, adhere to, and describe a flat-Earth cosmography (arranged in a geocentric system) which conceives of the earth as existing in the form of a large plane or disk. While some early Islamic authorities maintained that the earth existed in the shape of a "ball", such notions are entirely absent in the earliest Islamic scriptures.

Nonetheless, as knowledge of the Earth's spherical form has existed to greater or lesser degree since at least classical Greek (4th Century BCE) - even rising to the level of common knowledge among early medieval Europeans and with the Holy Roman Empire opting to use an orb to represent the spherical Earth from as early as 395 CE - it has been frequently argued in recent times that early Islamic scholars and indeed scripture itself supported the spherical-earth model, although evidence for these claims is lacking.

Greek and Indian astronomical knowledge

Ptolemy’s Almagest, written in the mid 2nd century CE, was translated into Arabic in the 8th century CE after the Qur’an was completed and mostly standardized. Ptolemy recorded in book five of the Almagest the discovery of Hipparchus, and of Aristarchus before him, that the sun is much larger than the earth and much more distant than the moon, as well as the Aristotelian view which maintains that the Earth is spherical and that the heavens are celestial spheres.[2]

Professor Kevin Van Bladel, Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University[3], writes:

When the worldview of educated Muslims after the establishment of the Arab Empire came to incorporate principles of astrology including the geocentric, spherical, Aristotelian-Ptolemaic world picture – particularly after the advent of the ‘Abbāsid dynasty in 750 – the meaning of these passages came to be interpreted in later Islamic tradition not according to the biblical-quranic cosmology, which became obsolete, but according to the Ptolemaic model, according to which the Quran itself came to be interpreted.[4]

Earlier in the same paper, Van Bladel describes how Christian theologians in the region of Syria in the sixth century CE shared the view that the Earth was flat and the heaven, or series of heavens was like a dome or tent above the Earth, based on their reading of the Hebrew and New Testament scriptures. This was a rival view to that of the churchmen of Alexandria who supported the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic view of a spherical Earth surrounded by spinning celestial spheres.[5] He summarizes as follows:

Clearly the Ptolemaic cosmology was not taken for granted in the Aramaean part of Asia in the sixth century. It was, rather, controversial.

David A. King, Professor of History of Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, writes:

The Arabs of the Arabian peninsula before Islam possessed a simple yet developed astronomical folklore of a practical nature. This involved a knowledge of the risings and settings of stars, associated in particular with the cosmical setting of groups of stars and simultaneous heliacal risings of others, which marked the beginning of periods called naw’, plural anwā’. […] Ptolemy’s Almagest was translated at least five times in the late eighth and ninth centuries. The first was a translation into Syriac and the others into Arabic, the first two under Caliph al-Ma’mūn in the middle of the first half of the ninth century, and the other two (the second an improvement of the first) towards the end of that century […] In this way Greek planetary models, uranometry and mathematical methods came to the attention of the Muslims.[6]

Michael Hoskin and Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University[7], write:

In 762 [Muhammad’s] successors in the Middle East founded a new capital, Baghdad, by the river Tigris at the point of nearest approach of the Euphrates, and within reach of the Christian physicians of Jundishapur. Members of the Baghdad court called on them for advice, and these encounters opened the eyes of prominent Muslims to the existence of a legacy of intellectual treasures from Antiquity - most of which were preserved in manuscripts lying in distant libraries and written in a foreign tongue. Harun al-Rashid (caliph from 786) and his successors sent agents to the Byzantine empire to buy Greek manuscripts, and early in the ninth century a translation centre, the House of Wisdom, was established in Baghdad by the Caliph al-Ma’mun. […] Long before translations began, a rich tradition of folk astronomy already existed in the Arabian peninsula. This merged with the view of the heavens in Islamic commentaries and treatises, to create a simple cosmology based on the actual appearances of the sky and unsupported by any underlying theory.[8]

Direct references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an

The Qur'an frequently describes, in explicit terms, the creation of "al-ard", which can be translated as either "Earth" or "land", as a flat structure. This use of metaphors and words intimately associated with flat objects (such as beds and carpets) is especially common in cases where the context of the verse makes it clear that the word "al-ard" is being used to describe the creation of the Earth at the beginning of time alongside the creation of the "heavens" (rather than in the more limited sense of a certain portion of "land"). The best example of this is perhaps verse 88:20.

Qur'an 2:22 - firashan ("thing spread to sit or lie upon")

ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ فِرَٰشًا وَٱلسَّمَآءَ بِنَآءً وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِۦ مِنَ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ رِزْقًا لَّكُمْ ۖ فَلَا تَجْعَلُوا۟ لِلَّهِ أَندَادًا وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

Allathee jaAAala lakumu alarda firashan

[He] who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling and sent down from the sky, rain and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not attribute to Allah equals while you know [that there is nothing similar to Him].

فِرَٰشًا = firashan = a thing that is spread upon the ground, a thing that is spread for one to sit or lie upon.[9]

Qur'an 15:19 - madad ("extend", "stretch out")

والارض مددناها والقينا فيها رواسي وانبتنا فيها من كل شئ موزون

Waal-arda madadnaha waalqayna feeha rawasiya waanbatnafeeha min kulli shay-in mawzoonin

And the earth We have spread out (like a carpet); set thereon mountains firm and immovable; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance.

مَدَدْ = madad = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand[10]

Qur'an 20:53 - mahdan ("bed")

الذي جعل لكم الارض مهدا وسلك لكم فيها سبلا وانزل من السماء ماء فاخرجنا به ازواجا من نبات شتى

Allathee jaAAala lakumu al-arda mahdan wasalaka lakum feeha subulan waanzala mina alssama-imaan faakhrajna bihi azwajan min nabatinshatta

He Who has, made for you the earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky." With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants each separate from the others.

مَهْدًا = mahdan = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse[11]

Qur'an 43:10 - mahdan ("bed")

الذي جعل لكم الارض مهدا وجعل لكم فيها سبلا لعلكم تهتدون

Allathee jaAAala lakumu al-arda mahdan wajaAAala lakum feeha subulan laAAallakum tahtadoona

(Yea, the same that) has made for you the earth (like a carpet) spread out, and has made for you roads (and channels) therein, in order that ye may find guidance (on the way);

مَهْدًا = mahdan = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse[12]

Qur'an 50:7 - madad ("expand", "stretch out")

والارض مددناها والقينا فيها رواسي وانبتنا فيها من كل زوج بهيج

Waal-arda madadnaha waalqayna feeha rawasiya waanbatnafeeha min kulli zawjin baheejin

And the earth- We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs)-

مَدَدْ = madad = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand[13]

Qur'an 51:48 - farasha ("spread out") mahidoon ("spreaders")

والارض فرشناها فنعم الماهدون

Waal-arda farashnaha faniAAma almahidoona

And the earth have We laid out, how gracious is the Spreader (thereof)!

فَرَشَْ = farasha (verse 2:22 uses this word in the noun form) = spread or expand, spread a bed or carpet[14]

الْمَهِدُونَ = mahidoon from مهد = make plain, even, smooth, spread a bed[15]

A hadith in Ibn Majah uses the plural noun furushaat to mean "beds":

It was narrated from Abu Dharr that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “I see what you do not see, and I hear what you do not hear. The heaven is creaking and it should creak, for there is no space in it the width of four fingers but there is an angel there, prostrating to Allah. By Allah, if you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much, and you would never enjoy women in your beds (الْفُرُشَاتِ, al-furushaat), and you would go out in the streets, beseeching Allah.’”


Qur'an 71:19 - bisaatan ("carpet")

والله جعل لكم الارض بساطا

WaAllahu jaAAala lakumu al-arda bisatan

And Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out),

بِسَاطًا = bisaatan = A thing that is spread or spread out or forth, and particularly a carpet (from the same root we also have بَسَاطٌ = bisaatun = Land, expanded and even; and wide or spacious) [16]

A hadith in Tirmidhi uses the word bisaatan to describe the spreading or rolling out of a mat:

...Then he came to hug the Prophet (s.a.w) and uttered that his father and mother should be ransomed for him. Then he went to grove of his and he spread out a mat for them (فَبَسَطَ لَهُمْ بِسَاطًا, fa-basata la-hum bisaatan, literally "and-(he)spread for-them a-mat"). Then he went to a date-palm and returned with a cluster of dates which he put down....

Qur'an 78:6-7 - mihadan ("bed")

أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ ٱلْأَرْضَ مِهَٰدًا وَٱلْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا

Alam najAAali al-arda mihadan Waaljibala awtadan

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[17]

Qur'an 88:20 - sutihat ("spread out flat")

وَإِلَى ٱلْأَرْضِ كَيْفَ سُطِحَتْ

Wa-ila al-ardi kayfa sutihat

And at the Earth, how it is spread out?

سَطَّحَ = spread out or forth, expand

The word sataha is used to describe making the flat top or roof of a house or chamber and making a top surface flat. Words derived from the same root mean: the flat top surface or roof of a house or chamber, a bounded plane in geometry, a level place upon which dates can be spread, a rolling pin (which expands the dough), plane or flat.[18] Indeed, the modern Arabic phrase used to refer to the "flat earth" today is الأرض مسطحة (al-ard musattaha)[19], the word musattaha is from the same root as the word sutihat.

In the tafsir Al-Jalalayn (from the 15th century) the word sutihat is used to explain that the Earth. The author of this section, al-Mahalli (d. 1460), maintains that the flat-earth is "the opinion of most of the scholars".

And the earth how it was laid out flat? and thus infer from this the power of God exalted be He and His Oneness? The commencing with the mention of camels is because they are closer in contact with it the earth than any other animal. As for His words sutihat ‘laid out flat’ this on a literal reading suggests that the earth is flat which is the opinion of most [the word "most" is not included in the original Arabic: "وعليه علماء الشرع"; see citation for full text] of the scholars of the revealed Law and not a sphere as astronomers ahl al-hay’a have it even if this latter does not contradict any of the pillars of the Law.
"Tafsir al-Jalalayn"
al-Mahalli & al-Suyuti, الباحث القرآني, https://tafsir.app/jalalayn/88/20.
 

Qur'an 91:6 - taha ("spread out")

والارض وماطحاها

Waal-ardi wama tahaha

By the Earth and its (wide) expanse

Indirect references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an

In addition to direct references to a flat Earth in the Qur'an, where the original creation of the Earth is explicitly described using terms that denote a flat object, there are many indirect references to the shape of the Earth in contexts not related to the initial creation of the planet. These indirect references, poising themselves as describing the Earth as it exists rather than how it was created are, in a sense, stronger testimony to the cosmology of the Qur'an.

Since explicit cosmological descriptions are uncommon in societies with a uniform and common cosmology (due to the simple fact that no one needs state that which everyone knows), otherwise unrelated descriptions of phenomenon occurring within the confines of a given society's cosmology can often serve as the strongest evidence of their cosmological beliefs.[20]

Qur'an 18:86 - setting and rising places of the sun

حتى اذا بلغ مغرب الشمس وجدها تغرب في عين حمئة ووجد عندها قوما قلنا ياذا القرنين اما ان تعذب واما ان تتخذ فيهم حسنا

Hatta itha balagha maghriba alshshamsi wajadaha taghrubu fee AAaynin hami-atin wawajada AAindaha qawman qulna ya tha alqarnayni imma an tuAAaththiba wa-imma an tattakhitha feehim husnan

Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.

A flat conception of the Earth is the only sort that permits the setting of the sun in a spring of water. Contemporary 7th-century Arabic and Syriac poems of the same legend suggest that early Muslims understood the story literally, for while other parts of the legend were edited or removed to conform to the early Muslims' religious outlook before being introduced to the Qur'an, the idea that the Sun could set into a spring of water located somewhere in the "Western" part of the world was allowed to remain.

Qur'an 2:187 and 17:78 - implied solar orbit

It is made lawful for you to go in unto your wives on the night of the fast. They are raiment [clothing] for you and ye are raiment for them. Allah is Aware that ye were deceiving yourselves in this respect and He hath turned in mercy toward you and relieved you. So hold intercourse with them and seek that which Allah hath ordained for you, and eat and drink until the white thread becometh distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn. Then strictly observe the fast till nightfall and touch them not, but be at your devotions in the mosques. These are the limits imposed by Allah, so approach them not. Thus Allah expoundeth His revelation to mankind that they may ward off (evil)

This verses outlines some of the requirements of the fourth Pillar of Islam, fasting: one can not eat, drink, or have sexual intercourse between "dawn" and "nightfall". The Qur'an conceives of itself as containing guidance for all people in all times in all places, yet the instructions contained here are, taken literally, impracticable for those who live near the North and South poles of the globe, where a single day/night cycle can take any where from weeks to months. While Islamic scholars were and are content to permit exceptions to the literal meaning of the verse for those who live in extreme climes, the original authors and audiences of Islamic scriptures do not seem to have appreciated this problem. Based on this evidence, the earliest believers were either mistaken about the details of the dynamic system existing between the rotating Earth and the star it orbits or, more likely, simply unaware of the system altogether.

Similar scriptural instructions for worship based on the position of the Sun relative to the observer confirm the implications of the Quran 2:187.

Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn is ever witnessed.

For instance, in Aberdeen, Scotland, the time between the night prayer (Isha) and the dawn prayer (Fajr) is around 4 and a half hours in June, such that a practicing Muslim would be required to regularly awaken around 3:20am for prayer. These matters are further complicated by the increasingly relevant and real cases of space travel, and even simply travel through the air aboard a plane, as it is not entirely clear whether someone flying in or opposite the direction of the sun would be required to repeat or skip certain prayers due to the rapidly changing time of day. By these appearances, the rituals and instructions set out in the Qur'an were intended for the limited audience and understanding of a 7th-century desert city.

Qur'an 2:144 - praying towards the Ka'bah

Top-left: Due to the sphericity of the earth, a prayer in any direction will point towards the sky/outer-space, not Mecca.
Top-right: People who are located on the opposite 'side' of the earth would have to pray vertically down towards the center of the earth, and would also be guilty of blasphemy, as they would also be defecating in exact direction of the Ka'bah..
Bottom-left: One is also always simultaneously praying with their face and backside aimed towards the Ka'bah, especially if located on the Ka'bah's antipode.
Bottom-right: From the Ka'bah's antipode, any direction is facing 'towards' Mecca and consequently, there is no one direction that would be the correct one.
We have seen the turning of thy face to heaven (for guidance, O Muhammad). And now verily We shall make thee turn (in prayer) toward a qiblah which is dear to thee. So turn thy face toward the Inviolable Place of Worship, and ye (O Muslims), wheresoever ye may be, turn your faces (when ye pray) toward it. Lo! Those who have received the Scripture know that (this revelation) is the Truth from their Lord. And Allah is not unaware of what they do.

This verse instructs prayer towards the Ka'bah (the word qiblah referring to the direction that one has to face in order to pray towards the Ka'bah). Taken literally, "turning one's face" toward the Ka'bah is only possible on a flat Earth, since on a spherical Earth, a prayer made in any direction from anywhere other than the immediate vicinity of the Ka'bah will point towards the sky and ultimately outer-space, not Mecca. Other Islamic practices such as defecting opposite the Ka'bah and sleeping facing the Ka'bah are likewise complicated. Indeed, in facing the Ka'bah perfectly, one's hind side would also, on a sphere, necessarily face the Ka'bah with equal perfection.

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 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.

Qur'an 18:47 - when the hills are removed, the entire Earth is apparent

وَيَوْمَ نُسَيِّرُ ٱلْجِبَالَ وَتَرَى ٱلْأَرْضَ بَارِزَةً وَحَشَرْنَٰهُمْ فَلَمْ نُغَادِرْ مِنْهُمْ أَحَدًا

Wayawma nusayyiru aljibala watara al-arda barizatan wahasharnahum falam nughadir minhum ahadan

And (bethink you of) the Day when we remove the hills and ye see the earth emerging, and We gather them together so as to leave not one of them behind.

بَارِزَةً = baarizatan = Wholey, or entirely, apparent or manifest, Land that is open, apparent, or uncovered, upon which is no mountain or any other thing.[21]

Qur'an 20:105-107 - when the mountains are scattered, the Earth is a level plain

وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلْجِبَالِ فَقُلْ يَنسِفُهَا رَبِّى نَسْفًا فَيَذَرُهَا قَاعًا صَفْصَفًا لَّا تَرَىٰ فِيهَا عِوَجًا وَلَآ أَمْتًا

Wayasaloonaka AAani aljibali faqul yansifuha rabbee nasfan Fayatharuha qaAAan safsafan La tara feeha AAiwajan wala amtan

They will ask thee of the mountains (on that day). Say: My Lord will break them into scattered dust. And leave it as an empty plain, Wherein thou seest neither curve nor ruggedness.

The word فَيَذَرُهَا Fayatharuha ('And he will leave it') has the feminine 'ha' suffix, meaning 'it'. "It" here almost certainly refers to the Earth, which is not explicitly mentioned, and is a feminine noun. Similarly the word translated 'Wherein' is فِيهَا feeha (literally 'in it') and has the feminine 'it' suffix too. Since there are no other singular feminine nouns in these verses and due to the context provided by Quran 18:47, it is clear that the pronoun is referring to al-ard (the Earth).

قَاعًا = qaAAan = an even place; plain, or level, land that produces nothing; plain, or soft, land, low, and free from mountains.[22]

صَفْصَفًا = safsafan = a level, or an even, tract of land or ground.[23]

عِوَجًا = AAiwajan = crookedness, a curvity, bending, winding, contortion, wryness, distortion, or uneveness[24]

أَمْتًا = amtan = curvity, crookedness, distortion, or uneveness; ruggedness and smoothness in different places; depression and elevation; small hills and hollows.[25]

Whereas "AAiwajan" and "amtan " may refer to individual portions of land being flat, "qaAAan safsafan" appears to characterize the Earth as a whole as a "level, barren plain"

Qur'an 55:17 - the two easts and two wests

رَبُّ ٱلْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ ٱلْمَغْرِبَيْنِ

Rabbu almashriqayni warabbu almaghribayni

(He is) Lord of the two Easts and Lord of the two Wests

Classical tafsirs unanimously[26] understand this verse to refer to the two places where the sun rises on the summer and winter solstices (almashriqayni) and where it sets on those solstice days (almaghribayni), which also fits with the literal meanings of mashriq[27] and maghrib[28]. Similarly, verse 70:40 (Quran 70:40) was classically understood to refer to all the different places where the sun rises and sets between these ranges (almashariqi waalmagharibi).[29] Taken literally, these descriptions can only concord with a flat Earth, as on a spherical Earth, the "two Easts" and "two Wests" are only relative and everchanging positions lacking any definite, physical nature - that is, there is no place or even direction on Earth that could be definitely and universally described as "one of the two Easts", for instance.

Qur'an 2:22 - the heavens are a canopy / building

الذي جعل لكم الارض فراشا والسماء بناء وانزل من السماء ماء فاخرج به من الثمرات رزقا لكم فلا تجعلوا لله اندادا وانتم تعلمون

Allathee jaAAala lakumu al-arda firashan waalssamaa binaan waanzala mina alssama-i maan faakhraja bihi mina alththamarati rizqan lakum fala tajAAaloo lillahi andadan waantum taAAlamoona

Who has made the earth your couch, and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rain from the heavens; and brought forth therewith Fruits for your sustenance; then set not up rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth).

The word translated as canopy is binaa or binaan ( بِنَاء ). This word means "building"[30]. Here, the heavens are described as a multi-story building over the earth. There are seven layers or stories to this building called the heavens. The heavens are built on a foundation called "the earth". The tafsir of Ibn Kathir, among others, elaborates this[31]:

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, [32]

Flat Earth in the Hadiths

While the Islamic tradition maintain and modern academics contest whether so-called authentic hadiths can be reliably traced back to the prophet and his companions, all agree that hadiths, whether authentic or inauthentic represent the beliefs of various populations among the earliest Muslims. That is, even if a hadith is weak, it's fabrication, existence, and circulation attest to the simple fact that at least some early Muslims, even if this did not include Muhammad and his companions, believed that hadith's contents.

This said, there exist a variety of hadiths in canonical and authentic collections of hadith that explicitly and implicitly attest and adhere to a flat Earth. Countless weak hadiths can be counted which, in addition to these authentic hadiths, confirm that the earliest Muslims believed in a flat earth.

Seven stacked earths

Various narrations describe seven stacked flat earths (not spherical layers, طوّقه means put on a neck-ring[33]):

Narrated Salim's father (i.e. `Abdullah): The Prophet said, "Whoever takes a piece of the land of others unjustly, he will sink down the seven earths on the Day of Resurrection."
Narrated Sa`id bin Zaid:

Allah's Messenger said, "Whoever usurps the land of somebody unjustly, his neck will be encircled with it down the seven earths (on the Day of Resurrection). "


Sa'id b. Zaid reported: I heard Allah's Apostle say: He who took a span of earth wrongly would be made to wear around his neck seven earths on the Day of Resurrection.

This daif (weak) hadith elaborates what some early Muslims (if not Muhammad) thought about the shape of the world:

...Then he said: ‘Do you know what is under you?’ They said: ‘Allah and His Messenger know better.’ He said: ‘Indeed it is the earth.’ Then he said: ‘Do you know what is under that?’ They said: ‘Allah and His Messenger know better.’ He said: ‘Verily, below it is another earth, between the two of which is a distance of five-hundred years.’ Until he enumerated seven earths: ‘Between every two earths is a distance of five-hundred years.’...

Setting and rising place of the sun

The following hadith is graded Sahih by Dar-us-Salam (Hafiz Zubair 'Ali Za'i) and has a chain of narration graded as Sahih (authentic) by al-Albani.

Narrated Abu Dharr: I was sitting behind the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who was riding a donkey while the sun was setting. He asked: Do you know where this sets? I replied: Allah and his Apostle know best. He said: It sets in a spring of warm water (Hamiyah).

A similar, more elaborate hadith in Sahih Muslim includes "from its rising place" (min matli'iha مَطْلِعِهَا ) and "from the place of your setting" (min maghribiki مِنْ مَغْرِبِكِ). The sun is commanded to go to some particular place. The world "matli'" and "maghrib", when juxtaposed, refer to a "rising place" and "setting place", while the words "mashriq" and "maghirb", when juxtaposed, refer more generically to "east" and "west", although some English translations attempt to obscure this detail. The use of the words "matli'" and "mashriq" in reference to specific locations as opposed to general directions is further confirmed by the usage of possessive pronouns which make these "the sun's matli'" and "the sun's mashriq" - if the narration were referring to the "east" and "west" generically, the hadith would not refer to "the sun's east" and "the sun's west".

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.[34]

Ends of the Earth

Thauban reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: Allah drew the ends of the world near one another for my sake. And I have seen its eastern and western ends. And the dominion of my Ummah would reach those ends which have been drawn near me and I have been granted the red and the white treasure and I begged my Lord for my Ummah that it should not be destroyed because of famine, nor be dominated by an enemy who is not amongst them to take their lives and destroy them root and branch, and my Lord said: Muhammad, whenever I make a decision, there is none to change it. I grant you for your Ummah that it would not be destroyed by famine and it would not be dominated by an enemy who would not be amongst it and would take their lives and destroy them root and branch even if all the people from the different parts of the world join hands together (for this purpose), but it would be from amongst them, viz. your Ummah, that some people would kill the others or imprison the other
It was narrated from Sahl bin Sa’d As-Sa’idi that the Messenger of Allah said: “There is no (pilgrim) who recites the Talbiyah but that which is to his right and left also recites it, rocks and trees and hills, to the farthest ends of the earth in each direction, from here and from there.”

The location of Allah and Shaytan

Taken literally on a spherical and heliocentric conception of the Earth, the following two narrations seem to suggest that Allah and Shaytan are locked in some sort of perpetual concentric orbit.

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (p.b.u.h) said, "Our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, comes every night down on the nearest Heaven to us when the last third of the night remains, saying: "Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation? Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?"
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven when one-third of the first part of the night is over and says: I am the Lord; I am the Lord: who is there to supplicate Me so that I answer him? Who is there to beg of Me so that I grant him? Who is there to beg forgiveness from Me so that I forgive him? He continues like this till the day breaks.

Flat Earth in Tafsirs

The spring where the sun sets

In the tafsir of al-Tabari (b. 224 AH / 839 CE) for verse 18:86 (Quran 18:86), the following remarks are made about the nature of the spring into which the sun sets. The similar sounding words hami'ah (muddy) and hamiyah (hot) seem to have become confused at some point in the transmission of the Qur'anic script:

الْقَوْل فِي تَأْوِيل قَوْله تَعَالَى : حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِب الشَّمْس وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُب فِي عَيْن حَمِئَة

يَقُول تَعَالَى ذِكْره : { حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ } ذُو الْقَرْنَيْنِ { مَغْرِب الشَّمْس وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُب فِي عَيْن حَمِئَة } , فَاخْتَلَفَتْ الْقُرَّاء فِي قِرَاءَة ذَلِكَ , فَقَرَأَهُ بَعْض قُرَّاء الْمَدِينَة وَالْبَصْرَة : { فِي عَيْن حَمِئَة } بِمَعْنَى : أَنَّهَا تَغْرُب فِي عَيْن مَاء ذَات حَمْأَة , وَقَرَأَتْهُ جَمَاعَة مِنْ قُرَّاء الْمَدِينَة , وَعَامَّة قُرَّاء الْكُوفَة : " فِي عَيْن حَامِيَة " يَعْنِي أَنَّهَا تَغْرُب فِي عَيْن مَاء حَارَّة . وَاخْتَلَفَ أَهْل التَّأْوِيل فِي تَأْوِيلهمْ ذَلِكَ عَلَى نَحْو اِخْتِلَاف الْقُرَّاء فِي قِرَاءَته

The meaning of the Almighty’s saying, ‘Until he reached the place of the setting of the sun he found it set in a spring of murky water,’ is as follows:

When the Almighty says, ‘Until he reached,’ He is addressing Zul-Qarnain. Concerning the verse, ‘the place of the setting of the sun he found it set in a spring of murky water,’ the people differed on how to pronounce that verse. Some of the people of Madina and Basra read it as ‘Hami’a spring,’ meaning that the sun sets in a spring that contains mud. While a group of the people of Medina and the majority of the people of Kufa read it as, ‘Hamiya spring’ meaning that the sun sets in a spring of warm water. The people of commentary have differed on the meaning of this depending on the way they read the verse.

So he says of the Basra version of the Qur'an reads:

بـمعنى: أنها تغرب فـي عين ماء ذات حمأة Meaning: that it sets in a spring of muddy water.

And the Kufan version of the Qur'an reads:

يعنـي أنها تغرب فـي عين ماء حارّة It means that it sets in a spring of hot water

Early authorities such as Ibn 'Abbas explain this to mean that the sun sets in black mud:

حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّد بْن عَبْد الْأَعْلَى , قَالَ : ثنا مَرْوَان بْن مُعَاوِيَة , عَنْ وَرْقَاء , قَالَ : سَمِعْت سَعِيد بْن جُبَيْر ,

قَالَ : كَانَ اِبْن عَبَّاس يَقْرَأ هَذَا الْحَرْف { فِي عَيْن حَمِئَة }

Muhammad bin 'Abd al-A'laa narrated and said: Marwan ibn Mu'awiya narrated from Warqa, he said: I heard Sa'id ibn Jubayr say: ibn 'Abbas read this letter "in a muddy spring"

وَيَقُول : حَمْأَة سَوْدَاء تَغْرُب فِيهَا الشَّمْس

and he said: the sun sets in black mud.

وَقَالَ آخَرُونَ : بَلْ هِيَ تَغِيب فِي عَيْن حَارَّة

Others said: it disappears (تَغِيب) in a hot spring.

Al-Tabari (d. 923) in his History of the Prophets and Kings and al-Baydawi (d. 1286) in his tafsir mention the opinion that the sun has 360 springs into which it can set. A similar idea is found in the so-called pre-Islamic "Jahili" Arab poems.

The sky is a dome above the Earth

Al-Tabari in his tafsir for Quran 2:22 includes narrations from some of the earliest Muslims about the sky being a dome or ceiling over the Earth:

حَدَّثَنِي مُوسَى بْن هَارُونَ , قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا عَمْرو بْن حَمَّاد , قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا أَسْبَاط , عَنْ السُّدِّيّ فِي خَبَر ذَكَرَهُ , عَنْ أَبِي مَالِك , وَعَنْ أَبِي صَالِح , عَنْ ابْن عَبَّاس , وَعَنْ مُرَّة , عَنْ ابْن مَسْعُود وَعَنْ نَاس مِنْ أَصْحَاب النَّبِيّ صَلَّى اللَّه عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : { وَالسَّمَاء بِنَاء } , فَبِنَاء السَّمَاء عَلَى الْأَرْض كَهَيْئَةِ الْقُبَّة , وَهِيَ سَقْف عَلَى الْأَرْض .وَحَدَّثَنَا بِشْر بْن مُعَاذ , قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا يَزِيد , عَنْ سَعِيد , عَنْ قَتَادَةَ فِي قَوْل اللَّه { وَالسَّمَاء بِنَاء } قَالَ : جَعَلَ السَّمَاء سَقْفًا لَك .

Musa ibn Harun narrated and said that Amru ibn Hammad narrated and said that Asbath narrated from al-Suddi in the report mentioned, from Abu Malik, and from Abu Salih, from ibn 'Abbas and from Murrah, from ibn Masud and from people of the companions of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):

"...and the sky a canopy..." The canopy of the sky over the earth is in the form of a dome, and it is a roof over the earth. And Bishr bin Mu'az narrated and said from Yazid from Sa'id from Qatada in the words of Allah "...and the sky a canopy..." He says he makes the sky your roof.

Ibn Kathir in his tafsir for Quran 13:2 has more narrations of the sahabah and tabi'un (2nd generation) on this topic:

Allah said next, (..without any pillars that you can see.) meaning, `there are pillars, but you cannot see them,' according to Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Al-Hasan, Qatadah, and several other scholars. Iyas bin Mu`awiyah said, "The heaven is like a dome over the earth," meaning, without pillars. Similar was reported from Qatadah, and this meaning is better for this part of the Ayah, especially since Allah said in another Ayah, (He withholds the heaven from falling on the earth except by His permission.) 22:65 Therefore, Allah's statement, (..that you can see), affirms that there are no pillars. Rather, the heaven is elevated (above the earth) without pillars, as you see. This meaning best affirms Allah's ability and power.

Seven flat Earths

Ibn Kathir records that Mujahid said that the seven heavens and the seven Earths are on top of one another. Many similar narrations demonstrate that this type of cosmology was the standard understanding among Muhammad's companions.

فَسَوَّاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ - قَالَ: بَعْضُهُنَّ فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ، وَسَبْعُ أَرَضِينَ، يَعْنِي بِعَضَهُنَّ تَحْتَ بَعْضٍ.
(And made them seven heavens) He [Mujahid] said, one [heaven] above the other, and the seven earths, meaning one below the other.

The Earth on the back of the Islamic Whale

Al-Tabari's tafsir regarding Quran 68:1, which mysteriously starts with the Arabic letter nun, records, along with many other classical tafsirs and sahih narrations[35][36][37][38], that one of the interpretations among sahabah such as ibn 'Abbas was that the 'nun' is a whale on whose back the Earth is carried (other interpretations were that "Nun" is an inkwell or a name of Allah). While there may not have been a consensus on the existence of the whale, the plausibility and acceptability of the idea implies a flat Earth and radically non-modern cosmology.

Classical perspectives

Knowledge of the spherical nature of the Earth existed, at the very least, for nearly a millennium prior to the emergence of Islam in the 7th century. However, due to the non-uniform distribution of knowledge across the world and the pervasive assumption of a flat-Earth in Islamic scriptures, it is widely held that Muhammad and his companions were almost certainly ignorant of the matter. In the absence of explicit and authentic formulations from Muhammad and his companions on the topic, however, full confidence is impossible and modern inquirers are left to infer the cosmology of the earliest Muslims on the basis of indirect scriptural allusions. Such allusions are plenty and uniformly point to the assumption of a flat-Earth.

Militating against these appearances are statements from the works of ibn Taymiyyah and ibn Hazm, who are often cited as evidence[39] of an early Islamic consensus on a spherical earth. While the notion of a spherical earth had undoubtedly entered the Islamic milieu in the centuries following Muhammad's death to a limited extent, claims of anything approaching an early consensus on a spherical earth are unfounded, and attempts to extend this to Muhammad's generation, entirely fanciful.

Al Mawardi (d. 1058)

Al-Mawardi (d. 450 / 1058 CE), in his commentary on Quran 13:3, maintains that the Earth is shaped like a ball.[40]

Ibn Hazm (d. 1064)

One of the three that ibn Taymiyyah cites, ibn Hazm (d. 1064) of Cordoba, asserts that while there is sound evidence that the Earth is round, common people and some non-leading Muslim scholars may think otherwise. Still, he maintains, none of the leading scholars of Islam deny that the Earth is round.[Citation needed]

This can be taken as evidence that it was not uncommon for uneducated lay persons living in Muslim lands in the 11th century to still believe the Earth to be flat. It is likewise clear from the arguments marshalled by Ibn Hazm that, by his time, members of the scholarly class had, in addition to their round-Earth-friendly interpretations of scripture, solid astronomical reasoning on which to base their belief in the round Earth. The same can be said about the other followers of Imam Ahmad cited by Ibn Taymiyyah.

Given that Ibn Taymiyyah cited these scholars, the narrations he uses to argue for the spherical shape of the heavens (when asked about the shape of both the heavens and Earth), were most probably the best available. Stronger and clearer evidence might reasonably be expected if a consensus for the round shape of the Earth (in addition to that of the heavens) went back to Muhammad and the companions.

Al-Qurtubi (d. 1273)

Al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE), another prominent exegete, maintains that the Earth is shaped like a ball in his commentary on Quran 13:3.[41]

Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328)

In one oft-cited work, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) references Abu’l-Husayn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn al Munadi as saying that the scholars from the second level of the companions of Imam Ahmad (d. 241 AH / 855 CE) – i.e. the early Hanbalis – maintained there was consensus among the scholars that both heaven and Earth are balls, the latter consensus being based on astronomical reasoning. However, this evidence does not help determine earlier beliefs, since from the 8th century CE onwards, Muslims had access to Greek and Indian astronomical scholarship, which had already come to learn of the Earth's spherical form (see below). The term 'consensus' (ijma) has been used in different ways by different scholars, but essentially means the agreement of Muslim scholars, or, ideally, also of the salaf (the first generations of Muslims)[42]. In this case, it is used to claim the consensus of the scholars, not that of the salaf, and certainly not that of Muhammad and his companions.

In another instance[43], ibn Taymiyyah, answering a question about the shape of the heavens and Earth, cites Abu’l-Husayn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn al Munadi (a second time), Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE), and ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH / 1064 CE) as saying that there is a consensus that the heavens are round. In this instance, Ibn Taymiyyah makes no mention of the shape of the Earth. He further mentions that these authorities have provided evidence for the shape of the heavens from the Qur'an, sunnah, and narrations from the companions (sahabah) and second generation.

Scriptural evidence cited by Ibn Taymiyyah

Ibn Taymiyyah proceeds to directly give this evidence for the round shapes of the heavens from the Qur'an, sunnah, and narrations from the early Muslims. Here, he argues that a round heavens and Earth is supported by what specialists on tafsir and language have said about certain words in the Qur'an.

The Qur'an verses cited by ibn Taymiyyah in support of the round shape of the heavens are Quran 21:33, Quran 36:40, Quran 39:5, and Quran 67:5). These evidences are, however, indirect, and rely on what Ibn Taymiyyah and those he references argue is implied by their extrapolations on the grammatical nuances of the verses discussed. The solitary piece of direct evidence that Ibn Taymiyyah brings from the companions about round shape of the heavens is a narration where ibn 'Abbas and others comment on Quran 36:40, which describes the heavenly bodies swimming in a falak (rounded course):

فِي فَلْكَة كَفَلْكَةِ الْمِغْزَل

fee falka, ka-falkati almighzal

in a whirl (whorl), like the whirl of a spindle

A whirl or whorl was a small wheel or hemisphere that was constructed around a spindle for the purpose of clothes-making[44]. As the sun and moon appear to arc across the sky, even those who imagined the Earth was flat and the heavens a dome (or a sphere) would also imagine some path for the two celestial bodies to continue beneath the Earth upon setting so they could return the for the following day and night cycle. In his commentary on another, related verse (Quran 31:29), quoting the very same narration from Ibn Abbas, Ibn Kathir notes that something similar to a whorl is meant by ibn 'Abbas. The sun runs in its falak (فَلَكهَا) in the sky / heaven (السَّمَاء) during the day, and when it sets it runs during the night (بِاللَّيْلِ - omitted from the translation) in the very same "falak" beneath the Earth until it rises from its rising place (من مشرقها - translated below as "in the east").[45]

Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ibn ’Abbas said, “The sun is like flowing water, running in its course in the sky during the day. When it sets, it travels in its course 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.

Ibn Taymiyyah follows this with a hadith recorded in Sunan Abu Dawud which, unlike the above sahih hadith, is graded as "da'if" or weak (see: Sunan Abu Dawud 4726 (Dar-us-Salam Ref) and in which Muhammad forms a dome with his fingers above his head and proceeds to say that Allah's throne is above the heavens. Ibn Taymiyyah here interprets the narration to mean that the throne is dome shaped.

Finally, Ibn Taymiyyah cites the following hadith from al-Bukhari and, returning to his reliance on indirect grammatical nuance, argues that if the structure (the hadith refers to "Jannah" or Paradise in particular, rather than Heaven in general) described below has a "midmost" part, then it must be spherical, for only spherical structures have such a "midmost" point.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Whoever believes in Allah and His Apostle offers prayers perfectly and fasts (the month of) Ramadan then it is incumbent upon Allah to admit him into Paradise, whether he emigrates for Allah's cause or stays in the land where he was born." They (the companions of the Prophet) said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Should we not inform the people of that?" He said, "There are one-hundred degrees in Paradise which Allah has prepared for those who carry on Jihad in His Cause. The distance between every two degrees is like the distance between the sky and the Earth, so if you ask Allah for anything, ask Him for the Firdaus, for it is the last part of Paradise ["فَإِنَّهُ أَوْسَطُ الْجَنَّةِ", "أَوْسَطُ" is better translated as "midmost" or "medial"[46]] and the highest part of Paradise, and at its top there is the Throne of Beneficent, and from it gush forth the rivers of Paradise."

Ibn Kathir (d. 1373)

Ibn Kathir says the heavens are a dome or roof or like the floors of a building over the Earth which is its foundation in his tafsir for verses 2:29, 13:2, 21:32, 36:38, and 41:9-12.

Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli (d. 1460)

In Tafsir al-Jalalayn, started by Jalal ad-Din al-Maḥalli (d. 1460) and completed by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505), a different majority view is asserted. This relevant portion of the Tafsir is authored by al-Mahalli):

As for His words sutihat ‘laid out flat’ this on a literal reading suggests that the earth is flat which is the opinion of most of the scholars of the revealed Law and not a sphere as astronomers (ahl al-hay’a) have it even if this latter does not contradict any of the pillars of the Law.

The word "sutihat" in Quran 88:20 means "laid out flat".

Modern perspectives and criticisms thereof

Qur'an 22:61, 31:29, & 39:5 - night and day merging / overlapping

ذلك بان الله يولج الليل في النهار ويولج النهار في الليل وان الله سميع بصير

Thalika bi-anna Allaha yooliju allayla fee alnnahari wayooliju alnnahara fee allayli waanna Allaha sameeAAun baseerun

That is because Allah merges night into day, and He merges day into night, and verily it is Allah Who hears and sees (all things).
الم تر ان الله يولج الليل في النهار ويولج النهار في الليل وسخر الشمس والقمر كل يجري الى اجل مسمى وان الله بما تعملون خبير

Alam tara anna Allaha yooliju allayla fee alnnahari wayooliju alnnahara fee allayli wasakhkhara alshshamsa waalqamara kullun yajree ila ajalin musamman waanna Allaha bima taAAmaloona khabeerun

Seest thou not that Allah merges Night into Day and he merges Day into Night; that He has subjected the sun, and the moon (to his Law), each running its course for a term appointed; and that Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do?

Today, it is sometimes advanced that the word "Merging" here means that the night slowly and gradually changes to day and vice versa. This phenomenon, it is then argued, can only take place if the earth is spherical. If the earth was flat, there would have been a sudden change from night to day and from day to night.

However, every person who ever believed in a flat Earth, in so far as they had seen the sun setting and rising, understood that the transition from day to night and vice versa was a gradual and not sudden one. The key difference between a flat earth cosmology and modern cosmology in this regard is that a flat earth cosmology does not permit variant time zones across the surface of the planet, since day is day for everyone and night is night for all. Several other hadith confirm this ignorance of variant day times, most famously perhaps the hadiths describing the day of judgement as beginning one morning when the Sun "rises from the West". A sahih hadith in Ibn Majah attests that later on that same day, "at forenoon", the "Beast will emerge". This narrations vividly illustrates the scriptural notion of a common time-of-day taking place worldwide.

It was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

“The first signs to appear will be at the rising of the sun from the west and the emergence of the Beast to the people, at forenoon.’” 'Abdullah said: "Whichever of them appears first, the other will come soon after." 'Abdullah said: "I do not think it will be anything other than the sun rising from the west."

Grade: Sahih (Darussalam)

39:5

خلق السماوات والارض بالحق يكور الليل على النهار ويكور النهار على الليل وسخر الشمس والقمر كل يجري لاجل مسمى الا هو العزيز الغفار

Khalaqa alssamawati waal-arda bialhaqqi yukawwiru allayla AAala alnnahari wayukawwiru alnnahara AAala allayli wasakhkhara alshshamsa waalqamara kullun yajree li-ajalin musamman ala huwa alAAazeezu alghaffaru

He created the heavens and the earth in true (proportions): He makes the Night overlap the Day, and the Day overlap the Night: He has subjected the sun and the moon (to His law): Each one follows a course for a time appointed. Is not He the Exalted in Power - He Who forgives again and again?

In verse 39:5 the word يُكَوِّرُ yukawwiru (he overlaps / winds around[47]) is used, and the verb كور was used for, among other things, wrapping a turban around a head. Today, it is also sometimes argued that this wrapping connotation of the word comports with a spherical conception of the Earth. Additionally, Quran 21:33, which mentions the "falak" or "rounded course" (now popularly translated as "orbit") of the sun and the moon seems to confirm this wrapping-like pattern of movement.

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 that they describe the motions of the sun and moon around what was thought to be a flat Earth, even if the verses don't clash in any obvious ways with modern cosmology. That is, 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, spherical, cylindrical, or cubical.

Qur'an 79:30 - daha ("spread out", said to mean "ostrich egg")

Verse 79:30 uses the word دَحَىٰهَآ (dahaha), commonly translated as ‘He spread it’ or ‘He stretched it’, to describe to describe a step in the creation of the Earth. Today, it is sometimes argued that word means something to the effect of "he made it to be like an ostrich egg", the implication being that because an ostrich egg is both spherical and slightly oval-shaped, it is comparable to the shape of the Earth. Such a translation and interpretation is, however, not backed by any dictionary of classical Arabic and features in no authoritative translation or tafsir of the Qur'an.

Arabic: والارض بعد ذلك دحاها

Transliteration: Waal-arda baAAda thalika dahaha

Literal: And the earth/Planet Earth after that He stretched/spread it.[48]

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":

أَأَنْتُمْ أَشَدُّ خَلْقًا أَمِ السَّمَاءُ ۚ بَنَاهَا 79:27 - Aantum ashaddu khalqan ami alssamao banaha - Are ye the harder to create, or is the heaven that He built?

79:28 رَفَعَ سَمْكَهَا فَسَوَّاهَا - RafaAAa samkaha fasawwaha - He raised the height thereof and ordered it;

79:29 وَأَغْطَشَ لَيْلَهَا وَأَخْرَجَ ضُحَاهَا - Waaghtasha laylaha waakhraja duhaha - And He made dark the night thereof, and He brought forth the morn thereof.

79:30 وَالْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ دَحَاهَا - Waalarda baAAda thalika dahaha - And after that He spread the earth,

79:31 أَخْرَجَ مِنْهَا مَاءَهَا وَمَرْعَاهَا - Akhraja minha maaha wamarAAaha - And produced therefrom the water thereof and the pasture thereof,

79:32 وَالْجِبَالَ أَرْسَاهَا - Waaljibala arsaha - And He made fast the hills,

Authoritative translations of the Qur'an do not read anything to the effect of an ostrich egg into the verse (see: Quran 79:30):

Yusuf Ali: And the earth, moreover, hath He extended (to a wide expanse);
Pickthal: And after that He spread the earth,
Arberry: and the earth-after that He spread it out,
Shakir: And the earth, He expanded it after that.

Some less reliable translations, such as the one rendered by the controversial Rashad Khalifa and the notoriously edited and confessedly non-literal QXP translation (indeed, the QXP translation is better described as a tafsir rather than a translation of the Qur'an, comparable in style to Tafsir al-Jalalayn)[49] have interpolated the ostrich-egg theory into the verse:

Khalifa: He made the earth egg-shaped.
QXP: And after that He made the earth shoot out from the Cosmic Nebula and made it spread out egg-shaped. ('Dahaha' entails all the meanings rendered (21:30), (41:11)).

Daha as derived from duhiya and related to madaahi

The specific argument often advanced today is that that word daha may derive from the word duhiya, which is said to mean "ostrich egg".[50] The idea here is that, if these words derive from the same root, they both carry the same "signification" of oval-shaped roundness, and, since the Earth is not perfectly spherical but rather slightly oval, this common "signification" serves as evidence that Qur'anic cosmology is essentially modern. Further buttressing this claim, it is argued, are: another sense of the word daha (which means "he threw" or "he cast", referring particularly to the casting of a madaahi into its udhiyah)[51], the word madaahi (which refers to a small stone or similar object in the shape of a "small round cake of bread")[52], 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)[52]. 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.

Definitions

Almost every word in Arabic is formed of a root consisting of three letters to which have a variety of vowels, prefixes, and suffixes have been added. For instance, "ka-ta-ba" (to write) is the root for words including kitab (book), maktaba (library), katib (author), and maktoob (written).

Duhiya is derived from "da-ha-wa" (دحو)[53], just like the verb dahaha (دَحَىٰهَآ) in 79:30 (the final -ha being a pronoun suffix meaning "it"). The word Duhiya, while sometimes used in contexts relating to ostrich eggs, is not attested to actually mean "ostrich egg" in any dictionary.

الأُدْحِيُّ و الإدْحِيُّ و الأُدْحِيَّة و الإدْحِيَّة و الأُدْحُوّة مَبِيض النعام في الرمل , وزنه أُفْعُول من ذلك , لأَن النعامة تَدْحُوه برِجْلها ثم تَبِيض فيه وليس للنعام عُشٌّ . و مَدْحَى النعام : موضع بيضها , و أُدْحِيُّها موضعها الذي تُفَرِّخ فيه.ِ
Translation: Al-udhy, Al-idhy, Al-udhiyya, Al-idhiyya, Al-udhuwwa: The place in sand where an ostrich lays its egg. This is because the ostrich spreads out (تَدْحُوه, tadhooh) the earth with its feet then lays its eggs there, an ostrich doesn't have a nest.
الدَّحْوُ البَسْطُ . دَحَا الأَرضَ يَدْحُوها دَحْواً بَسَطَها . وقال الفراء في قوله والأَرض بعد ذلك دَحاها قال : بَسَطَها ; قال شمر : وأَنشدتني أَعرابية : الحمدُ لله الذي أَطاقَا

بَنَى السماءَ فَوْقَنا طِباقَا

ثم دَحا الأَرضَ فما أَضاقا

قال شمر : وفسرته فقالت دَحَا الأَرضَ أَوْسَعَها ; وأَنشد ابن بري لزيد بن عمرو بن نُفَيْل : دَحَاها , فلما رآها اسْتَوَتْ

على الماء , أَرْسَى عليها الجِبالا

و دَحَيْتُ الشيءَ أَدْحاهُ دَحْياً بَسَطْته , لغة في دَحَوْتُه ; حكاها اللحياني . وفي حديث عليّ وصلاتهِ , اللهم دَاحِيَ المَدْحُوَّاتِ يعني باسِطَ الأَرَضِينَ ومُوَسِّعَها , ويروى ; دَاحِيَ المَدْحِيَّاتِ . و الدَّحْوُ البَسْطُ . يقال : دَحَا يَدْحُو و يَدْحَى أَي بَسَطَ ووسع

Translation: To daha the earth: to spread it out.

The entry in Lisan al-Arab contains Arabic poems whose usage of the word daha serves as proof for the definition provided by the dictionary

دَحَا: الله الأرضَ (يَدْحُوهَا وَيَدْحَاهَا دَحْواً) بَسَطَهة
Translation: Allah daha the Earth: He spread it out.
al-Qamoos al-Muheet دَحَا
دَحَا الشيءَ: بسطه ووسعه. يقال: دحا اللهُ الأَرض
Translation: To daha something: to spread it out. It is said: Allah daha the Earth.
al-Waseet دَحَا
Dahw (دحو)

1. Daha (., MM_b;,, 1,) first pers. Dahouth aor, yad'hoo inf. N. dahoo He spread; spread out, or forth; expanded; or extended; (S, Msb, K; ) a thing; (K; ) and, when said of God, the earth; (Fr, S, Mb, 1V; ) As also daha first pers. dahaithu (K in art. daha) aor. yaad’heae inf. n. dahae: (Msb, and K in art. dahae : ) or He (God) made the earth wide, or ample; as explained by an Arab woman of the desert to Sh: (TA : ) also, said of an ostrich, (S, TA,) he expanded, and made wide, (TA,) with his foot, or leg, the place where he was about to deposit his eggs: (S, TA : ) and, said of a man, he spread, &c., and made plain, even, or smooth. (TA in art. dhaha) . . .

Ud'hiyy (S.K) (Originally od'huwa of the measure Uf’ool from dhahaithu but said in the S to be of that measure from dhahouthu the dial. var. dhahaithu not being there mentioned,) and and id’hiyy and Ud’hiyyath and ud’huwwath (K) The place of the laying of eggs, (S, K,) and of the hatching thereof, (S,) , of the ostrich, (S. K. ) in the sand; (K; ) because that bird expands it, and makes it wide, with its foot, or leg; for the ostrich has no (nest such as is termed) Ush (S: ) pl. Adahin (TA in the present art.) and Adahee (i. e., if not a mistranscription, Adahiyyu agreeably with the sing.): (TA in art. dhaha and mudhhiyya (likewise) signifies the place of the eggs of the ostrich. (S.) . . .

The modern usage of words derived from the same root as daha, as found in Hans Wehr, is also strongly indicative of the word's original meaning.

(da-ha-wa) daha daha: u (dahw) to spread out, flatten, level, unroll

udhiya udhiya: ostrich nest in the ground

midha midhan: pl. midaah madahin roller, steam roller
Tradition and scripture

Tafsirs explain that this verse describes the Earth to be flat. Two clear and brief examples of this are found in Tafsir al-Jalalayn and Tanwir al-Miqbas.

and after that He spread out the earth He made it flat for it had been created before the heaven but without having been spread out;

(And after that He spread the earth) even then He spread it on the water; it is also said: 2,000 years after that He spread it on the water,


There is no mention of the Earth being shaped like an ostrich egg in scripture, however the word "ostrich egg" does appear in a hadith in Ibn Majah, and nothing approximating the words dahaha or duhiya is used. Instead, an ostrich egg is referred to as بَيْضِ النَّعَامِ (bayd al-ni'aam), the first word (bayd) meaning "egg" and the second word (al-ni'aam) meaning "the ostrich"; the positioning and grammatical qualities of these two words render the phrase possessive, bringing about the meaning "egg of the ostrich" or, more colloquially, "an ostrich egg".

حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مُوسَى الْقَطَّانُ الْوَاسِطِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا يَزِيدُ بْنُ مَوْهَبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا مَرْوَانُ بْنُ مُعَاوِيَةَ الْفَزَارِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ عَبْدِ الْعَزِيزِ، حَدَّثَنَا حُسَيْنٌ الْمُعَلِّمُ، عَنْ أَبِي الْمُهَزِّمِ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ فِي بَيْضِ النَّعَامِ يُصِيبُهُ الْمُحْرِمُ ‏ "‏ ثَمَنُهُ ‏"‏ ‏

It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, concerning an ostrich egg (بَيْضِ النَّعَامِ) taken by a Muhrim: “Its cost (must be paid as a penalty).”


An oblate spheroid (top left), a prolate spheroid (bottom left), and an ostrich egg, which is a prolate spheroid, no matter its orientation. Spheres, oblate spheroids, and prolate spheroids are all fundamentally different shapes defined by different mathematical equations.
Problems with the "signification" of roundness

In addition to the disagreement of definitions available in dictionaries, translations, and tafsirs with the definitions required to justify this modern reinterpretation, neither of the connections attempted ("ostrich egg" and madaahi) accurately denote or imply the shape of the Earth.

The shape of the madaahi, whether in the form of a stone or some other object, is said to be like a "small round cake of bread" or a "قرصة".[52] Such cakes of bread are defined as being "very small", "of a round, flattened form", like the apparent "disk of the sun"[54], and, on the whole, far more similar in shape to discs or extremely-oblate spheroids (sphere-like shapes with flattened poles) than they are to spheres or the Earth.

On the other hand, an ostrich egg, being a prolate spheroid (a sphere-like shape with pointed poles) like most eggs, is also unlike the shape of the Earth, which is only very slightly oblate (the Earth is just 0.3% wider than it is tall).[55]

The Earth is flat, but only from a human perspective

Translation of audio: According to the people of knowledge the Earth is round. Indeed, Ibn Hazm and other scholars have declared that there is consensus on this matter among the people of knowledge This means that all of the surface of the Earth is connected together so that the form of the planet is like a sphere.

Nevertheless, Allah has spread out the Earth's surface in relation to us, and He has placed upon it firm mountains, the seas, and life as a mercy for us. For this reason, Allah said: "And (do they not look) at the Earth, how it was spread out flat (sutihat)." [Sûrah al-Ghâshiyah:20]

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."

The above fatwa, understanding the statements of scripture to simply describe reality as it is perceived by the unaided human eye, represents another common trend among Islamic scholars today. The example of Ibn Baz's fatwa is especially pertinent since he once maintained that the Earth was flat[56] and, in a fatwa still hosted on his website, asserts that there is no convincing evidence that the sun is larger than the Earth[57]. Despite the anti-modern nature of views he once held and even, in some cases, apparently held until his passing in 1999, Ibn Baz eventually revised his literal reading of the verses describing the creation and nature of the Earth. Such changes in readings of scripture are characteristic of a large subset of Islamic scholars.

This modern reinterpretation of Qur'anic cosmology significantly aligns with modern science and historiography insofar as it understands the intent of the Qur'an to be based on the worldview of the 7th-century Arabian city where it is said to have been produced - that is, as far as Muhammad and his companions were concerned and could tell, the world was indeed flat, and this is the same perspective assumed by the Qur'an. The Qur'an and its first audience did not know the Earth was spherical and did not say as much. This reading of the Qur'an also benefits from not relying on faulty linguistic, historic, and geometric ideas. This view is the most common amongst educated Muslims today and is likely to predominate going forward.

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See Also

  • Cosmology - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Cosmology

Translations

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External Links

References

  1. Views of the Earth - World Treasures of the Library of Congress, July 29, 2010
  2. Toomer, G. J., Ptolemy and his Greek predecessors, In Astronomy Before the Telescope, Ed. Christopher Walker, p.86, London: British Museum Press, 1996
  3. "Kevin T. van Bladel is a philologist and historian studying texts and societies of the Near East of the period 200-1200 with special attention to the history of scholarship, the transition from Persian to Arab rule, and historical sociolinguistics. His research focuses on the interaction of different language communities and the translation of learned traditions between Arabic, Iranian languages, Aramaic, Greek, and Sanskrit.", "Kevin van Bladel", Yale University (archived), https://nelc.yale.edu/people/kevin-van-bladel 
  4. Van Bladel, Kevin, “Heavenly cords and prophetic authority in the Qur’an and its Late Antique context”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 70:223-246, p.241, Cambridge University Press, 2007
  5. ibid. pp.224-226. Here are some more excerpts:
    Entering into the debate was John Philoponus, a Christian philosopher of sixth-century Alexandria, who wrote his commentary on Genesis to prove, against earlier, Antiochene, theologians like Theodore of Mopsuestia, that the scriptural account of creation described a spherical geocentric world in accord with the Ptolemaic cosmology. [...]

    On the other hand, Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote his contentious Christian Topography in the 540s and 550s to prove that the spherical, geocentric world-picture of the erroneous, pagan Hellenes contradicted that of the Hebrew prophets. Cosmas was an Alexandrian with sympathies towards the Church of the East, who had travelled through the Red Sea to east Africa, Iran, and India, and who received instruction from the East Syrian churchman Mār Abā on the latter's visit to Egypt. His Christian topography has been shown to be aimed directly at John Philoponus and the Hellenic, spherical world-model he supported. [...] However, it is clear that Cosmas was going against the opinions of his educated though, as he saw it, misguided contemporaries in Alexandria.

    A number of Syrian churchmen, notably but not only the Easterners working in the tradition of Theodore of Mopsuestia, took the view of the sky as an edifice for granted. Narsai d. c. 503), the first head of the school of Nisibis, in his homilies on creation, described God's fashioning of the firmament of heaven in these terms: "Like a roof upon the top of the house he stretched out the firmament / that the house below, the domain of earth, might be complete". ayk taṭlîlâ l-baytâ da-l-tḥēt mtaḥ la-rqî῾â I d-nehwê mamlâ dûkkat ar῾â l-baytâ da-l῾el. Also "He finished building the heaven and earth as a spacious house" šaklel wa-bnâ šmayyâ w-ar῾â baytâ rwîḥâ. Jacob of Serugh (d. 521) wrote similarly on the shape of the world in his Hexaemeron homilies. A further witness to the discussion is a Syriac hymn, composed c. 543-554, describing a domed church in Edessa as a microcosm of the world, its dome being the counterpart of the sky. This is the earliest known text to make a church edifice to be a microcosm, and it shows that the debates over cosmology were meaningful to more than a small number of theologians.
  6. King, David A., “Islamic Astronomy”, In Astronomy Before the Telescope, Ed. Christopher Walker, p.86, London: British Museum Press, 1996
  7. "Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1992-93 he chaired Harvard's History of Science Department.", "Owen Gingerich", Harvard University (archived), https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/owen-gingerich 
  8. Hoskin, Michael and Gingerich, Owen, “Islamic Astronomy” in The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy, Ed. M. Hoskin, p.50-52, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999
  9. فِرَٰشًا firashan - Lane's Lexicon page 2371
  10. مد madda (مدد) - Lane's Lexicon page 2695
  11. مَهْدً mahdan - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
  12. مَهْدً mahdan - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
  13. مد madda (مدد) - Lane's Lexicon page 2695
  14. فرش farasha - Lane's Lexicon page 2369
  15. مهد mahada - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
  16. بِسَاطًا bisaatan - Lane's Lexicon page 204
  17. مَهْدً mahdan - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
  18. سطَح sataha - Lanes Lexicon page 1357
  19. Translation of "flat earth" in Arabic, ReversoContext (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20201214041522/https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-arabic/flat+earth 
  20. Eustace M. Tillyard. The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the Age of Shakespeare, Donne and Milton. Vintage. ISBN 978-0394701622, 1959. 
  21. بَارِزَةً baarizatan - Lane's Lexicon page 187
  22. قَاعًا qaAAan - Lane's Lexicon page 2994
  23. صَفْصَفًا safsafan - Lane's Lexicon page 1694
  24. عِوَجًا AAiwajan - Lane's Lexicon page 2187
  25. أَمْتًا amtan - Lane's Lexicon page 95
  26. Tafsirs 55:17
  27. مَشْرِقُ mashriq - Lane's Lexicon page 1541
  28. مَغْرِبُ maghrib - Lane's Lexicon page 2241
  29. Tafsirs 70:40
  30. بِنَاء binaa - Lane's Lexicon page 261
  31. Tafsirs 2:22
  32. Tafsir 'ibn Kathir
  33. طوق tawwaqa Lane's Lexicon p. 1894
  34. For the Arabic, see sunnah.com or #159: hadith.al-islam.com
  35. Tafsirs 68:1
  36. Islam & the whale that carries the Earth on its back, The Masked Arab, February 25, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVhsVjXJzKM&ab_channel=TheMaskedArab 
  37. "Muhammad’s Magical Mountain: One Whale of a Tale!", Answering Islam Blog, October 19, 2016 (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20170701144708/https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/muhammads-magical-mountain-one-whale-of-a-tale/ 
  38. Sam Shamoun, "The Quran and the Shape of the Earth", Answering Islam (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20201112030934/https://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/whale_nun.htm 
  39. Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, ed, (April 6, 2014), "Consensus that the Earth is round", Islam Question & Answer, April 6, 2014 (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020029/https://islamqa.info/en/answers/118698/consensus-that-the-earth-is-round 
  40. altafsir.com - Tafsir al-Mawardi for verse 13:3
  41. altafsir.com - Tafsir al-Qurtubi for verse 13:3
  42. Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, "Questions on ijma' (consensus), taqlid (following qualified opinion), and ikhtilaf al-fuqaha' (differences of the jurists)", As-Sunna Foundation of America (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20200223035158/http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/ijma.htm 
  43. For the full chapter in Arabic see Wikisource.org, and for someone's English translation for most of the relevant parts see Salafitalk forum
  44. الفَلَكُ falak - Lane's Lexicon Volume 1 page 2444. See also the previous page. Lane says that the falak was generally imagined as a celestial hemisphere by the Arabs, but also that the Arab astronomers applied the term to seven spheres for the sun, moon, and the five visible planets, rotating about the celestial pole. This must reflect the post-Qur'anic influence of Ptolemy, whose astronomical work was translated for the Arabs from the 8th century onwards.
  45. Tafsir Ibn Kathir 31:29
  46. Lane's Lexicon
  47. كور kawara - Lane's Lexicon page 2637
  48. Islam Awakened - Quran 79:30
  49. Ahmed, Shabbir, "Introduction", The Qur'an As It Explains Itself, Lighthouse, p. 12, ISBN 978-0974787985, 2003, https://archive.org/details/qxpvi-english/page/n5/mode/2up 
    QXP is a Tasreef-based understanding of the Qur’an that is easy enough even for teenagers. It is not a literal translation.

    Tasreef is the Qur’anic process where verses in one part of the Qur’an explain or provide deeper understanding of the verses in other parts of the Book. Concisely, it means looking at the Qur’an in its Big Picture. Thus the Qur’an lets us look at its terms and concepts from very diverse vantage points. This has helped me explain every verse from within the Qur’an itself.

    The reader should expect to find “The Qur’an As It Explains Itself” different from the prevalent translations and explanations because of the use of Tasreef and the Quraish dialect, and for rejecting extrinsic sources.
  50. QuranTeachings.co.uk - 79:30
  51. "دحا", Lane's Lexicon, p. 863  See the entry on the same page for مدحاة for the specific connotation and usage of the word in this sense
  52. 52.0 52.1 52.2 The word مداحي is listed under the entry for مدحاة "مدحاة", Lane's Lexicon, p. 863, 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 
  53. دحو dahawa - Lane's Lexicon page 857
  54. "قرض", Lane's Lexicon, p. 2572, http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h898,ll=2609,ls=h8,la=h3587,sg=h848,ha=h610,br=h777,pr=h126,aan=h519,mgf=h722,vi=h296,kz=h2114,mr=h532,mn=h1107,uqw=h1300,umr=h875,ums=h734,umj=h652,ulq=h1407,uqa=h345,uqq=h305,bdw=h711,amr=h517,asb=h787,auh=h1286,dhq=h452,mht=h732,msb=h197,tla=h84,amj=h640,ens=h1,mis=h633 
  55. Joseph Ciotti, Shape and Size of the Earth, University of Hawaii Center for Aerospace Education, 2010 (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20191031005204/http://aerospace.wcc.hawaii.edu/Curriculum_Voyagers/shape.html 
  56. Robert Lacey, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia, Penguin, pp. 89-90, 2009, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Inside_the_Kingdom/VEYsi7ZmtywC?hl=en&gbpv=0 
    . . . soon afterward the sheikh gave an interview in which he mused on how we operate day to day on the basis that the ground beneath us is flat, even though science asserts, against our physical experience, that the world is spherical.

    “As I remember from when I could see,” he said, “it seemed to be flat.”
    It was an honest expression of paradox, particularly moving from a man who had been blind most of his life, and it led him to the belief that he was not afraid to voice and for which he became notorious—Bin Baz believed that the earth was flat.

    At least one senior member of the ulema reproved Bin Baz for his embarrassing assertion, which radicals had seized on to satirize the Wahhabi establishment as “members of the Flat Earth Society.” But the sheikh was unrepentant. If Muslims chose to believe the world was round, that was their business, he said, and he would not quarrel with them religiously. But he was inclined to trust what he felt beneath his feet rather than the statements of scientists he did not know: he would go on believing the earth to be flat until he was presented with convincing evidence to the contrary.
  57. Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, مدى صحة قول من قال: بأن الشمس أكبر من الأرض [How true is the saying: the sun is larger than the Earth?], Bin Baz official website (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20201214031427/https://binbaz.org.sa/fatwas/1770/%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%89-%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%A9-%D9%82%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B6 
    وأما دعوى بعض الفلكيين أن الشمس أكبر من السماوات وأكبر من الأرض إلى غير هذا فهي دعوى مجردة لا نعلم صحتها ولا نعلم دليلاً عليها فهي آية عظيمة، أما القول بأنها أكبر من السماوات والأرض فهذا شيء يحتاج إلى دليل، هذه مجرد دعوى كما يقول العلماء، هذه مجرد دعاوى ليس عليها دليل واضح فيما نعلم.
    Translation: As for the claim of some astronomers that the sun is greater than the heavens and greater than the earth to other than this, it is an abstract claim that we do not know its validity and we do not know of evidence for, it is a great sign. Just claims that do not have clear evidence for as far as we know.