Perspectives islamiques sur la forme de la Terre
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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 knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth has existed to a greater or lesser degree since at least the classical Greeks (4th Century BCE), such knowledge prominently entered the Islamic milieu in the 9th century CE when many Greek texts were translated into Arabic for the first time under the sponsorship of the Abbasid caliphate.
Today, some Islamic scholars claim that Islamic scriptures and their first audiences were fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth and that this was also a consensus view of early scholars. Evidence does not support any of these claims, despite oft-cited statements from the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm (see below). Critics note that clear descriptions and assumptions made in the Qur'an, hadith, tafsirs, and writings of early Islamic scholars demonstrate that Muhammad and his companions did not know the Earth was spherical but in fact held it to be flat and disk like, and this is the framework within which the Qur'an operates.
The later idea that Islamic scriptures themselves indicated a spherical Earth was a creative act of reinterpretation. Similarly, attempts to explain Quranic verses about the earth only in terms of local flatness at a human level are often challenged by critics using contextual arguments.
Greek astronomical knowledge
Ptolemy’s Almagest, written in the mid 2nd century CE, was translated into Arabic in the 9th century CE after the Qur’an had been completed and 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] Indian and Sasanian mathematical astronomy works for calculating the apparent movements of the sun, stars and planets were translated into Arabic from the 8th century CE.[3]
Kevin Van Bladel, Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University[4], writes:
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:
David A. King, Professor of History of Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, writes:
Michael Hoskin and Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University[6], write:
Mohammad Ali Tabatabaʾi and Saida Mirsadri of Tehran University note in their paper surveying Qur'anic cosmography that the Qur'an "takes for granted" the flatness of the earth, a common motif among the scientifically naive people at that time, while it has "not even one hint of a spherical earth"[7] They also note that the pre-Islamic poet Umayya ibn Abī al‐Ṣalt (d. 5 / 626) described the earth as a carpet (bisāṭan, like Quran 71:19) and likened it to the uplifted heavens.
See here for the poem in Arabic.
Damien Janos in another paper on Qur'anic cosmography has similarly noted that while the exact shape of its boundaries are not described, "what is clear is that the Qurʾān and the early Muslim tradition do not uphold the conception of a spherical earth and a spherical universe. This was a view that later prevailed in the learned circles of Muslim society as a result of the infiltration of Ptolemaic astronomy".[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. The 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")
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 13:3 - madad ("extend", "stretch out")
Wahuwa allathee madda alarda wajaAAala feeha rawasiya waanharan wamin kulli alththamarati jaAAala feeha zawjayni ithnayni yughshee allayla alnnahara inna fee thalika laayatin liqawmin yatafakkaroona
And it is He who spread the earth and placed therein firmly set mountains and rivers; and from all of the fruits He made therein two mates; He causes the night to cover the day. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.مَدَدْ = madad (madda) = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand[10]
The Quran describes a reversal of this process occurring on the last day. It says the mountains will be removed and the earth left as a level plain (Quran 18:47 and Quran 20:105-107, discussed in more detail below) while Quran 84:3 says the Earth will be muddat i.e. the Arabic verb madad in the passive voice.
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 it and cast therein firmly set mountains and caused to grow therein [something] of every well-balanced thing.مَدَدْ = madad = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand[10]
See also Mountains cast into the Earth regarding the wording about mountains here and in a few similar verses.
Qur'an 20:53 - mahdan ("bed")
Allathee jaAAala lakumu al-arda mahdan wasalaka lakum feeha subulan waanzala mina alssama-imaan faakhrajna bihi azwajan min nabatinshatta
[It is He] who has made for you the earth as a bed [spread out] and inserted therein for you roadways and sent down from the sky, rain and produced thereby categories of various plants.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
[The one] who has made for you the earth a bed and made for you upon it roads that you might be guidedمَهْدًا = mahdan = cradle or bed; a plain, even, or smooth expanse[12]
Qur'an 50:7 - madad ("extend", "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 spread it out and cast therein firmly set mountains and made grow therein [something] of every beautiful kind,مَدَدْ = madad = extend by drawing or pulling, stretch out, expand[10]
Qur'an 51:48 - farasha ("spread out") and 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[13]
الْمَهِدُونَ = mahidoon from مهد = make plain, even, smooth, spread a bed[14]
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 = basaatun = Land, expanded and even; and wide or spacious) [15]
A hadith in Tirmidhi uses the word bisaatan to describe the spreading or rolling out of a mat:
Qur'an 78:6-7 - mihadan ("bed")
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[16]
Qur'an 79:30 - daha ("spread out wide")
وَٱلْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ دَحَىٰهَآ
Waalarda baAAda thalika dahaha
And after that He spread the earth.
He extracted from it its water and its pasture, And the mountains He set firmly As provision for you and your grazing livestock.دحو = dahawa = spread out or forth, expand, make wide.[17]
The word dahaha ("He spread it out") also appears in a poem about the creation of a flat earth attributed to the pre-Islamic poet Zayd b. 'Amr, who reportedly was a monotheist who met Muhammad before his prophetic career began. The poem is certainly a very early demonstration of the meaning of the word dahaha in this context since it is recorded in the biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767 CE) and must pre-date that work.[18] Like the Quran, the poem says "He spread it out" (daḥāhā) i.e. the earth, then even clearer than the Quran, saw that it was level (استوت istawat[19]) on the water (i.e. flat), "and set firm the mountains on it" (arsā ʿalayhā l-jibālā, very similar to wa-l-jibāla ʾarsāhā in verse 32 of the Quranic passage).
daḥāhā falammā raʾādā istawat ʿalā l-māʾi arsā ʿalayhā l-jibālā
He spread it out and when He saw that it was settled upon the waters, He fixed the mountains upon itSimilar language is found in the Bible. See Isaiah 42:5 and particularly Psalms 136:6.
For further discussion of this word and of modern claims attempting to associate it with the shape of eggs, see the dedicated section below.
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?سَطَحَ = sataha = 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.[22] Indeed, the modern Arabic phrase used to refer to the "flat earth" today is الأرض مسطحة (al-ard musattaha)[23], 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 is flat. The author of this section, al-Mahalli (d. 1460), maintains that the flat-earth is the opinion of the scholars of the revealed law.
Qur'an 91:6 - taha ("spread out")
والارض وماطحاها
Waal-ardi wama tahaha
And the earth and Him Who spread it,طحو / طحى = taha = Spread out, expand, spread on the ground.[24]
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.[25]
Qur'an 18:86 and 18:90 - setting and rising places of the sun
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.Hatta itha balagha matliAAa alshshamsi wajadaha tatluAAu AAala qawmin lam najAAal lahum min dooniha sitran
Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom.A flat conception of the Earth is the only sort that permits the setting and rising places of the sun to be visited. Contemporary 7th-century Arabic and Syriac poems telling the same legend suggest that early Muslims understood the story literally, as do early tafsirs and narrations therein (see main article).
Qur'an 2:187 and 17:78 - fasting and prayer times
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.
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 more limited audience and understanding of a 7th-century desert city.
Before embarking on the 1985 Discovery space shuttle flight he had been chosen to serve on as payload engineer, Saudi prince Sultan bin Salman, the first Muslim in space, said the following memorable lines to Sheikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, later the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia:
Appeal is sometimes made to a lengthy hadith in which Muhammad instructs Muslims to make an estimate of prayer times in the last days when the Dajjal comes and when one day will be like a year, then like a month, and then like a week. It is argued on this basis that Muhammad provided a principle by which people at extreme latitudes should fast and pray.
[...]
We said: Allah's Messenger, how long would he stay on the earth? He (ﷺ) said: For forty days, one day like a year and one day like a month and one day like a week and the rest of the days would be like your days. We said: Allah's Messenger, would one day's prayer suffice for the prayers of day equal to one year? Thereupon he (ﷺ) said: No, but you must make an estimate of time (and then observe prayer).
Critics note a number of shortcomings with this argument: Firstly, this hadith contains only an instruction for the end of time and when the whole world will have some very long days. The question remains why there are not specific instructions for praying (not to mention fasting) near the polar regions on our round planet. While a stretched analogy can be made with polar regions where the sun cannot be seen rising or setting at all for months at a time, places such as the north of Scotland in the example above still have very short nights in summer yet maintain a 24 hour day-night cycle all year round. This is not like the month or year long days affecting the world in the hadith. A further problem is that the hadith does not explain how an estimate is to be made. The assumption must be that in the last days scenario, people can use the intervals they had been used to in normal times and that this is possible all over the world (which therefore must also be flat). However, on our round earth, people in the polar regions cannot in any sense "estimate" what their prayer (and fasting) intervals would normally be when the sun no longer rises or no longer sets each day. Instead, typically they have to chose the times pertaining at the nearest lower latitude, or if possible, to pray (and fast) at the prescribed times if there is still some brief period of daytime (or night).
The hadith further demonstrates a flat earth and pre-scientific worldview. On a round earth, there would equally be a long night for half the world. Crops would soon fail on both the daylit and night sides of the earth during the day lasting a year and the day lasting a month. The world would starve before the other events could unfold.
Qur'an 2:144 - praying towards the Ka'bah
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, critics argue that 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 mountains are removed, the entire Earth will be apparent
Wayawma nusayyiru aljibala watara al-arda barizatan wahasharnahum falam nughadir minhum ahadan
And [warn of] the Day when We will remove the mountains and you will see the earth prominent, and We will gather them and not leave behind from them anyone.بَارِزَةً = baarizatan = Wholey, or entirely, apparent or manifest, Land that is open, apparent, or uncovered, upon which is no mountain or any other thing.[26]
Also in accord with this picture are Quran 31:10 and similar verses which state that mountains were cast upon the earth to prevent it from shaking and Quran 78:6-7 (quoted above) in which Allah spread out the earth and made the mountains as pegs.
Similar language about the removal of mountains leaving a level plain appears in the Bible:
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
Qur'an 20:105-107 - when the mountains are scattered, the Earth is a level plain
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.[27]
صَفْصَفًا = safsafan = a level, or an even, tract of land or ground.[28]
عِوَجًا = AAiwajan = crookedness, a curvity, bending, winding, contortion, wryness, distortion, or uneveness[29]
أَمْتًا = amtan = curvity, crookedness, distortion, or uneveness; ruggedness and smoothness in different places; depression and elevation; small hills and hollows.[30]
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 69:14 - the Earth and mountains will be lifted
In a verse about the last day, the Quran 69:14 states that the earth and mountains will be lifted and crushed. The context makes clear that this is a statement concerning the earth as a whole. Such imagery is fully in line with a flat earth worldview, but harder to reconcile with a spherical surface.
The verb used to say the earth and mountains "are lifted" is ḥumilati حُمِلَتِ which is used in the sense of taking up or carrying a load.[31]
The word translated levelled (dakkatan, meaning pounded down to ground level[32]) in the above verse occurs three times in various forms in another verse about the earth:
Qur'an 17:37 - you will not tear / pierce the earth
Wala tamshi fee alardi marahan innaka lan takhriqa alarda walan tablugha aljibala tool
And do not walk upon the earth exultantly. Indeed, you will never tear the earth [apart], and you will never reach the mountains in height.The verb translated "tear" is kharaqa, which meant to make a hole in, perforate, pierce, or bore through something or to tear or rent such as a cloth, and appears also in Quran 18:71 when Allah's servant makes a hole in a ship.[33] The verse seems to imply that the earth has the kind of predominantly two dimensional shape to which this verb is often applicable, even if humans lack the power to do so.
Qur'an 55:17 - Lord of the two easts and two wests
Rabbu almashriqayni warabbu almaghribayni
(He is) Lord of the two Easts and Lord of the two WestsClassical tafsirs unanimously[34] understand this verse as a reference to the two easts, or rising places (almashriqayni), and the two wests, or setting places (almaghribayni) of the sun on the summer and winter solstices. This accords with the literal meanings of mashriq[35] and maghrib[36]. 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).[37] 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 on Earth that could be definitely and universally described as "one of the two Easts", for instance such that Allah could be "Lord of it".
Qur'an 57:21 - a garden, its width like the width of the heaven(s) and the earth
Sabiqoo ila maghfiratin min rabbikum wajannatin AAarduha kaAAardi alssamai waalardi oAAiddat lillatheena amanoo biAllahi warusulihi thalika fadlu Allahi yuteehi man yashao waAllahu thoo alfadli alAAatheemi
Be ye foremost (in seeking) Forgiveness from your Lord, and a Garden (of Bliss), the width whereof is as the width of heaven and earth, prepared for those who believe in Allah and His messengers: that is the Grace of Allah, which He bestows on whom he pleases: and Allah is the Lord of Grace aboundingThe words ʿarḍuhā kaʿarḍi ("its width is like the width") refer to the breadth, width, or side of something.[38]
Some academic scholars cite this verse in support of their argument that the Quranic heavens are flat layers above a flat earth (see Cosmology of the Quran). In a very similar verse, the garden's width is as the heavens plural and the earth (Quran 3:133). This interchangable width of the heaven singular (57:21) or heavens plural (3:133) may lend further support to that view. The verse most naturally indicates that the author imagined the heaven or heavens to be of similar width to the earth, whether they were imagined to be dome shaped or flat layers, and that the earth's flatness makes for an ideal width yardstick, though other interpretations are possible.
Qur'an 2:22 - the heavens are a canopy / building
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, structure, edifice or tent.[39] In his tafsir for another verse, Quran 2:29, Ibn Kathir uses the same word for his analogy of the earth and seven heavens as a multi-story building.
A similar concept occurs in the Bible (another Quranic parallel with Isaiah chapter 40 is shown in the Q. 18:47 section above):
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[40]):
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). "
This daif (weak) hadith elaborates what some early Muslims (if not Muhammad) thought about the shape of the world:
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.
A similar, more elaborate hadith in Sahih Muslim (shown below) describes a cycle in which Allah instructs the sun to go and rise "from its rising place" (min matli'iha مَطْلِعِهَا - this word also occurs as matli'a ash shamsi "the rising place of the sun" in Quran 18:90). One day, it will instead be told to go and rise "from the place of your setting" (min maghribiki مِنْ مَغْرِبِكِ), so it goes and rises "from the place of its setting" (min maghribiha مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا ). The latter phrase also appears in all the simpler narrations of this hadith despite often being mistranslated as "in the west".[41] The sun is commanded to go to some particular place. The words "matli'" and "maghrib", when juxtaposed, refer to a "rising place" and "setting place", while the words "al mashriq" and "al maghrib", when juxtaposed, refer more generically to "the east" and "the west", although some English translations attempt to obscure this detail. The use of the words "matli'iha" and "maghribiha" in reference to specific locations as opposed to general directions is further confirmed by the lack of the definite article (al-) and usage of possessive pronouns (-ha) which make these "the sun's matli'" and "the sun's maghrib" - 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".
Ends of the Earth
Allah in the last third of the night
The following two narrations alluding to the optional Tahajjud prayer state that there is a particular time of night when Allah approaches the nearest heaven and invites supplications. This concept could only make any sense at all in a flat earth worldview, not in a spherical world in which it is always night-time somewhere.
The hadith also appears in Sahih al-Bukhari ("to us" is not present in the Arabic).
Flat Earth in tafsirs
The spring where the sun sets
In the tafsir of al-Tabari (b. 224 AH / 839 CE) for Quran 18:86, the following remarks are made about the nature of the spring into which the sun sets. For another, full English translation of the relevant page in al-Tabari's tafsir see this article. 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:
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 Basran reading of the Qur'an:
And he says of the Kufan reading of the Qur'an:
Early authorities such as Ibn 'Abbas explain this to mean that the sun sets in black mud:
قَالَ : كَانَ اِبْن عَبَّاس يَقْرَأ هَذَا الْحَرْف { فِي عَيْن حَمِئَة }
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-A'la 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.This Ibn ‘Abbas narration from Sa'id ibn Jubayr has a trustworthy chain of narrators according to hadith scholars.[43] Abu Salih, another companion of Ibn ‘Abbas, made a very similar report narrated through another chain recorded by al-Farra (d. 822 CE) in his Ma'ani al-Qur'an regarding this verse:
[...] al-Farra narrated from Hibban, from al-Kalbi, from Abu Salih, from Ibn ‘Abbas "muddy". He said, "It sets in a black 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 as 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:
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:
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.
(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[44][45][46][47], 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[48] 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, regards that verse as a counter-argument to those who claim the Earth is shaped like a ball.[49]
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.[48]
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 (see below).
Al-Qurtubi (d. 1273)
Al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE), another prominent exegete, in his commentary on Quran 13:3 regards that verse as a counter-argument to those who claim the Earth is shaped like a ball.[50]
Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328)
In one oft-cited work[48], 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 above). 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)[51]. 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[52], 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.
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 the 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):
fee falka, ka-falkati almighzal
in a whirl (whorl), like the whirl of a spindleA whirl or whorl was a small wheel or hemisphere that was constructed around a spindle for the purpose of clothes-making[53]. 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), Ibn Kathir quotes Ibn Abbas again, saying exactly this. 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").[54]
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.
Given that Ibn Taymiyyah cited the above-mentioned 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.
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):
The word "sutihat" in Quran 88:20 means "laid out flat".
Others
Many further examples of scholars expressing a flat earth interpretation of the Quran are collated in another article . These intepretations contrast with claims of an Islamic scholarly consensus for a round earth.
Modern perspectives and criticisms thereof
Qur'an 22:61 and 31:29 - night and day merging
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).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.
“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 - night and day wrapped over each other
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 earth in truth. He wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. Unquestionably, He is the Exalted in Might, the Perpetual Forgiver.In the very similar verse 39:5 the word يُكَوِّرُ yukawwiru (he overlaps / winds around[56]) is used. 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.
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 to relate them to Quran 21:33 and Quran 36:40 which describe the motions of the night, day, sun and moon in a "falak", now popularly translated as "orbit", but meaning a circuitous path, celestial sphere or, more likely, a hemisphere (see Geocentrism and the Quran). Also relevant are Quran 7:54 where Allah "covers" the night with the day (or possibly vice versa) and Quran 36:37 where Allah strips the day from the night.
Verse 39:5 specifically describes Allah overlapping (or wrapping) the night and the day over each other, with no mention of the Earth, its shape or its rotation. Critics further argue that in any case, 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 or spherical.
It is further worth noting that contrary to a claim sometimes found on English-language Islamic websites, the verb yukawwiru (يُكوِّر) in this verse (overlap/wind around) is not in any way related to the modern Arabic word for "ball" (كرة).[57] Nor is yakawwiru (from the root kaf-waw-ra ) related to an entirely different root (ك ر ي kaf-ra-ya) from which certain words mean spherical or sphericalness.[58]
For further discussion, see Geocentrism and the Quran.
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.
Transliteration: Waal-arda baAAda thalika dahaha
Literal: And the Earth after that He stretched/spread it.[59]
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":
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):
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)[60] have interpolated the ostrich-egg theory into the verse:
The specific argument often advanced today is that that word daha may derive from the word duhiya, which is said to mean "ostrich egg".[61] 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)[62], the word madaahi (which refers to a small stone or similar object in the shape of a "small round cake of bread")[63], 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)[63]. 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.
Critics argue that 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)[17], 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.
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.
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
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
Translation: Allah daha the Earth: He spread it out.
Translation: To daha something: to spread it out. It is said: Allah daha the Earth.
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) . . .
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.
udhiya udhiya: ostrich nest in the ground
- midha midhan: pl. midaah madahin roller, steam roller
Dahaha used for a flat earth in pre-Islamic poetry
As discussed in more detail above in the section Qur'an 79:30 - daha ("spread out wide"), a pre-Islamic (or at least very early) arabic poem attributed to Zayd b. 'Amr used daḥāhā "He spread it out" to very explicitly describe the spreading of a flat earth.
daḥāhā falammā raʾādā istawat ʿalā l-māʾi arsā ʿalayhā l-jibālā
He spread it out and when He saw that it was settled upon the waters, He fixed the mountains upon itTradition and scripture
Tafsirs explain that this verse describes the Earth to be flat. A brief example of this is found in Tafsir al-Jalalayn. The word translated "He made it flat" is a verbal form of the word for carpet used in Quran 71:19 discussed above, meaning to spread out, expand, stretch forth.
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).”
Oblate vs prolate spheroids (earth vs egg shape)
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.
An ostrich egg is a prolate spheroid (a sphere-like shape with pointed poles) like most eggs. This is fundamentally different to the shape of the Earth, which is a very slightly oblate spheroid (a sphere-like shape with flattened poles). The Earth is 0.3% wider at its equator than it is tall between its poles.[64] This is not merely a matter of perspective or orientation. An oblate spheroid cannot be made prolate simply by rotating it.
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".[63] Such cakes of bread are defined as being "very small", "of a round, flattened form", like the apparent "disk of the sun"[65], and, on the whole, far more similar in shape to discs or extremely-oblate spheroids than they are to the only very slightly oblate Earth.
Plate tectonics
One modern Islamic interpretation for verses which mention the spreading of the earth is that Allah is referring to plate tectonics (formerly known as the theory of continental drift). Critics note numerous flaws with this interpretation.
Tectonic history is largely characterised by a cycle of repeated supercontinent formation and breakup, and not a one-off "spreading of the earth" event, as it is sometimes misrepresented on Islamic websites.
Descriptions of the earth as a bed (20:53 and the other mahdan verses) or carpet (71:19), or the use of verbs for the spreading of such an item (51:48) or stretching it out (13:3 and other verses which use madad), spreading to make it wide (79:30) and flat (88:20), do not remotely sound anything like the process of plate tectonics.
Moreover, the tectonic plate interpretation is reliant on the "spread" verbs in such verses, divorcing them artificially from the nouns which describe the earth as something which was laid out (like a bed or carpet). Yet these are obviously all part of a connected imagery.
It is further notable that verses such as Quran 88:17-20 assume that the 7th century listeners are aware of what is being referred to ("Do they not look..."), which can hardly be plate tectonics. Indeed, the earth appears essentially spread out and flat to a scientifically unaware observer. The Judeo-Christian tradition with which the Quran frequently assumes its listerers are familiar uses similar language (see Isaiah 42:5 and Psalms 136:6).
Perhaps most importantly, the spreading out of a flat earth makes sense as a beneficial act of creation for mankind. But it is far less obvious how the process of plate tectonics compares as the same kind of direct benefit as the creation of tracts, rivers and fruits of the Earth mentioned in the same verses. Finally, all these things are consistently described as creation events using verbs in the past tense in Arabic (not always clear in translations), yet all are ongoing processes to this day.
The Earth is flat, but only from a human perspective
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[66] and, in a fatwa still hosted on his website, asserts that there is no convincing evidence that the sun is larger than the Earth[67]. 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 in order to force fit a round earth reading into the verses. This view is the most common amongst educated Muslims today and is likely to predominate going forward.
On the other hand, critics, in line with academic scholars such as those quoted earlier in this article, argue that the context of most of the relevant verses is expressly the creation of the heavens and the earth and that these are therefore statements about the earth as a whole, even if the main purpose of the verses are to remind the audience how Allah has thereby made the earth traversible and hospitable to humans.
See Also
- Cosmology - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Cosmology
Translations
External Links
- Is the Earth Egg-Shaped? - Answering Islam
- The Earth is Flat - Islam Monitor
- The Seven Earths - Answering Islam
- Muhammad's Magical Mountain: One Whale of a Tail!
- The Quran and The Shape of the Earth - Answering-Islam
- Islam & the whale that carries the Earth on its back - Video by TheMaskedArab
References
- ↑ Views of the Earth - World Treasures of the Library of Congress, July 29, 2010
- ↑ Toomer, G. J., "Ptolemy and his Greek predecessors", In Walker, Christopher, Astronomy before the Telescope, New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 86, ISBN 9780312154073, 1996 (archived from the original), https://web.archive.org/web/20171215163704/https://www.worldcat.org/title/astronomy-before-the-telescope/oclc/36922915
- ↑ Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World - Marika Sardar, Metropolitan Museum of Art website, 2011
- ↑ "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
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "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
- ↑ Tabatabaʾi, Mohammad A.; Mirsadri, Saida, "The Qurʾānic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself", Arabica 63 (3/4): 201-234, 2016, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24811784 p. 211; also available on academia.edu
- ↑ Janos, Damien, "Qurʾānic cosmography in its historical perspective: some notes on the formation of a religious wordview", Religion 42 (2): 215-231, 2012 See pp. 217-218
- ↑ فِرَٰشًا firashan - Lane's Lexicon page 2371
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 مد madda (مدد) - Lane's Lexicon page 2695
- ↑ مَهْدً mahdan - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
- ↑ مَهْدً mahdan - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
- ↑ فرش farasha - Lane's Lexicon page 2369
- ↑ مهد mahada - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
- ↑ بِسَاطًا bisaatan - Lane's Lexicon page 204
- ↑ مَهْدً mahdan - Lane's Lexicon page 2739
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 دحو dahawa - Lane's Lexicon page 857
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Guillaume, A., The Life of Muhammad, London: Oxford University Press, 1955, p. 102
- ↑ استوت istawat - Lane's Lexicon p. 1477
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 https://shamela.ws/book/12406/736
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Bravmann, M. M. (1977) Studies in Semitic Philology, Leiden: Brill p.439
- ↑ سطح sataha - Lane's Lexicon page 1357
- ↑ 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
- ↑ طحو / طحى taha Lane's Lexicon page 1832
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ بَارِزَةً baarizatan - Lane's Lexicon page 187
- ↑ قَاعًا qaAAan - Lane's Lexicon page 2994
- ↑ صَفْصَفًا safsafan - Lane's Lexicon page 1694
- ↑ عِوَجًا AAiwajan - Lane's Lexicon page 2187
- ↑ أَمْتًا amtan - Lane's Lexicon page 95
- ↑ hamala حمل - Lane's Lexicon page 646
- ↑ دك dal-kaf-kaf - Lane's Lexicon page 898
- ↑ kharaqa خرق Lane's Lexicon page 737
- ↑ Tafsirs 55:17
- ↑ مَشْرِقُ mashriq - Lane's Lexicon page 1541
- ↑ مَغْرِبُ maghrib - Lane's Lexicon page 2241
- ↑ Tafsirs 70:40
- ↑ عَرْضٌ 'ard - Lane's Lexicon page 2006
- ↑ بِنَاء binaa - Lane's Lexicon page 261
- ↑ طوق tawwaqa Lane's Lexicon p. 1894
- ↑ Muhsin Khan is particularly guilty of this in his translation of Sahih Bukhari. Compare with min al maghribi in Quran 2:258 which does mean "from the west".
- ↑ For the Arabic, see sunnah.com or #159: hadith.al-islam.com
- ↑ dorar.net
- ↑ Tafsirs 68:1
- ↑ 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
- ↑ "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/
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 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
- ↑ altafsir.com - Tafsir al-Mawardi for verse 13:3
- ↑ altafsir.com - Tafsir al-Qurtubi for verse 13:3
- ↑ 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
- ↑ For the full chapter in Arabic see Wikisource.org, and for someone's English translation for most of the relevant parts see Salafitalk forum
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Tafsir Ibn Kathir 31:29
- ↑ Lane's Lexicon
- ↑ كور kawara - Lane's Lexicon page 2637
- ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A9
- ↑ ك ر ي kaf-ra-ya - Lane's Lexicon Supplement, page 3000
- ↑ Islam Awakened - Quran 79:30
- ↑ 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/2upQXP 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.
- ↑ "Quran and the Shape of the Earth", The Quranic Teachings (archived, https://web.archive.org/web/20090621012849/http://www.quranicteachings.co.uk/earth-shape.htm)
- ↑ "دحا", Lane's Lexicon, p. 863, http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h327,ll=900,ls=h5,la=h1332,sg=h374,ha=h210,br=h324,pr=h55,aan=h184,mgf=h295,vi=h142,kz=h683,mr=h221,mn=h389,uqw=h506,umr=h356,ums=h288,umj=h236,ulq=h695,uqa=h130,uqq=h101,bdw=h297,amr=h219,asb=h279,auh=h557,dhq=h174,mht=h275,msb=h79,tla=h48,amj=h228,ens=h1,mis=h633 See the entry on the same page for مدحاة for the specific connotation and usage of the word in this sense
- ↑ 63.0 63.1 63.2 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
- ↑ 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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ 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.”
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.
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.
- ↑ 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%B6وأما 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.