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

There is an argument<ref name="vid"></ref> that whatever wajada means, the things that Dhu’l Qarnayn found (whether actually or just in his opinion) are described in figurative language. For example, we talk about the sun rising even today, but we mean that actually, the Earth has revolved enough so that the sun becomes visible to us. If the phrases about the sun’s setting and rising are meant to be figurative in 18:86 and 18:90 we could even remove the word wajada from those phrases and they should not cause any conflict with what we know in reality. We can define figurative language as a way of expressing with words a meaning that is not necessarily true when read plainly.

There it clearly means that the sun starts to shine on the mountain, on which the sun shines earliest in that location because of its height, rather than the sun actually being overhead above the mountain. Another example is {{Muslim|20|4643}}: “…(anything) on which the sun rises or sets”, “…talaAAat AAalayhi a'''l'''shshamsu wa gharabat”.<ref>For the Arabic, see #1883: [http://hadith.al-islam.com/Page.aspx?pageid=192&TOCID=890&BookID=25&PID=3567 here], or alternatively, but without vocalization marks, see #3474: [http://www.ekabakti.com/hadith.php?app=&hds=musl&rcd=4365&bab=4481&stype=hads&hadid=4486 here]</ref>