Sun's Orbit Miracle in the Quran
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WikiIslam Archive,
Archives of the first iteration of WikiIslam, prior to acquisition and revamp by Ex-Muslims of North America
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Primitive people in the 7th century could perceive the Sun as moving in an orbit around the Earth. The Quran says that the Sun moves in an orbit. Some Islamic apologists try to re-interpret it as a scientific miracle and that the Quran meant that the Sun is orbiting around the center of galaxy.
The "miracle" claim
In 1512 the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus put forward his theory that the Sun is motionless at the centre of the solar system, and that the planets revolve around it. The belief that the Sun is stationary was widespread amongst astronomers until the 20th century. It is now a well-established scientific fact that the Sun is not stationary, but is moving in an orbit around the centre of our Milky Way galaxy[7].
The Quran mentions the orbit of the Sun:
“It is He who created night and day, the Sun and the Moon, each floating in its orbit.” (Quran 21:33)
The Quran would have been wrong according to astronomers just a couple of decades ago. But we now know that the Quranic account of the Sun’s motion is consistent with modern Astronomy.
The verse
And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] in an orbit are swimming.
The verse doesn't explicitly say around what the Sun is orbiting, but it indicates it's around the Earth, because it says that the night and day are also orbiting. Night and day "orbit" around the Earth, not around galaxy. So the verse is actually a scientific error, because it supposes that the Earth is stationary and the the Sun and Moon and the night and the day move around it.
