Two decades ago, the late Dr. Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri published a lengthy article in the magazine “Fikr wa Naqd” in which I had touched on the most important stages known to astronomy and geoscience before the Copernican revolution, that is, before the vast space and its sciences replaced the world of Aristotle Enclosed in envelopes, they can be compared to onion skins. Thick and transparent shells, the scientists of the body considered its flesh studded with the sun, moon, planets and stars. The outer shell, as described by Aristotle and Ibn Rushd, is studded with what are called fixed stars. It is not fixed in the sense that we do not see it moving around our earth, but rather in the sense that its place relative to each other does not change in the circumstance of an entire human life. The constellation of the Great Bear, for example, is a group of stars that we see on the same image, despite its apparent movement around our Earth. And every observer of the conditions of the sky notices that this constellation draws a complete cycle around us in the course of a day and a night (from east to west). Since ancient times, stargazers in all cultures of the world have noticed that these fixed stars also move slowly from west to east (by about a degree every day). These observers did not pay attention to the planets of the car, the orbit of each of which is only a little away from the path of the moon in the sky. It is what the ancients called the car planets.
Those who adhere to Aristotle's theories in physics considered that the Earth is stable exactly in the middle of these great spheres, although all the Greek engineers, including Aristotle's colleagues, had established mathematical evidence for the impossibility of this. Aristarchus of Samos estimated the size of the moon and the sun in relation to the earth. The translation of his calculations into Arabic indicated to our ancestors, who were studying it as an introduction to astronomy, including Ibn Rushd and Ibn Maimoon al-Qartabian, that the moon is smaller than the earth and close to it, while the sun is much greater, but farther than the moon. The best evidence for this is that the moon blocks the sun's light as it passes between the earth and the sun. Archimedes tells us that Aristarchus deduced from the results of his engineering calculations that it is our little earth that revolves around the great sun and that the stars are so far away from us that our path around the sun during a year is nothing but what looks like a point in relation to a great circle that separates us from those stars. But the people of the Middle Ages, whether they were Jews like Maimonides, Muslims, or Christians, did not adopt the logic of Aristarchus, but rather the physics of Aristotle, which Archimedes showed as a fallacy (check their theory, for example, of the charged ark, how it floats despite its weight, and how it can be easily dragged towards the dock).
Today's topic
Today I return to a topic related to what I wrote at that time to find out what was mentioned in the Qur’an in the context of its mention of the heavens and the earth and their material contents. The Qur’an is not only concerned with heaven and hell, or with the life of this world and the corresponding life in the hereafter. It also deals with assets that we can see with the naked eye in the same way, regardless of our culture and beliefs across time and space. In this article, I will suffice with limited verses and a few words, singular and plural. Here are the words that I chose in this place, along with the results of the search for their occurrence in the Qur’an (the number of verses in which this word was mentioned, not the number of the word itself, which may be repeated in the same verse):
Earth: 444, Lands: 0 - Sky: 125, Heavens: 188 - Atmosphere: 1, Atmosphere: 0 - Sun: 32, Suns: 0 - Moon: 26, Moons: 0 - Star: 5, Stars: 9 Planet: 3, planets: 2, constellation: 0, zodiac: 4, mountain: 6, mountains: 32, head: 0, mountains: 9, at-Tur: 8, plain: 0, plains: 1, sea: 38, seas : 2 - yum: 3 - circumference: 0
I could have added words such as clouds and clouds, wind and wind, river and rivers, valley and valleys, spring and springs, water and water, torrent... and other terms of this kind, as they express material assets mentioned in the Qur’an. I leave the opportunity for those who have a desire to complete this work to make a complete inventory of all the material mentioned in the Qur’an.
You have undoubtedly noticed that this vocabulary of mine does not all fit with what was customary during the days of prophecy. The sun and the moon in the plural form are among the developments of space science in our times, as we discovered that the sun is not alone in the universe, but rather has billions of sisters (smaller and larger than them) and that we can consider the majority of stars as suns. Today we are used to saying that the closest star to us is our sun. Our sky is full of satellites after the moon was alone. For this reason, it makes no sense to search for the word suns or moons, neither in the dictionary of the ancients nor in the Qur’an. Contrary to the foregoing, I think that there is a justification for searching for the word ocean (in the singular form only) because it is mentioned in the perceptions of those times. The ocean, according to the ancients, is that sea that encircles the globe, in contrast to the many other seas that separate different areas of the land. The word ocean in the sense of the surrounding sea is not mentioned in the Qur’an. Of course, we do not find in it a word that means the oceans as it is circulating among us today.
Earth has a plural form that we no longer use
We may be surprised at first sight that the word “land” is not mentioned in the Qur’an. But a simple guess makes us notice that this plural does not mean multiple versions of our entire land, but only parts of it (vast or agricultural lands, for example). And if we examine the books of hadith, interpretations, and the science of the authority, we find that the ancients used two different words as the plural of the word land: “Ardeen” and “Ardun.” These two combinations had multiple meanings, including what we agreed today to call different “lands” or “regions” of the land. As for the second meaning, it was forgotten by many generations before us, a forgetfulness that is almost complete and final today.
In the context of interpreting what came in verse 12 of Surat Al-Talaq (God is the one who created the seven heavens and from the earth like them...) the commentators and narrators, and after them the scholars of the Commission, mention concepts that we no longer imagine today. In most books, the researcher finds a long and ramified narration that can be summarized as I quote it for you here from al-Tabari’s interpretation:
[While the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, was sitting with his companions once, when a cloud passed by, and the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said, “Do you know what this is? These are the reins, these are the stories of the earth that God leads to people who do not worship Him.” He said: “Do you know what this sky is?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “This sky is a restrained wave, and a preserved roof.” Then he said: “Do you know what is above that?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Above that is another heaven,” until he counted seven heavens while saying: “Do you know what is between them?” five hundred years”; Then he said: “Do you know what is above that?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Above that throne.” He said: “Do you know what is between them?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Between them is five hundred years.” Then he said: “Do you know what this land is? They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Under that is land.” He said: “Do you know how much is between them?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “Between them is a distance of five hundred years,” until he counted seven earths…]
We don't care how true this story is or what other details accompany it. The important thing is that it expresses an understanding of the universe that the ancients used, so they used the phrase “seven earths,” which is no longer in use today.
Knowing that the Qur’an was not revealed with a dictionary or an encyclopedia explaining the meanings of its words, we have no choice but to rely first on the multiple uses of the same word in the Qur’an in order to derive its meaning as much as possible from it, or to discover it only. And since the word is unique and alone in the Qur’an, we can only rely on what was mentioned in books edited after a period of time by people like you and me, that is, they are not infallible. And that's what we'll just see.
Atresia and hernia
The Prophets - Verse 30: Have those who disbelieved not seen that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We parted them…
Today, we do not find any circulation of the word “retiq” against the heavens and the earth. And dictionaries tell us that the phrase “to mend the shirt” means to sew it. So the hernia is the opposite of hernia. Therefore, we need to review the books of the ancient commentators to stand up for their understanding, in their era, that the heavens and the earth were connected and fused before the Creator separated them.
The pottery tablets preserved by the ruins of Mesopotamia contain a poem of about a thousand lines written in cuneiform. And its beginning is “Anoma Alish,” which specialists in the Akkadian language translated as “for what is in the highest.” This poem tells us that the people of Babylon believed that fresh and salt water were mixed and embodied by Tiamat (the mother of everything). This lasted until the reign of the god Marduk, who battled Tiamat and managed to overcome her, then separated her body into two parts, so that the upper part became the sky (meaning fresh water descending from what they called), and the second part gathered to form a salty sea below. Both Bahrains meet and do not mix. Then Marduk created the land anchored on the sea, then created what is on it and what is in the sky, as well as the winds that separate them. A poetic legend that deserves translation and investigation so that our children know that the imagination of the Middle East is fertile, as is the case with the mythological imagination of the Greeks and Romans. With their poetry, they are able to create their gods.
Ard, Mead, and Rawasi
With regard to the word al-Rawasi, meaning mountains, we also note that we no longer use anything but derivatives of its origin when we say “boats moored close to the shore” or when we talk about “berthing”.
Fussilat - verse 10: And He placed mountains on it above it, and blessed it, and estimated its sustenance in it in four days, alike for those who askQ - Verse 7: And the earth We stretched out and placed therein firm mountains, and We caused to grow therein every kind of pleasant kind.
Al-Mursalat - Verse 27: And We placed therein lofty mountains, and gave you to drink fresh water.
Al-Hijr - Verse 19: By the earth We stretched it out and placed therein firm mountains, and We caused to grow therein every thing in a balanced way.
Al-Ra'd - Verse 3: It is He who spread out the earth and placed therein mountains and rivers...
An-Nahl - Verse 15: And He placed mountains on the earth, lest it should sway with you, and rivers and paths, that you might be guided.
The Prophets - Verse 31: And We placed firm mountains on the earth, lest you should be shaken by them, and We placed wide paths therein that they might be guided.
Al-Naba' - verses 6 and 7: Have We not made the earth a cradle and the mountains as pegs?
Al-Ra'd - Verse 3: It is He who spread out the earth and placed therein mountains and rivers...
The interpretation of al-Tabari came as follows: Ibn Hamid told us, he said: Mahran narrated to us, on the authority of Saeed, on the authority of Qatadah (Did We not make the earth a mulch) meaning a rug.
Neither when I was young nor in my youth did I understand how mountains can be pegs when they stand out. My vision became somewhat clearer when I looked at the history of ancient civilizations between the two rivers and on the shores of the Nile. The Babylonians and Egyptians imagined the earth floating on water, and in order not to sway, it must be anchored with weights. As for the Hebrews, they used to liken the earth to a mattress. This analogy is also mentioned in the Qur’an: He made the earth a bed for you. If we put weights on the mattress or the rug, it will stabilize it and take the place of the pegs. This is my last guess, not a sure guess.
In this context, it must be noted that the word phase is no longer used for a long time. It did not appear in the Qur’an except when mentioning the Children of Israel, and it is also associated with the phrase Sinai or Sinain (and a tree that emerges from Mount Sinai that grows with oil and a dye for those who eat: Al-Mominoon, verse 20).
I believe that the following verses describing the sky are sufficient to explain themselves, and therefore I have added only a tab that summarizes them.
The sky and its pillar
Al-Ra'd - Verse 2: It is God who raised the heavens without pillars that you can see, then established Himself on the Throne and subjugated the sun and the moon.
Al-Hajj - Verse 65: Have you not seen that God has subjected to you whatever is in the earth, and the ships run in the sea by His command, and He holds back the sky from falling on top of it? to the ground
Luqman - Verse 10: He created the heavens without pillars that you can see, and He placed firm mountains on the earth, lest it sway you…
The sky is a building and a roof without cracks
Ghafir - Verse 64: It is God who made the earth a settlement for you and the sky a structure…
The Prophets - Verse 32: And We made the sky a sheltered ceiling, and they turn away from its signs.
Q - Verse 6: Have they not looked at the sky above them, how We have built it and adorned it, and it has no faults?
The roof may crack, split and scrape
The Poets - Verse 187: Then let a fragment of the sky fall on us if you are of the truthful
Al-Israa - verse 92: Or should the sky fall on us as you claimed, or bring God and the angels beforehand?
P - Verse 10: Or do they have the dominion of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them?
Al-Hajj - Verse 15: Whoever thinks that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him extend a cause to the heavens...
In al-Tabari's interpretation, we find the following: The origin of the cause among the Arabs is everything that causes it to reach the desired, whether it is a rope, means, kinship, kinship, a path, a means, and so on.
I think rope and ropes are meanings that can be compatible with the verses mentioned here. The ropes hanging from the ceiling of the sky are sufficient to allow us to ascend if we prepared them like the ladders of sailors, and they would also enable Dhu al-Qarnayn to move quickly if he took them as an imaginary swing that would fly him from the far east to the far west. As for the setting of the sun in a muddy spring, this is what reminds us of the perceptions of the ancient Egyptians, who believed that a shepherd, the sun-god, crossed a dangerous passage under the earth and that they had to pray and worship so that he would come out again on board his ark, which would take him across the heavenly sea from east to west.
The lower sky and its planets
Al-Hijr - Verse 16: Indeed, We have placed constellations in the sky and have beautified them for the onlookers.
Al-Furqan - Verse 61: Blessed be He who placed constellations in the sky and placed therein a lamp and an illuminating moon
As-Saffat - Verse 6: We have adorned the lower heavens with the adornment of stars.
Al-Mulk - Verse 5: And We have certainly adorned the lower heaven with lamps and made it a stoning of the devils, and We have prepared for them the punishment of the Blaze
The last two verses posed a difficult physical and engineering problem for Arabic-speaking astronomers. Among them is Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. These scientists were sure that the stars and planets disappear behind the dark part of the moon when it is a crescent, and they understood, therefore, that these bodies cannot be concentrated in the lower orbit, that is, the one closest to our Earth. The upper sky is adorned with stars, and the lowest is the moon-studded astronomy. As for the issue of stoning according to Al-Razi, it can be summarized as follows: Since the flames of fire (meteorites) that we see passing through the sky are very numerous, it was assumed that the number of stars in the sky would decrease, scatter, or deviate from their location. But the astronomers who observed the stars and recorded their names and compared them to what was recorded by Ptolemy, for example, were aware that the images of the stars had not changed since ancient times and that their number had not decreased.
Two seas meet and there is a barrier between them
Al-Naml - Verse 61: He made the earth a source of security, placed rivers within it, placed mountains for it, and placed a barrier between the two seas. God is with God, but most of them do not know
Al-Kahf - Verse 60: And when Musa said to his servant, I will not leave until I have reached the compound of Bahrain, or I have passed some time.
Al-Furqan - Verse 53: And it is He who lawns Bahrain. unjustly
Fatir - Verse 12: And the two seas are not equal.
Al-Rahman - Verse 19
In this regard as well, I believe that it is the perceptions of academics and ancient Egyptians that help us understand these verses. When we stand on the beach, we see a salty sea touching the horizon with a blue sky, from which fresh water falls on us from time to time. In some years, its doors open and floods hit us as if they were a flood. In front of this scene, we can imagine the sky as a transparent dome that blocks the flow of its fresh water at once, and that it forms that sea that a shepherd’s ark crosses during the day. Thus, we can testify because we see that the brackish sea actually meets the upper sea without understanding what prevents the second flow to mix with the salty sea. Of course, we can imagine other meanings for these verses because our imagination is not limited by a barrier or isthmus.