Yahya Snow wrote:Does the Quran Teach a Flat Earth? No!Some Chrisitans claim that the Muslims believe the earth to be flat because of Quran??
You can't lay the blame of what the Quran says on the Christians.
Yes, it does teach a flat earth.
Despite the critic’s claims the Quran does not say the Earth is flat. The critic tries to use 71:19 from the Quran, however if we view the translation of the Quran we realise the Quran is saying nothing about a flat Earth but is talking about the expanse of the Earth, i.e. it is spread out.
71:19 And Allah has made for you the earth a wide expanse (Muhsin Khan and Al-Hilali translation).
After viewing the translation one would clearly see the critic to be in manifest error. The question is how the critic came to his /her inaccurate claim.
The critic utilizes another translation of the same verse (71:19); the translation the critic uses is the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation as this translation uses the word “carpet”. The translation:
71: 19: “‘And Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out),
However, even this translation does not indicate a flat earth as in the brackets the meaning of the comparison to the carpet is clarified, it simply means “spread out”, hence the earth is spread out in the sense it is spacious for mankind to reside and move over.
So it's cool for Mr. "Context" (Yahya Snow) here to use a terrible translation that nobody else uses, then claim that the closer translation (Y. Ali) is wrong- based on... what, personal preference?
Let's use a few other translations, shall we:
First, I want to note that Yahya is being quite dishonest, in that he's trying to imply that the Quran doesn't repeat the same point elsewhere. By accident, I found this:
79:30 (Y. Ali): "And the earth, moreover, hath He extended (to a wide expanse);"
79:30 (Pickthal): "And after that He spread the earth,"
79:30 (Shakir): "And the earth, He expanded it after that."
Now, it's interesting to note that the work that's a clear work of latter-day apologetics, trying to reconcile the Quran with modern sciences (Shakir) says "expanded".
To go back to Yahya's original quote:
71:19 (Y. Ali): "And Allah has made for you the earth a wide expanse,"
71:19 (Pickthal): "And Allah hath made the earth a wide expanse for you"
71:19 (Shakir): "And God has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out),"
So sure,
that one might not be talking specifically about a flat earth, but there are other verses that clearly do refer to a flat earth.
Dr Zakir Naik goes into further detail concerning this issue:
“The surface of the earth i.e. earth’s crust is less than 30 miles in thickness and is very thin as compared to the radius of the earth which is about 3750 miles. The deeper layers of the earth are very hot, fluid and hostile to any form of life. The earth’s crust is a solidified shell on which we can live. The Qur’an rightly refers to it like a carpet spread out, so that we can travel along its roads and paths.” (1)
What sort of carpet is rolled up into a ball-like shape?
NONE!!!
Dr. Naik, as usual, is dissimulating.
To further show the inaccuracy of the critic’s claim, the authoritative explanations (tafasir) of the Quran (e.g. tafsir of Ibn Abbas) has no mention of a flat earth and merely indicates to us that it refers to the expanse of the earth:
And Allah hath made the earth a wide expanse for you) to lay and sleep on (2)
What's the source of this Tafsir? Why is it basically just a repeat of the verse, and not an explanation?
Very dishonest of you Yahya.
Further refutation of the critics (though further refutation is not required as the evidence already provided is sufficient) we can highlight early Muslim understanding from no less than Ibn Taymiyah who tells us all celestial bodies are round:
[That] celestial bodies are round (istidaaratul-aflaak) – as it is the statement of astronomers and mathematicians (ahlul-hay’ah wal-hisab) – it is [likewise] the statement of the scholars of the Muslims; as Abul-Hasan ibn al-Manaadi, Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm, Abul-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi and others have quoted: that the Muslim scholars are in agreement [that all celestial bodies are round]. (3)
Where is this source from? This could have been a made-up quote.
The Earth is a celestial body so we realise Taymiyyah believed the earth to be round. Ibn Taymiyah informs us that he and other Muslims scholars view all celestial bodies to be round.
Source again, please. Otherwise this is just so much hot air.
As we are speaking of the great ibn-Taymiyyah it is opportune to mention one of his admirers; Sheikh Bin baz (passed away in 1999). The reason why I mention this is because many critics use a forgery (a lie) falsely ascribing a quote to Sheikh Bin Baz which claims the earth to be flat. Bin Baz (before his death) denied this and even denounced it as “a lie” (5).
Where's the source? "5" is not a source.
Gah, if you're going to copy-paste from sources, AT LEAST copy/paste the references!
Going back to their claim; the Quran (55:17) seems to indicate the earth is round by referring to two easts and two wests. The critics fail to mention this, I guess the truth and scholarly etiquette is of little concern to the critics
No, they "fail to mention it" because it's a red herring and has nothing to do with the flat earth issues in the Quran.
However, ironically enough for the Christian critic, the Bible in Job 26:7 uses a similar term; ‘spreads out’ when it concerns the northern (skies) (4).
*GASP* The Torah has flat earth cosmology! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Too bad for you that most Christians aren't Biblical literalists. Remember that next time your mullah tells you how to relate to the Bible.
A disingenuous method (the same method the Christian critic employs to attack the Quran concerning verse 71:19) could also be employed by non-Christians to attack this verse of the Bible. This would be unscholarly and intellectually dishonest, the same applies to anybody who attacks the Quran with such a methodology, and hence the critics of the Quran concerning this verse are intellectually dishonest and unscholarly.
Actually, no, it can't, because like I said: Most Christians aren't Biblical literalists. You Muslims, on the other hand, are to a man literalists with regards to the Quran.
Which means you've still got to explain how it's wrong about embryology, why the Quran mentions the sun setting in a muddy pool, why it mentions characters (as opposed to actual living human beings) that have been discarded as history by everyone except religious text-believing literalists like yourself (CF: No Moses, no Exodus, the Flood physically impossible, Adam and Eve metaphorical at best, and so forth).... the problems go on and on.
The flat earth problems in the Quran are the LEAST of your problems.