Friday, August 12, 2011

The Earth is shaped like an ostrich egg - another miracle claim...

Almost any Western educated Muslim you come across will firmly believe that the Qur'an unequivocally states that the Earth is shaped like an egg (to be precise, like an ostrich egg). They will evince some embarrassment that their less educated Muslim brothers, like this chap here...


 believe the Revelation states the Qur'an is flat. But it is those "less educated" Muslims who are in fact nearer the truth.
The verse that many believe refers to an egg is surah 79, verse 30. Let's look at some translations:

YUSUFALI: And the earth, moreover, hath He extended (to a wide expanse);
PICKTHAL: And after that He spread the earth,
SHAKIR: And the earth, He expanded it after that.
This is the arabic:

{ وَٱلأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ دَحَاهَا }
Transliteration: Waal-arda baAAda thalika dahaha

dahaha means to flatten out - it is NOT a word that can be interpreted as anything to do with an egg. 

And this is the official translation of that same verse from the Ministry of Religious Affairs from the Kingdom of Jordan. link
and after that He spread out the earth: He made it flat, for it had been created before the heaven, but without having been spread out;

Nowhere, you will notice, is there any mention of egg-shaped or ostrich...If the author of the Qur'an had wanted to make plain to mankind that He knew his creation was round, you'd have thought he'd have said...wouldn't you?

Perhaps we best leave the last word to  Sheik Abdul-Aziz Ibn Baaz, supreme religious authority of Saudi Arabia who in 1993 said:
"The earth is flat. Whoever claims it is round is an atheist deserving of punishment."

9 comments:

  1. Surah Naziat, Ch. No. 79, Verse No. 30…. It says. (Arabic)… ‘And thereafter, We have
    made the earth egg-shaped’. The Arabic word ‘Dahaha’ comes from root word ‘Duhya’, meaning an Egg-shape and it does not refer to any normal Egg. It specifically refers to the Egg of an Ostrich - and today we know that the world is not completely round like a ball- It is Geo Spherical. It is slightly flattened from the top and bulging from the centre - It is Geo Spherical. And if you analyze the shape of the Egg of an Ostrich - it too is Geo Spherical, slightly flattened from the top and bulging from the centre. So the Holy Qur'an describes the exact ‘geo spherical earth’ 1400 years ago.

    in Surah Nur, Ch. 71,verse no. 19 and 20, which does say… ‘that we have spread out the Earth like a carpet’. But it gives the answer in the next verse, in verse number 20, ‘So that you may walk and travel in the spacious path’. As I mentioned in my talk - the Geologists, they tell us today, the earth which we live- on the surface is hardly one to 10 miles, and less than 1% of the total radius of the earth which is 3750 miles. The top layer is a solid shell. The deeper layers are hot and fluid, and inhospitable for existence of life. No where does the Qur’an say, that the earth is flat. It gives a similitude that… ‘We have spread out the Earth like a carpet’. People normally have a misconception that… ‘A carpet can only be spread on a flat surface’. It is wrong - A carpet, can also be spread on a spherical surface. For example imagine that there is big model of the earth, the globe, say about 10 feet in radius - Very big - Very well you can spread a carpet around it - It is possible. But Qur’an is scientifically also speaking, that besides spreading out - today Science tells us that the earth’s crust - because when we layout a carpet, we normally spread out a carpet, on the surface which is not comfortable to walk on - Carpet is normally spread out on a surface which is not comfortable to walk on. So Science today tells us that if the outer crust was not spread out like a carpet around this spherical earth, we would not be able to live - Because the deeper layers are hot and fluid. So when Qur’an says we have spread out the earth, its referring to the earth’s crust has been spread out like a carpet. And the reason is given… ‘So that you may walk in the spacious path of the Lord’- Qur’an says in other places also that… ‘We have made the Earth, as spacious’. Qur’an says… in Surah Nabah Ch. 78, Verse No. 6, ‘We have made the Earth as an expanse’. It is referring that… ‘The earth, We have made as wide’- You know why? The answer is given in Surah Ankabut, Ch. 29, Verse, 56 which says…‘ We have made the Earth as a wide expanse for you so that you will worship Me and Me alone’. So tomorrow you cannot say that, the situation where I lived in, may be Bombay, it was difficult circumstances, therefore I was prevented to do good deeds - So I did evil deeds. Allah says… ‘The earth is a wide expanse for you - it is spacious’. You cannot give the excuse for doing evil deeds , because of your circumstances. Therefore worship Allah, and Allah alone. There is no place in the Holy Qur’an which says...‘The world is flat’.

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    1. goto islamawakened.com look at 79:30 - 38 translations say spread out - 4 say egg - are you a native arabic speaker? its supposed to be in CLEAR arabic - which is it spread or egg?

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    3. People may say whatever they wish, but the fact remains that we will always find fault in any explanation of Quran. People have different backgrounds and education, and each has their own take on it.

      To be closer to understanding what it ACTUALLY says, the language of the Qur'an must be understood in its original Arabic, each word according to the context OF ITS TIME. What better way to do that today than to employ a 1030 year old Lexicon, and make use of its definitions for every word used back then?

      79:30:
      'And the Earth after that He 'eroded it/ scraped it into shape/ dahaaha.'

      As we can see from the Arabic definition below, the verb 'dahaa' refers to its having been 'scraped' into shape, which we may understand as erosion. Why? Because we see erosion on a small scale when rocks that crash against each other become pebbles, which ARE called 'dahwa' in Arabic, which is ALSO the name given to the 'scrape' in which ostriches lay their eggs.

      The definition tells us that the verb is about something being levelled and spread, like a horse pounding the earth without lifting its hooves high above the ground, or like an OSTRICH BUILDING ITS SCRAPE (ostriches don't build nests).

      Good luck on seeking Truth,
      A RESEARCHER

      Ibn Fares 329-395 A.H./940-1004 A.D
      --------------------------------------------------
      معجم مقاييس اللغة لابن فارس
      دحو:  يدلُّ على بَسْطٍ وتمهيد، يقال دحا الله الأرضَ يدحُوها دَحْواً، إذا بَسَطَها. ويقال دحا المطرُ الحَصَى عن وجْه
      الأرض. وهذا لأنّه إذا كان كذا فقد مهّد الأرض. ويقال للفرَس إذا رمَى بيديه رمْياً، لا يرفع سُنْبُكَه عن الأرض كثيراً: مرّ يدحُو دَحْواً. ومن الباب أُدْحِيُّ النَّعام: الموضع الذي يُفَرِّخ فيه، أُفْعولٌ مِن دحوت؛ لأنّه يَدْحُوه برِجْله ثم يبيض فيه. وليس للنّعامة عُشٌّ.
       

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  2. @ anonymous no body can spread the carpet over a sphere you can only cover it over a sphere.

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  3. @ anonymous there is nothing mention about earth crust in above verses it says only about earth, please show me a word that clearly says earth crust

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  4. Just like english words, arabic words have numerous meanings. The word dahaha has both meanings. Some concluded that the earth is round and others found it to be a miracle that the second meaning refers to the ostrich egg shape.

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