Melayu | English

Introduction

The moon is a beautiful creation. If the sky were shrouded in clouds, the night would be plunged into darkness, devoid of light and charm. The beauty of the moon has been immortalized in countless poems from various ancient civilizations, to the extent that some ancient societies believed the moon to be a deity symbolizing rebirth and eternal life. Scriptures that existed before the revelation of the Quran mentioned that the moon generates its own light or, at the very least, made no distinction between the nature of light from the moon and other sources, as we can observe in the Bible:

God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

(Genesis 1:16)

On the contrary, Allah makes a clear statement in His revelation that He is the One who created the sun and the moon, each with its distinct characteristics, using two different terms as mentioned in Surah Nuh:

Surah Nuh 71:16

And made the moon therein a [reflected] light and made the sun a burning lamp?

The use of two different words in this verse serves to explain the difference in the characteristics of light between the two, even though both appear luminous. This aligns with the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir in his commentary, where he mentions, “It means there is a difference between them in terms of light.” Allah has assigned a very specific characteristic to the sun, describing it as a lamp or a lantern.

The word used is “siroja (سِرَاجًا)”.

Siroja

In ancient times, lamps used wicks to sustain a flame within a glass casing, much like a lantern. Naturally, a lantern is an object that produces light from within itself to shine. The translation of this word from the Arabic Lexicon defines it as a lamp with a burning or lit wick.

This perfectly aligns with the nature of the sun, which produces heat and light through the continuous process of nuclear fusion. Meanwhile, the term nur refers to light, which can emanate from any object without necessarily originating from its own source. The translation in Saheeh Muslim renders nur as “reflected light,” which is consistent with the interpretation from Kitab Al-Asas Fi Al-Tafsir, stating that nur is a reflection of the sun’s rays.

Indeed, this is truly remarkable, as at the time this revelation was made, there was no space technology to confirm or deny the assumption of whether the moon generated its own light or merely reflected sunlight.

This refutes any claim that the Quran is a fabricated work that plagiarized content from earlier scriptures.

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Citations:

1. Baugh, L. S. (2023, December 19). Flat Earth | Theory, model, Meaning, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/flat-Earth
2. Thales | COSMOS. (n.d.). https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/T/Thales
3. Hannam, J. (2023, September 22). A square, flat earth and round heaven meant the world to ancient China. Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flat-earth-ancient-china
4. McGlathery, G. (1980). Towards a Flat Earth Theory. Science and Children, 17(4), 13–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43160440
5. Wikipedia contributors. (2023, December 23). World Turtle. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Turtle
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7. Lindegaard Knudsen, T. (2021). Three Purāṇic statements on the shape of the earth. History of Science in South Asia, 9, 128-166. https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa55
8. Bible; New International Version:

Flat Earth

i – Job 28:24

24 for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

ii – Matthew 4:8

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

iii – Psalms 75:3

3 When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.

iv – Revelation 7:1

1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

v – Daniel 4:10-11

10 These are the visions I saw while lying in bed: I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. 11 The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth

Earth in circular shape

vi – Isaiah 40:22

22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,

   and its people are like grasshoppers.

• New King James Version

Earth standing on a base/pillars/foundation

i- Psalms 104:5

 You who laid the foundations of the earth,

So that it should not be moved forever,

1. Complete Jewish Bible:

Earth have dome

i – 6 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the water; let it divide the water from the water.” 7 God made the dome and divided the water under the dome from the water above the dome; that is how it was, 8 and God called the dome Sky. So there was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

1. Jesus Christ Flat Earth – the truth of the Creator and His Creation. (n.d.). http://jesuschristflatearth.com/

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2. Pejabat Mufti Wilayah Persekutuan – BAYAN LINNAS SERIES 166: FLAT EARTH POLEMIC: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE. (2019, February 17). https://muftiwp.gov.my/en/artikel/bayan-linnas/3127-bayan-linnas-series-166-flat-earth-polemic-an-islamic-perspective
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