Once it was believed by the grandest of civilisations and the most acclaimed of mankind that the moon emitted its own light and that it was not a natural satellite; notions that we now know to be false. The holy book that we have been studying said it first, “Blessed is He who made constellations in the skies and placed therein a lamp and a moon giving light” (25.61). The book refers to the sun using a few varying terminologies, the first being “shams” which literally means the sun, described as a “siraj” meaning a torch, a “wahhaj” meaning a blazing lamp or a “diya” meaning a shining glory. The descriptions are all appropriate as the sun does emit light and heat through combustion. While, the moon in Arabic is called “qamar” and it described as “muneer” meaning an entity that gives light not its own, but that of the sun; “See ye not how Allah has created the seven heavens one above another. And made the moon a light in their midst and made the sun as a glorious lamp?” (71:15-16).
Until relatively recently we held the notion that the sun was stationary and that the planets orbited around the sun, the entity that stands in the center of our solar system. However, scientists have recently uncovered the truth that the sun does indeed move upon its axis just like the rest of the planets do. Once more, our book said it first, “It is He who created the night and day and the sun and the moon: All (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course” (21:33). The word used in the original text that is translated into “swim” is “yasbahun” derived from “sabaha”. When used in the context of a person on the ground it signifies walking or running, when used in the context of water it would mean swimming; the body of the individual is in motion and is also moving, such as the arms and legs of the body are moving while the individual moves across a plane and not fixed at a point like when dancing or staying afloat in water. In relevance to a celestial enitity it means that this entity is rotating as it moves through space. Through the observation of the sun’s shadows, it has been calculated that the sun does indeed rotate and more specifically it takes twenty-five Earth days to complete a single rotation. Evidence has also been acquired about the sun’s movement through the Milky Way Galaxy; it travels at a speed of 150miles/sec and takes 200 million years to complete a single revolution around the center of our galaxy. “It is not permitted to the sun to catch up the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day: Each just swims along in its own orbit according to law (36:40). Modern science has also found that moon turns on its axis and also revolves around the world completing one revolution every twenty-nine and a half Earth days.
So, I ask you who and what could of created such a book with such impeccable accuracy? Who could have known such unequivocal and explicit details about our universe except its Creator?
S
