The Sun Is a Big Ball of Fire (even though the Quran doesn't say as much)
No Muslims (who understood the Quran properly) believed the sun rotates around the earth, because the Quran states that the day and the night “wrap around each other” and “follow each other” in the way that a turban goes around the head; they imagined that this “following in quick succession” meant that day and night were occurring simultaneously, that one part of the earth was in darkness while the other was in light (night and day, happening together). If this was true, they also knew that the earth must be round. In fact, they knew for sure, because the quran says as much; the earth is ostrich egg shaped. They also observed the shadows (obviously, if the earth were flat, would mean that the sun is turned on and off like an electric light, with a switch) and change during the day, as the earth turns (away from the sun) and because during different seasons the sun is farther away (which maybe they didn’t imagine as early on, or someone else later proved this, I don’t know these facts myself e.g. who invented the astrolabes and why?) I only know some of this (how seasons occur) because I studied first year astronomy, which is something everyone should do at some point in their university careers. Probably I had slept through it in high school astronomy, one of my electives (that course had nothing on the university level course, which afforded us to see the sky at any time of the year (any time) while leaning back in our chairs). Earlier Muslim science details facts, not fiction. As civilizations ventured to travel the globe, it became apparent that travellers on sea voyages never fell off the earth’s surface, which was a fear early travellers by ship (or their land loving people) had, they were however likely to be attacked by pirates or drowned in terrible storms at sea (drowning and disappearances, attributed by some to sea monsters). Muslims would have been silly to think so, too, because they could see the moon, a great sign, which once was split (I saw photos of this, whether they were real or photoshopped, I can't say) I could also see Muhammad written in arabic, and we all know about the one (the face) of Mother Theresa. Anyway, the moon or solar eclipses show that obviously the earth is round (or I also barely remember some science fact like that that proves the earth is round for early people, who used telescopes). (Today) We know it's round because we live in the modern space age and study space in gradeschool, if not any further, otherwise most of us wouldn't know the moon from a flying saucer.
The Sun Always Sets
Now that we can test and prove with science that there is a “barrier” which science of large water bodies proves (oceans and seas are meant; the “seas” do not “encroach”; where the sweet and salty waters meet, e.g. the “barrier” (barzakhun) is a “homogenizing area” as explained in the book This Is The Truth, by Capt. Al-Rehaili, published in Saudi Arabia. Both “seas” (or water bodies) meet, pass through the homogenizing area in their meeting, and then compete the passage to the other side (since salinity affects this passage, there is a visible slanting where the less dense is on the bottom and the more dense is on the top, but in a way that they do not meet like a wall which is standing upright, but like a fallen structure – a fig. would be handy about now.) Dawkins didn’t lie when he said that two waters, one salty, one sweet will mix, nor does the Quran say that “mixing” doesn’t occur; Mixing occurs e.g. “maraja al Bahraini” means, loosely translated, “the two seas (Bahraini, “ain” being “the two”, e.g. “bahr” is one “sea” or “ocean”) mix” (I could be wrong about this, but I think “bahr” is used generally to mean seas and oceans, the Quran isn’t particular about which is spoken of, as far as I can tell, also proving my assertion that it is first a “religious text” and not a text book, the fact that there is some science in it doesn’t make it the science text Muslims prefer,(though we can defer to it occasionally in discussions) it is our Holy Book.) The topic being the meaning of words in the verse, we know that “maraja” is mixing, and that early Muslims didn’t quite understand or couldn’t picture how the seas “meet without mixing” (Dawkins or others are so far unwilling to investigate or admit this) so they continue (the first or earlier Muslim exegesis)to have two opinions on it, the first, that the seas meet but don’t mix (they couldn’t explain how); second, that the seas meet and mix, but without “encroaching” on each other (again a conundrum, in that era, especially for those who never would travel to the sea).
The Encroachment of Muslims
What happened later on, but much later in places where Muslims encroached, as islands like Bahrain, where many people intermarry between Indian and Arab and of course people of African descent (the first to call themselves “Bahrainis” prior to migration to the island by other permanent residents; the original people are what is taught as “dilmun” in schools) is that some pearl divers used to go to the sea floor and gather sweet water to drink, either in utensils with a small mouth or a leather bag, or a plastic bag; I don’t know when this occurred, but it was in the Persian gulf area, where many Muslims, Arabs and Indians prospered by the pearl trade. The best pearls were traded not in Bahrain, or the GCC, but in India, apparently. Therefore, by diving only were many men able to get drinking water on these boats (fishing or pearl boats) while they stayed many months on their tours. Especially the pearl divers wouldn’t go ashore for long periods, then how can we explain how they survived other than that they collected sweet water from below the salty water?
Even though the ancients could possibly have guessed at some of the things which are found in the Quran, they couldn’t have avoided making some mistakes, but there isn’t a mistake in the Qur’an. It is also a reasonable person who will admit that since pearl diving happens in salty (and sweet water - revise) (there are fresh water pearls, too, but are they only man-made or cultured pearls?) water or large bodies of water, that Muslims would have to have known about this practice of gathering sweet water from other people. But do we find literature on this subject. There is apparently more to learn about this and I look forward with anticipation, until I can try and Google it. In any case, there is no proof that Muhammad, pbuh, learned about the availability of sweet water within the ocean from others, because there is no proof; no one has written anything on this subject which we definitely know of today is ancient writing. This means that at least we do know that whoever revealed the Quran didn’t “invent” the verses by accident, nor did the author of the Quran make a mistake about it, because these are either extremely unlikely propositions or clearly untrue, no matter how much you want to debunk the existence of this verse in the Quran, the Holy Book of Muslims which “claims to be revealed by God”.
Quranic Styles, Scientific Evidence
As for verses which are less scientific and more literary, that doesn’t mean that definitely, they don’t (in many instances) speak to real things e.g. just as we cannot see Allah, we cannot see other “invisible” or “the ghaib” (unseen things) which Allah has created, heaven and hell, the angels, and so on.
Someone might say they are pure fiction (many people say that), but others (again, many people), say that such things exist, whether or not we can ever prove by science (not happening as far as “showing God” to everyone) that they do exist.
A verse which Muslims all agree is purely “literary” in nature is that the sun set in a murky pool of water. It doesn’t matter if non-believers argue that Muslims actually believed (as the Arabs might have in ancient times) that the sun rises and sets (not that the earth turns away from the sun) below the horizon, like an egg might fall off a breakfast table. But that isn’t what early Muslims scholars or scientists believed, and it is proven by what they did say early on. If the sun sets by falling under the level of the earth or into a body of water, then we would imagine that the sun, which was very great (it looks very big at times, just as the moon looks very big at times) would have caused a lot of steam to rise and the Arabs should also be able to see steam rise, because the sun also sets on the desert nations (they see the sunset, believe it or not, sometimes). They would also have imagined from the verse (if they believed the sun sets inside a body of water) that they should see a lot of steam as the hot sun descends and immerses itself into the water, but that doesn’t occur, does it? Also, why doesn't it get cold even though the sun is gone? Muslims and others must have wondered about this and other phenomenon a lot..noone thought there were two suns, or even five, even though it's possible that everyone could have seen a different sun in the sky because they lived so far away in separate nations, but we don't probably find this belief, except maybe in some indigenous writings, if at all; definitley Muslims were intellilgent enough and inquisitive enough to investigate and also reason about the sun and the moon. (The Qur'an mentions one moon and one sun, but many other possibilities exist in verses for interpretation about other worlds. It isn't beyond Muslims expectations, who have imagination, that aliens or other beings, (besides the djinns) exist on other planets far away in the cosmos in other solar systems, we can't see. Just because we don't see them, doesn't mean they don't exist, again.
One might argue these things are purely made up, but even the “unseen” (ghaib) have support in our own experience, for example, as the falling stars appear to die, or fall, while they once lived above. We cannot see oxygen, but we have the ability to prove that it exists; while we won’t prove God this way, we can use our imagination a little; something God given which comes in useful occasionally, and which some scientists seem too much lacking in – only six percent of scientists believe in God, I could be wrong (about the exact %age)
Smelly Gas, Imagine That
Some gases smell, and yet we can’t see them. This is also an example of something (a gas) which the ancients could have pondered and wondered, e.g. if something smells, does it have an invisible form or a molecular level? If gases which we don’t see can create smells, or asphyxiation, etc. why can’t a being we can’t see create us? The fact is that we are here, so there is some explanation, and the “creation” “theory” isn’t any more farfetched than science, and of course I believe it isn’t farfetched, or impossible to prove (through examples, and proofs, as you see here) but that we can almost certainly prove to many people that God revealed many signs in the Holy Quran. It isn’t the only book which has some proofs, for example, the Bible mentions the coming of “Ahmed” (another name for Muhammad, which is a prophecy; who revealed this Prophecy to Jesus, God or a fortune teller? It is strange that some new age worshippers believe in fortune telling or astrology, or numerology, but don’t believe in revelation (it’s too improbable or stories only, and because Science opposes all religion in general, which the numerologists and others are not immune from believing is more “rational” than earlier “monotheistic” and pagan religions.)
Even our imagination is a sign of what could be or is, but that we can’t see; how is it that people can “invent” or “imagine” new things and yet, we go about our business without much thought as to how this all takes place, sometimes in the twinkling of an eye, or the “inkling” of our mind. If we are so creative as to be able to make something almost from nothing, but not quite, and for example, bring data from the computer and send it elsewhere, through cables and this data is basically ‘nothing’, doesn’t that in a way support the existence of God? (David Icke believes it points to something other than us, or we are not seeing the world as it really is because we only rely on our five senses; he calls this reality “the matrix” - he also believes in “aliens”, some ppl would say they are “djinns”) We are going to die someday, but God never dies, and it is a fact that we once didn’t exist, but appeared (it seems) from nowhere, but like cybernetic data (is that a good metaphor, I don’t know, WT… is it?) we were somewhere (in the past, Allah created humankind, and brought them all forth from their parent (Adam) and asked them if they believe in Him, and they all said that they do, so If they after that deny Allah, despite their innate ability to know him, then they will end up in Hell) and God “pulled” us out just like David Icke describes “data” being “pulled out” from a computer to a network, or from the internet to a computer.
Let the deniers work their magic, but they can’t prove that God doesn’t exist; it is more plausible and with more research and effort we can prove (to many minds) that the Quran is a miracle.
Next: If I feel like it, Abraham Lincoln, aka “vampire slayer”, in historical perspective (working title)
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