In response to my rebuttal to Shabir Ally's citation of Maurice Bucaille , Muslim Kalis Finest wrote:

Since Kalis has failed to address my article, choosing instead to attack a straw man, there is really nothing for me to rebut. Even so, I still have decided to take Kalis up on his challenge to provide proof from the hadiths that Muhammad did in fact believe that the sun orbits around the earth. Yet, before I do so I first want to address Kalis' misreading of my rebuttal.

First, Bucaille claimed that Muslim historian Al-Tabari could not explain the Quranic statements regarding the orbit of the sun and the moon. This is a lie as I clearly showed by citing from al-Tabari's own words where he proceeds to explain the orbit of the sun and the moon. This is precisely the reason why I chose to focus on al-Tabari instead of the hadiths since Bucaille, not I, appealed to al-Tabari as a witness.

Second, Kalis has chosen to adopt the very tactics he has accused me of. He seems to think that by simply making claims that I am lying somehow will convince his readers that he is telling the truth. What Kalis needs to do is to document where I misquoted al-Tabari, not simply claim that I did. The fact that he could not do so, but instead chose to attack my integrity by accusing me of lying only serves to prove the validity of my arguments.

Third, Kalis assumes that Maurice Bucaille is qualified to speak on these issues since he is a scientist, whereas I am not. If this were so this would mean that neither Shabir Ally nor Jamal Badawi, nor any other Muslim who is not a scientist for that matter, have a right to comment on the scientific significance of the Quran. This means that Kalis must reject what these men have written or stated in their lectures and debates. This would also mean that unless Kalis is a scientist he has no right to critique my rebuttal of Bucaille. Otherwise he would be guilty of hypocrisy and of using a double standard.

Fourth, just because someone is a scientist doesn't mean he is qualified to speak on every subject pertaining to science. The field of science is broad, having many different branches such as astronomy, biology, zoology, botany, geology etc. Dr. Maurice Bucaille is a medical doctor. This implies that Bucaille may be considered an expert in the field of embryology, but this doesn't mean that he is an expert or qualified to comment on astrology.

Finally, just as Kalis recommends Bucaille's book to his readers we also would like to recommend the definitive rebuttal to Bucaille titled, The Qur'an and the Bible in the Light of History and Science. Written by retired Christian Missionary and medical doctor Dr. William F. Campbell, it exposes the misinformation and misrepresentation of facts as well as the logical fallacies of Muslim apologists such as Bucaille. The book can be read online here.

We now proceed to the link provided by Kalis to better document Muhammad's erroneous cosmological views. This will help us to further prove that Muhammad is not God's prophet.

Sahih Al-Bukhari

The translator has an interesting footnote here:

Not only do the Quran and Hadith reflect the limited understanding of the people, but also Muhammad himself shared the people's ignorance regarding the orbit of the constellations. Muhammad then tried to pass this erroneous understanding off as revelation from God.

Sahih Muslim

It is clear from these hadiths that Muhammad literally believed that the sun is traveling on a fixed course. This course begins from the moment the sun rises till it prostrates itself before God's throne, from which it returns back on its course. This further implies that Allah actually lives somewhere in space, otherwise we are forced to assume that the sun travels outside the physical universe and actually enters into the spiritual realm.

Yet, this would affirm that heaven is a location where Allah's throne occupies a certain section, further implying that Allah is not an omnipresent entity. Rather, this implies that Allah is an entity that has an actual body, albeit a spiritual one, much like angels have spiritual bodies that occupy spatial dimensions.

This conclusion is supported by Ibn Kathir's commentary on S. 36:38:

Third, since Muhammad has actually given his interpretation of S. 36:38, and since Muslims believe that everything Muhammad said was inspired, this means that any appeal to scientists for the exegesis of this passage is entirely unfounded and misplaced. Yet Muhammad's interpretation leaves irreconcilable contradictions with well-established scientific facts.

This essentially means that Muslims are forced to either reject Muhammad's statements in the Hadith and commentaries, or reject the findings of scientists by assuming that they are all in error.

Yet to adopt the former is to reject one of the essential pillars of Islam, namely the Sunnah of Muhammad which is to be found in these hadiths, as well as other Muslim sources. This would also mean that Muslims must adopt science as a criterion to judge the Quran for truth and error. This approach makes science higher and greater in authority than the alleged revelation of Allah. Yet to reject the findings of scientists as false is to lose any credibility and respect among the scientific and intellectual community.

Finally, Muhammad's claim that the sun travels in a fixed course presumes that the earth is stationary, a fact supported by the following hadiths:

Sahih Al-Bukhari

Sahih Muslim

That the sun will rise from the west affirms that the sun is traversing a stationary earth. Either that or we must presume that Allah will actually reverse the earth's rotation. In light of the previous hadiths which indicate that the sun travels to God's throne, it is clear that the latter interpretation cannot be accepted.

Continuing further with the Ahadith, we are also told the following:

Sahih Muslim

Malik's Muwatta

The claim that the sun rises and sets on Satan's horns and that the sun will be drawn close to the people on the Day of Judgment only serves to prove that Muhammad held to an erroneous view of cosmology. The statements from the Quran, the hadiths, and the tafsirs clearly teach that the sun is actually traveling around the earth till it reaches Allah's throne. From there, it returns back on its course until Allah will cause it to rise from the west.

The next tradition taken from the Mishkat poses additional problems for those who seek to use science as a means of authenticating Muhammad's prophethood:

Al-'Abbas b. 'Abd al-Muttalib asserted that he was sitting in al-Batha' with a company among whom God's messenger was sitting when a cloud passed. They looked at it and God's messenger asked, "What do you call this?" and they received the reply "Clouds (sahab)." He said, "And rain-clouds (muzn)," to which they agreed. He asked, "Do you know the distance between heaven and earth?" and when they replied that they did not, he said, "The distance between them is seventy-one, seventy-two, or seventy-three years, the heaven which is above it is at a similar distance (going till he counted seven heavens). Above the seventh heaven there is a sea the distance between whose surface and bottom is like that between one heaven and the next. Above that there are EIGHT MOUNTAIN-GOATS the distance between whose hoofs and haunches is like that between one heaven and the next. On their backs is the Throne the extent of which from top to bottom is like the distance between one heaven and the next. Then God is above that." Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud transmitted it. (Mishkat Al-Masabih, English Translation With Explanatory Notes by Dr. James Robson, Volume II [Sh. Muhammad Ahsraf Publishers, Booksellers & Exporters, Lahore-Pakistan, Reprint 1994], p. 1226; italic emphasis ours)

What scientist would say that Muhammad's claim here regarding the distance between one heaven and the next, or that there is a sea above the seventh heaven above which there are eight mountain goats is remotely scientific? This sounds like something from a fairytale.

Before concluding, we would like to address the following claim made by Muslims. We are told in the Quran:

According to some Muslims, the word "Overlap" (yukawir) can also mean "coil" or "rotate". This word was used to refer to the coiling of a turban around one's head. Muslims therefore see in this verse the modern scientific realization that the earth is round and rotates on an axis. Muslims assert that this is what the Quran is implying when stating that the day coils into the night and vice-versa. This is then taken as scientific proof that the Quran is revelation from God.

There are two problems with this claim. First, much like a person's head remains stationary while the turban coils around it, this demonstrates that the author of the Quran assumed that the earth is a stationary object which the sun and the moon are orbiting! Second, you can have the day and the night coil into each other without this implying a round earth. For instance, we often find people coiling wires around a flat surface such as a board.

In light of the preceding factors, it becomes pretty obvious that the writer of the Quran thought that the sun and the moon actually rotate around the earth as the earth remains in a fixed position.

May the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ use this article to bring people to read his inspired truth, the Holy Bible. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. We love you forever.

Articles by Sam Shamoun
Answering Islam Home Page