Islamic scholars and apologists claim, “The Noble Quran is filled with scientific statements and notions. These are statements of Allah Almighty describing how He created things on earth and in the Universe. What’s most amazing is that all of these scientific statements and notions had been proven to be in perfect agreement with science and our modern-day scientific discoveries. Allah Almighty made the Noble Quran be Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) Everlasting Divine Miracle and proof for Prophethood. The Holy Book certainly stood the test of time 1,500 years ago with Its Claims, Prophecies and Miraculous language eloquence, and it does again and again in our day today with Its overwhelming agreement with science and discoveries that were not known to man 1,500 years ago.” [Source]
- Earth is Egg Shaped as per Notable Islamic scholars like Zakir Naik
Let’s analyse this claim, in light of Lexicon Arabic Dictionaries, and narrations of Muhammad. I’ll start with quoting the verse, which claims earth to be egg shaped in Qur’an. See Qur’an Ch 79, Verse 30, which reads:-
TransliterationWal-arda baAAda thalikadahaha
Sahih InternationalAnd after that He spread the earth.
I don’t know why Sahih International translates the word ‘Dahaha’ as Spread out here. They must have misunderstood the word, so we can rely on other Muslim Translators of Qur’an. Almost all other translation by Islamic scholars are as follows:
Muhsin KhanAnd after that He spread the earth;PickthallAnd after that He spread the earth,Yusuf AliAnd the earth, moreover, hath He extended (to a wide expanse);ShakirAnd the earth, He expanded it after that.Dr. GhaliAnd the earth, after that He flattened it (for life).
This is really amazing, why not a single Scholar translates the word as Egg Shaped or Spherical etc. But yes, we do have scholars like Dr. Zakir Naik, and Bassam Zawadi who do translates the word ‘Dahaha’ as egg shaped. Now, to know whether their claim is true or not, we have to rely on Qur’anic dictionaries and Lexicon Arabic Dictionaries. Lets see how Lane Lexicon dictionary explains this word Dahaha. See the explanation below:-
Daha (., MM_b;,, 1,) first pers. Dahouth aor, yad’hoo inf. N. dahoo He spread; spread out, or forth; expanded; or extended; (S, Msb, K; ) a thing; (K; ) and, when said of God, the earth; (Fr, S, Mb, 1V; ) As also daha first pers. dahaithu (K in art. daha) aor. yaad’heae inf. n. dahae: (Msb, and K in art. dahae : ) or He (God) made the earth wide, or ample; as explained by an Arab woman of the desert to Sh: (TA : ) also, said of an ostrich, (S, TA,) he expanded, and made wide, (TA,) with his foot, or leg, the place where he was about to deposit his eggs: (S, TA : ) and, said of a man, he spread, &c., and made plain, even, or smooth. (TA in art. dhaha) [Source]
So, it is not egg as Few Islamic apologists claim, it is the place which Ostriches expand or stretch to lay eggs. Daha does not mean eggs of Ostrich, but yes it is the laying place of the egg. Other meanings as per this above quote is, He spread out, or forth, or Expanded etc. None of these meanings resemble to the shape of Earth. Another dictionary which is quoted by Answering-Christianity team, to prove the word ‘Daha’ mean ‘Egg Shaped’body is Lisan Al Arab. Let’s also see what this dictionary says.
Lisan Al Arab says:– الأُدْحِيُّ و الإدْحِيُّ و الأُدْحِيَّة و الإدْحِيَّة و الأُدْحُوّة مَبِيض النعام في الرمل , وزنه أُفْعُول من ذلك , لأَن النعامة تَدْحُوه برِجْلها ثم تَبِيض فيه وليس للنعام عُشٌّ . و مَدْحَى النعام : موضع بيضها , و أُدْحِيُّها موضعها الذي تُفَرِّخ فيه .ِ
English Translation:- Translation: Al-udhy, Al-idhy, Al-udhiyya, Al-idhiyya, Al-udhuwwa:The place in sand where an ostrich lays its egg. That’s because the ostrich spreads out the earth with its feet then lays its eggs there, an ostrich doesn’t have a nest.
The above definition, again support my claim. It proves that Daha is the place on Earth, where Ostriches lays egg. Now, we will see another dictionary. It is Wehr-Coman Dictionary, pg 273 . It says:-
Daha- To spread out, flatten, Level, unroll. Here is the proof.
I think it must be clear by now that this claim is a hoax by Islamic scholars to fool people, all the Arabic dictionaries translates the word ‘Dahaha’ referring to a flat surface. Even if we accept that the word ‘Dahaha’ means ‘Egg Shaped’ or ‘Ostrich Egg’, then see how drastically the meaning of the complete verse changes:
The verse in Arabic says: Wal-arda baAAda thalikadahaha (Let us break this verse, and read it word-to-word with its meaning)
wal-arḍa – And the Earth
baʿda – after
dhālika – that
daḥāhā – Egg Shaped (Ostrich Egg)
Does this verse make any sense? If yes, then keep believing that Earth is Egg shaped as per Quran, because we can only show some open minded, and rational people the truth. It is not for those who are brain washed by Zakir Naik.
please dont make such statement when u dont know completely about that,
i will not commenting you an thing, i am just saying to u that u make good survey to find out fault but u are showing chicken egg shape and u are quoting meaning which is not related to contest.
u are not trying to know something u are trying to show some faults.
finally i will pray god to show you right path.
Thanks for your wishes ! would u please quote what wrong is mentioned in the article.
Consider the following Qur’aanic verse regarding the alternation of day and night: “Seest thou not that Allah merges Night into Day And He merges Day into Night?” [Al-Qur’aan 31:29]
Merging here means that the night slowly and gradually changes to day and vice versa. This phenomenon can only take place if the earth is spherical. If the earth was flat, there would have been a sudden change from night to day and from day to night.
The following verse also alludes to the spherical shape of the earth: “He created the heavens And the earth In true (proportions): He makes the Night Overlap the Day, and the Day Overlap the Night.” [Al-Qur’aan 39:5]
The Arabic word used here is Kawwara meaning ‘to overlap’ or ‘to coil’– the way a turban is wound around the head. The overlapping or coiling of the day and night can only take place if the earth is spherical. The earth is not exactly round like a ball, but geo-spherical i.e. it is flattened at the poles. The following verse contains a description of the earth’s shape:
“And the earth, moreover, Hath He made egg shaped.” 2 [Al-Qur’aan 79:30]
The Arabic word for egg here is dahaha, which means an ostrich-egg. The shape of an ostrich-egg resembles the geo-spherical shape of the earth. Thus the Qur’aan correctly describes the shape of the earth, though the prevalent notion when the Qur’aan was revealed was that the earth is flat.
Your research is good but your conclusion of is baise-based. This what academic charlatans do, and you’re one of them. This is how your conclusion (on the word ‘Dahaha’ referring to a flat surface) can be disproved:
The last part of your blog post you said; Even if you replace the word ‘dahaha’ with egg-shaped, does this even make sense? Firstly, grammatically it would be incorrect to put the word egg-shaped in the verse. ‘Dahaha’ is translated as “Spreaded” or “Extended” and these are the appropriate words to be used in context with the verse. You need to understand the linguistic importance of the word ‘dahaha’ and the contextual meaning of the verse. The word ‘dahaha’ cannot be referred to a flat surface as claim. According to the context the verse, the word ‘dahaha’ means spread or extend. The earth being spherical, but ‘spread’ doesn’t contradict it’s shape. Note that, the earth’s size is huge and gigantic sphere. So it can appear to the people living its surface as a flat, but as whole it’s a sphere. Furthermore, in the contextual of the verse is talking about the water coming forth from the Spreaded surface of the earth, and its pasture for the people using it. This is mentioned in the next verse, but your meaning is out of context. Consider the verses:
“As for the earth, He spread it out [‘dahaha’] as well, bringing forth its water and pastures”. (Qur’an 79: 31-32)
These verses are together, and their meaning connot be taken out of the context. The claim that ‘dahaha’ is referred to egg-shaped is correctly and complies with the other verses in Qur’an, but even if we agree for the sake of argument, still your claim that ‘dahaha’ is referred to flat shape will be contextually wrong and contradict other verses of the Qur’an which mentioned the shape of the earth.
Remember, the Qur’an is not revealed in this modern era, but the Qur’an is timeless, multi-layered and multi-levelled book. So it’s open for the interpretation of the people lived in the 7th century, those lived in the mediaeval period, and also this modern era. The verses that say the earth is spread-out or extended, doesn’t mean that it’s flat-shape. But rather they are talking about the surface of the earth on where the people living (small part of the earth’s surface), so people lived in the earlier centuries could understand. Some other verses in the Qur’an mentions that the earth is spread-out or extended; (Qur’an 71:19, 78:6, 15: 19). These verses do not talk about the astronomical shape of the earth, but they’re highlighting the spreading of the earth according to the human observation living on the earth surface.
Consider this verse again:
“He created the heavens and the earth for a purpose. He wraps the night around the day, and wraps the day around the night”. (Qur’an 39: 2)
Look here again, the word used is “Yukawwiru” (in Arabic يكور) which means to wrap. God Almighty said here that He wraps the night around the day, and wraps the day around the night. So for something to wrapped with another thing, it should NOT be FLAT. You cannot wrap a flat surface, but you can cover only. Please do the same research on the word “Yukawwiru” (in Arabic يكور). You’ll find that it has it’s unambiguous meaning and it’s referred as spherical shape. Or you can simply search what’s spherical or sphere in Arabic. You will get “kurawy” (in Arabic كروي) meaning spherical. This is even classical Arabic.
Your claim that ‘dahaha’ is referred to the shape of the earth (flat) can be dismantled with the above verse and your conclusion is baseless.
In conclusion, the Qur’an never said that the earth is flat, but rather mentions the actual shape which is spherical. The Qur’an does not contradict the modern science, and none of the scientific concepts in the Qur’an can be falsified or are against the science. The Qur’an is a revelation from Almighty God Who is full of Wisdom and cannot be proven wrong. Consider this verse; “It [the Qur’an] cannot be proven false from any angle. ˹It is˺ a revelation from the ˹One Who is˺ All-Wise, Praiseworthy”. (Qur’an 41: 42)
Peace be upon you.
🙂
you tried your level best
but failed to put your point.
There are so many loop holed how many you will try to plug
Hence accept the truth
See the difference👇
Qur’an 79:30
وَٱلْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ دَحَىٰهَآ
And after that He spread the earth.
— Saheeh International
Qur’an 79:30
وَٱلْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ دَحَىٰهَآ
And the land[i.e. supercontinent Pangaea](1), after that He spread it [apart into different continents].
— Mantiq Al Qur’an
{ (1) read verses 2:71 & 30:3, which shows Al Arda is also used for visible landmass on earth which is what we say on earth is a surface of visible continental crust. Present visible landmass (i.e. continental crust) was supercontinent Pangaea approximately 335 to 175 million years ago. Approximately 41% in surface and 70% in volume of earth is continental crust. Alfred Wegener originally proposed that the breakup of Pangaea was due to centripetal forces from the Earth’s rotation acting on the high continents. However, this mechanism was easily shown to be physically implausible, which delayed acceptance of the Pangaea hypothesis. Arthur Holmes proposed the more plausible mechanism of mantle convection, which, together with evidence provided by the mapping of the ocean floor following the Second World War, led to the development and acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics. This theory provides the now widely-accepted explanation for the existence and breakup of Pangaea. Roundness and rotation of earth is expressed in the verse 39:5 as wrapping of day and night over the earth’s surface due to rotation of earth.}
Qur’an 79:32
وَٱلْجِبَالَ أَرْسَىٰهَا
And the mountains He firmed it[after the continental drift -read verse 79:30]
— Mantiq Al Qur’an