MOONLIGHT IS REFLECTED LIGHT:
It was believed by earlier civilizations that the moon
emanates its own light. Science now tells us
that the light of the moon is reflected light. However
this fact was mentioned in the Qur’an 1,400 years
ago in the following verse:
“Blessed is He Who made
Constellations in the skies,
and placed therein a Lamp
and a Moon giving light.”
[Al-Qur’an 25:61]
The Arabic word for the sun in the Qur’an, is shams.
It is also referred to as siraaj which means a ‘torch’
or as wahhaaj meaning ‘a blazing lamp’ or as diya
which means ‘shining glory’. All three descriptions
are appropriate to the sun, since it generates
intense heat and light by its internal combustion.
The Arabic word for the moon is qamar and it
is described in the Qur’an as muneer which is a
body that gives noor i.e. reflected light. Again, the
Qur’anic description matches perfectly with the true
nature of the moon which does not give off light by
itself and is an inactive body that reflects the light
of the sun. Not once in the Qur’an, is the moon
mentioned as siraaj, wahhaaj or diya nor the sun as
noor or muneer. This implies that the Qur’an
recognizes the difference between the nature of
sunlight and moonlight.
The following verses relate to the nature of light
from the sun and the moon:
“It is He who made the sun
to be a shining glory
and the moon to be a light
(of beauty).”
[Al-Qur’an 10:5]
“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?”
[Al-Qur’an 71:15-16]
The Glorious Qur'an and modern science, are thus
in perfect agreement about the differences in the
nature of sunlight and moonlight.
THE SUN ROTATES:
For a long time European philosophers and scientists
believed that the earth stood still in the centre of the
universe and every other body including the sun
moved around it. In the West, this geocentric concept
of the universe was prevalent right from the time of
Ptolemy in the second century B.C. In 1512, Nicholas
Copernicus put forward his Heliocentric Theory of
Planetary Motion, which asserted that the sun is
motionless at the centre of the solar system with the
planets revolving around it.
In 1609, the German scientist Yohannus Keppler
published the ‘Astronomia Nova’. In this he
concluded that not only do the planets move in
elliptical orbits around the sun, they also rotate
upon their axes at irregular speeds. With this
knowledge it became possible for European scientists
to explain correctly many of the mechanisms of the
solar system, including the sequence of night and
day.
After these discoveries, it was thought that the Sun
was stationary and did not rotate about its axis like
the Earth. I remember having studied this fallacy
from Geography books during my school days.
Consider the following Qur’anic verse:
“It is He Who created
the Night and the Day,
and the sun and the moon:
All (the celestial bodies)
swim along, each in its
rounded course.”
[Al-Qur’an 21:33]
The Arabic word used in the above verse is
yasbahoon . This word is derived from the word
sabaha. It carries with it the idea of motion that
comes from any moving body. If you use this word
for a person on the ground, it would not mean that
he is rolling but would imply that he is walking or
running. If you use this word for a person in water,
it would not mean that he is floating but would
imply that he is swimming.
Similarly, if you use the word yasbah for a celestial
body such as the sun, it would not only mean that it
is flying through space but would also mean that it
is rotating as it goes through space. Most school
textbooks have now incorporated the fact that the
sun rotates about its axis. The rotation of the sun
about its own axis can be proved with the help of an
equipment that projects the image of the sun on the
top of a table, so that one can examine the image of
the sun without being blinded. It is noticed that the
sun has spots which complete a circular motion once
every 25 days i.e. the sun takes approximately 25
days to rotate round its axis.
The sun travels through space at roughly 240 km
per second, and takes about 200 million years to
complete one revolution around the centre of our
Milky Way 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).”
[Al-Qur’an 36:40]
This verse mentions an essential fact discovered
only recently by modern astronomy, i.e. the
existence of the individual orbits of the Sun and the
Moon, and their journey through space with their
own motion.
The ‘fixed place’ towards which the sun travels,
carrying with it the solar system, has been located
preirsely by modern astronomy. It has been given a
name, the Solar Apex. The solar system is indeed
moving in space towards a point situated in the
constellation of Hercules (alpha Lyrae) whose exact
location is now firmly established.
The moon rotates around its axis in the same
duration that it takes to revolve around the earth.
It takes approximately 29½ days to complete one
rotation.
One cannot help but be amazed at the scientific
accuracy of the Qur’anic verses. Should we not
ponder over the question: “What is the source of
knowledge contained in the Qur’an?”
THE SUN WILL EXTINGUISH:
The light of the sun is due to a chemical process on
its surface that has been taking place continuously
for the past five billion years. It will come to an end
at some point of time in the future, when the sun
will be totally extinguished, leading to extinction of
all life on earth. Regarding the impermanence of the
sun’s existence, the Qur’an says:
“And the Sun runs its course
for a period determined
for it; that is
the decree of (Him)
the exalted in Might,
the All-Knowing.”
[Al-Qur’an 36:38]1
The Arabic word used here is mustaqarr, which
means a place or time that is determined. Thus the
Qur’an says that the sun runs towards a determined
place, and will do so only up to a pre-determined
period of time – meaning that it will end or
extinguish.
