{"id":3122,"date":"2017-08-21T09:02:17","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T16:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2017-08-25T07:27:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T14:27:35","slug":"quran-motion-sun-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2017\/08\/quran-motion-sun-moon.html","title":{"rendered":"What does the Qur’an say about eclipses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ct-peanuts-great-pumpkin-corn-mazes-20160914\"<\/p>\n

Today is the day of the Great American Eclipse, and I found it interesting to make not of two verses in the Qur’an that seem to be directly relevant. The first is:<\/p>\n

It is not allowable for the sun to reach the moon, nor does the night overtake the day, but each, in an orbit, is swimming. (Ya-Sin 36:40<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does an eclipse violate this? No, for the simple reason that one object blocking the view of another object but still physically located (millions of) miles away is not “reaching” or “overtaking”. The illusion of the Sun and the Moon aligning is entirely due to three factors: the physical size of the moon, the distance of the moon from the earth, and the position of the viewer on the earth. If any of those three things are not perfect, then there is no overtaking; therefore the eclipse is a purely relative phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Also note that the verse says that the sun shall not reach the moon; technically in an eclipse it is the motion of the moon, not the sun, that causes it. So even if you are inclined to equate the event in a literal sense there’s no contradiction with Qur’an.<\/p>\n

The second verse is:<\/p>\n

And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] in an orbit are swimming. (Al-Anbiya 21:33)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The message here is that the orbits of the sun and the moon are also created and dictated by God – or in the more scientific sense, the result of the physical laws of the universe that God created. Since an eclipse is due to these ordained laws and orbits, we can reasonably infer that an eclipse is also a reminder of God’s Creation. An eclipse is not an unnatural event that defies God; it is something that God wills.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3128,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions\/3128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}