Quranic cosmology

Quranic cosmology refers to the account of the universe and its laws in the Quran. In Quranic cosmography, the cosmos is primarily constituted of seven heavens (firmaments) and earth. The firmament(s) are solid structures and are held up by God's power and without visible pillars. Above them is the Throne of God, a solid structure. Plainly, the Quranic earth is flat, and the seven (flat) earths are piled atop one another alike a stack of plates.^[1]^[2]

Quranic cosmology is generally consistent, and broadly reflects views about cosmology in the period of late antiquity especially as they had been shaped by ancient near eastern cosmology, biblical cosmology, rabbinic cosmology, and patristic cosmology.

Heavens and the earths

The most important and frequently referred to constitutive features of the Quranic cosmos are the heavens and the earth:^[3]

The most substantial elements of the qurʾānic universe/cosmos are the (seven) heavens and the earth. The juxtaposition of the heavens (al-samāʾ; pl. al-samāwāt) and the earth (al-arḍ; not in the plural form in the Qurʾān) is seen in 222 qurʾānic verses. The heavens and the earth are the most vital elements on the scene—in terms of occurrence and emphasis—compared to which all other elements lose importance, and around which all others revolve. The same motif is used in the Bible as well.

References to heavens and earth constitute a literary device known as a merism, where two opposites or contrasting terms are used to refer to the totality of something. In Arabic texts, the merism of "the heavens and the earth" is used to refer to the totality of creation.^[4]

Contemporary and traditional interpretations have generally held in line with general biblical cosmology, with a flat Earth with skies stacked on top of each other, with some believing them to be domes and others flat circles.^[5]^[6] The Quranic cosmos also includes seven heavens and potentially seven earths as well, although the latter is disputed.^[7]

Firmament

The Quranic heaven(s), reflecting their near eastern and biblical cosmological contexts, are firmaments, referring to a solid structure (or barrier) in the sky whose function it is to separate the earth from the heavenly ocean above (visible as the blue sky), and more broadly, given its expanse, to separate the upper from the lower waters (which may correspond to the two sweet and salty seas, the baḥrān, referred to throughout the Quran like in Q 25:53, 27:61, 35:12, 55:19^[8]). There is some controversy over the shape of the Quranic firmament, namely, whether it is domed^[9] or flat,^[10] although most have understood the firmaments to be flat.^[11]^[12]

The heavens are analogized to a roof, structure, and edifice without crack or fissure. It is extremely broad and stretched, but it is also constantly broadening. Mohammad Ali Tabatabaʾi and Saida Mirsadri have summarized the Quranic discussion of the firmament as follows:^[13]

As for the nature of the heaven/sky in the Qurʾān, it is a concrete object (Kor 79, 27; 91, 5) built by God (Kor 50, 6) by hands (= power?) (Kor 51, 47) and it is lifted up (Kor 88, 18). So it is not surprising to expect its fall, or at least the fall of some of its fragments (Kor 34, 9; 17, 92), upon the earth; yet, God himself holds the firmament lest it may fall upon the earth (Kor 22, 65). In some other verses they are assumed to be held up by invisible pillars (Kor 13, 2; 31, 10). The Qurʾān describes the heavens as a protected/preserved and uplifted roof (saqfan maḥfūẓan: Kor 21, 32; al-saqf al-marfūʿ: Kor 52, 5) and a structure/edifice (bināʾ: Kor 2, 22; 40, 64), in which there is no fissures (Kor 50, 6; 67, 3). As for the measure of the firmament, it seems that it (alongside with the earth) is the most extended thing which the Qurʾān knows of. So massive, seems to the Qurʾān, the scale of the sky, that describing the grandeur of paradise, it likens it, in its broadness, to the sky (Kor 3, 133; 57, 21). As large as it already is, its width is still constantly broadening (Kor 51, 47).

Another controversy has concerned the Quranic view on the relationship between the firmament and the pillars holding it up. A few notable passages (e.g. 31:10) have been interpreted as either stating that the firmament is held up by invisible pillars, or that the firmament is not held up by visible pillars at all, meaning, it is unsupported by any physical artifice (and is instead held up by God's power). Decharneux has recently argued that the latter interpretation is correct, and has related it to a similar cluster of ideas in the homilies of Jacob of Serugh, a Syriac poet of the 6th century, particularly in his Hexaemeron.^[2] Another commonality between the two in their respective discussions of the firmament is in describing it as being decorated by stars.^[14] Likewise, a commonality shared between the Quran and the Hexaemeron of the fourth-century bishop Basil of Caesarea is in describing the firmament as having been created out of smoke in the creation week.^[15]

Six day creation

The Quran states that the universe was created in six days using a consistent, quasi-creedal formula (Q 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, 25:59, 32:4, 50:38, 57:4).^[16] Quran 41:9–12 represents one of the most developed creation accounts in the Quran:^[17]

Say: "Do you indeed disbelieve in the One who created the earth in two days [bi-lladhī khalaqa l-'arḍa fī yawmayni], and do you set up rivals to Him? That is the Lord of the worlds. He placed on it firm mountains (towering) above it, and blessed it, and decreed for it its (various) foods in four days, equal to the ones who ask. Then, He mounted (upward) to the sky [thumma stawā 'ilā l-samā'i], while it was (still) smoke [wa-hiya dukhānun], and said to it and to the earth, 'Come, both of you, willingly or unwillingly!' They both said, 'We come willingly'." He finished them (as) seven heavens in two days [qaḍā-hunna sabʿa samāwātin fī yawmayni], and inspired each heaven (with) its affair.

This passage contains a number of peculiarities compared with the Genesis creation account, including the formation of the earth before heaven and the idea that heaven existed in a formless state of smoke before being formed by God into its current form.^[18]

References

Citations

^ Anchassi 2022, p. 855–857.
^ ^a ^b Decharneux 2019.
^ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016, p. 206–207.
^ Miller 2024, p. 178.
^ Janos 2012.
^ Decharneux 2023.
^ Decharneux 2023, p. 185–196.
^ Tesei 2015, p. 28.
^ Tesei 2015.
^ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016.
^ Cook 1983, p. 26.
^ Anchassi 2022, p. 857.
^ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016, p. 209.
^ Sinai 2023, p. 413–414.
^ Decharneux 2023, p. 128–129.
^ Decharneux 2023, p. 172–174.
^ Decharneux 2023, p. 174.
^ Decharneux 2023, p. 174–180.

Sources

Anchassi, Omar (2022). "Against Ptolemy? Cosmography in Early Kalām". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 142 (4): 851–881.
Cook, Michael (1983). Muhammad. Oxford University Press.
Decharneux, Julien (2019). "Maintenir le ciel en l'air 'sans colonnes visibles' et quelques autres motifs de la creatio continua selon le Coran en dialogue avec les homélies de Jacques de Saroug". Oriens christianus. 102: 237–267.
Decharneux, Julien (2023). Creation and Contemplation The Cosmology of the Qur'ān and Its Late Antique Background. De Gruyter.
Janos, Damien (2012). "Qur'ānic cosmography in its historical perspective: some notes on the formation of a religious worldview". Religion. 42 (2): 215–231.
Miller, Nathaniel (2024). The Emergence of Arabic Poetry: From Regional Identities to Islamic Canonization. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Sinai, Nicolai (2023). Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary. Princeton University Press.
Tabataba'i, Mohammad Ali; Mirsadri, Saida (2016). "The Qurʾānic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself". Arabica. 63: 201–234.
Tesei, Tommaso (2015). "Some Cosmological Notions from Late Antiquity in Q 18:60–65: The Quran in Light of Its Cultural Context". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 135 (1): 19–32.