Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 214
Malf uza t - English translation of Urdu Volume 8 214 Similarly, some people also object that the Holy Quran teaches that the sky rotates, as it says: 1 َو ِءٓاَمَّسلا ِتاَذ ِعْجَّرلا َو ِءٓاَمَّسلا ِتاَذ ِعْجَّرلا Whereas even today’s children know that it is the earth that rotates. In short, there are scores of such types of objections, and unless there is some proficiency and experience in these sciences, difficulties arise in rebutting them. It must, however, be remembered that the rotation of the earth or sky is a conjec- tural matter that cannot be included among certainties. For a time, they acknowledged the sky’s rotation; then, they became convinced of the earth’s rotation. Their greatest expertise is in medicine, but you can see that changes and modifications take place here regularly. For example, earlier, they used to say that a diabetes patient should not eat sweet things, but recent research indicates that there is no harm if the patient consumes tangerines or tea. In short, all these sciences are conjectural. It seems appro- priate at this point that the meaning of: 2 َو ِءٓاَمَّسلا ِتاَذ ِعْجَّرلا َو ِءٓاَمَّسلا ِتاَذ ِعْجَّرلا should be set forth because its mention has been made. So it should be remembered that ْ سَمَآء ْ سَمَآء [ sam a ’] does not only mean sky, but it also means rain. Thus, in this verse, the rain that returns to the earth has been sworn by, and then the earth from which the herbage emerges forth. The earth and sky alone can do nothing. 1. S u rah a t - Ta riq, 86:12 [Publisher] 2. S u rah a t - Ta riq, 86:12 [Publisher]