QURAN ON CELESTIAL ORBITS

Quran Says Everything In The Universe Is In Motion & Has Orbits

Everything is in Motion

In past scientists believed that the Earth stood still in the center of the universe and Sun, stars and everything else revolved around it. Then Copernicus told the Heliocentric Theory which says that the Sun is motionless at the center of the solar system with the planets revolving around it. Then we came to know that planets not only revolve around the Sun but also rotate around their own axis. Now we know that our Earth rotates around its axis at 1600km/hr, which causes day and night on Earth. Then it revolves around the Sun at 107,000km/hr which is responsible for our 12 months year and different seasons on Earth. The Sun is also not stationary but is in motion with a speed of 800,000 km/hr in the direction of the bright star Vega in the constellation of Lyra along with all the solar system including planet earth and our moon. It takes our Sun approximately 225 million years to make the trip around our Galaxy. This is sometimes called the galactic year. Since the Sun formed, about 20 Galactic years have passed; we have been around the Galaxy 20 times. The Sun also rotates around its own axis with a speed of 7000 km/hr and takes 24 days to complete this rotation. This knowledge is very recent, and only 100 years back scientists believed that the Earth revolved around a stationary sun.

Quran Miracle As It Mentioned The Orbital Movement

But Quran almost around 1400 years ago told us that the Sun is also not stationary and also tells about the movement of planets, Earth and all celestial bodies in space and also around their own axis.

وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ ۖ كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ

And it is He who created the night and the day and the Sun and the moon; all in an orbit are swimming. Surah Anbiya 21:33

 لَا الشَّمْسُ يَنْبَغِي لَهَا أَنْ تُدْرِكَ الْقَمَرَ وَلَا اللَّيْلُ سَابِقُ النَّهَارِ ۚ وَكُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ

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. Surah Yaseen 36:40

 خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِالْحَقِّ ۖ يُكَوِّرُ اللَّيْلَ عَلَى النَّهَارِ وَيُكَوِّرُ النَّهَارَ عَلَى اللَّيْلِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ ۖ كُلٌّ يَجْرِي لِأَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى ۗ أَلَا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفَّارُ

He hath created the heavens and the Earth with truth. He maketh night to succeed day, and He maketh day to succeed night, and He constraineth the Sun and the moon to give service, each running on for an appointed term. Is not He the Mighty, the Forgiver? Surah Zumar 39:5

The Arabic words used in these verses are فَلَكٍ and يَسْبَحُونَ which means the “Sky / Orbits” and “Swim without sinking” respectively. The Arabic word يَسْبَحُونَ derived from the root word س ب ح and its detailed meaning is given below. It has in it the meaning of motion not only related to swimming in orbits but also contains the meanings of motion within itself i.e rotation around the axis.

Another Miracle

There is also a miracle of using the word “كُلٌّ / kulun” in all the three above mentioned verses as Tanween (The tanween is an “n” sound added to the end of the word in certain circumstances) showing the absence of pronoun. Usually in Arabic after “كُلٌّ / kulun” comes some noun or a pronoun like “Every/All Students” etc but here it is absent. Also in Arabic other than singular and plural, there is also a binary two /dual form for pronouns. Arabic has singular, dual, and plural forms of pronouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives. The singular form is used when referring to one person or thing, the dual subject pronoun to refer to two people or two things, and the plural form when referring to more than two people or things. Here (specifically see Surah Anbiya 21:33) Quran used كُلٌّ  and not كلاهما as would have been used in case God wanted to show that only Sun and Moon are in motion as these are the only two celestial bodies mentioned in the verse, but the Quran is referring to three or more. This is also a miracle as now just recently we came to know that Night and Day (as mentioned in the verse) is nothing but because of the movement of Earth around its axis. Thus according to the Quran, all the three move sun, moon, and the Earth.