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Until the 16th century it was thought that the earth was the center of the universe. This view is known as the “geo-centric model,” from the Greek words geo (earth) and centron (center). This belief was questioned by the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543 in his book (Of the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres), in which he suggested that the earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun. As a result of observations using a telescope performed by Galileo in 1610, it was scientifically established that the earth revolves around the sun.
Since it had hitherto been thought that the sun revolved around the earth, most scholars of the time rejected Copernicus’ theory. The famous astronomer Johannes Kepler's views setting out the movements of the planets confirmed the helio-centric model in the 16th and 17th centuries. In this model, whose name comes from the words Helios (Sun) and centron (center), the sun is the center of the universe, rather than the earth.
The fact that Galileo was put on trial and under house arrest, till his death for expressing this counter intuitive truth, is well known. Had the idea of earth moving along an orbit, as other heavenly bodies seemed to do to the people who lived during Prophet Muhammad time, been expressly indicated in the Quran, this might have diminished all believers’ faith―of the pre modern time―in the Quran as a divinely inspired scripture. For this reason I think this fact was implicitly referred to in the Quran. Thus the “night & day” plays the role of the secret reference to earth.
“Night & day” in Quran is always related to the earth’s night & day or symbolically related to earth per following arguments:
Per 39:5, “He created the heavens and the earth truthfully. He rolls the night over the day, and rolls the day over the night.
He committed the sun and the moon, each running for a finite period. Absolutely, He is the Almighty, the Forgiving .” The expression of rolling of the night over the day and night over the day infers a round earth. 79:30 is explicit about this.
Per 36:40, “The sun is never to catch up with the moon―the night and the day never deviate―each of them is floating in its own orbit.” The expression of the “night & the day” refers to earth. The verb tense “yasbahoon” is in plural tense referring to object count of more than two. As a result Sun, Moon (count of two) and one more heavenly object, the earth (cloaked inside the wrapping of night & day), should be floating in their own orbits. Movement of Sun around Earth was the perceived phenomenon and the perceived fact till 16th century. From our modern understanding of our universe, the sun moves around a Black Hole located at the center of Milky Way Galaxy once every 225 million years. Since the inception of Solar system 4.5 billion years ago, the sun has completed twenty circles around the center of Milky Way Galaxy. This proves that the sun also has an orbit of movement as 36:40 so indicates.
It is noteworthy that every year for a given location on earth on a given day, sun rise and sun set times are fixed. This matches the expression, “The night and the day never deviate” in this verse. This also suggests that earth’s orbit should be around the sun in order to have this phenomenon. If the sun and the earth’s orbits were totally independent, length of day & night on earth would never repeat themselves for a given location on earth every year.
“Night & day” also appears with the “the sun and moon” in 21:33, “And He is the One who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each floating in its own orbit.” Again the verb ‘Yasbahoon” is plural referring to sun, moon & earth all three moving in their own orbit.
This verse shows up as the fourth verse along the four verses starting from 21:30 through which great scientific information of our era is being divulged one after another, humbling the reader.
The same phenomenon also appears in 31:29-30, “Do you not realize that GOD merges the night into the day and merges the day into the night, and that He has committed the sun and the moon in your service, each running in its orbit for a specific life span, and that GOD is fully Cognizant of everything you do?” “This proves that GOD is the truth, while any idol they set up beside Him is falsehood, and that GOD“ is the Most High, Most Great.”
It is noteworthy that 31:30 refers to a “proof” in the information that the previous verse contains. Sun’s commitment to serving life on earth involves a predictable pattern of day & night, which per 36:40 must remain repeatable, “the night and the day never deviate.” This must be referring to the modern understanding that earth moves along an orbit around the sun, in addition to its movement around its axis inferred by 27:88.
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