Boreal

Getting to Know Allah

Allah and the Ptolemaic Universe

35:41 Allah holds the heavens and the earth firmly lest they become displaced; were they displaced, none will hold them together after Him. He is indeed Clement, All-Forgiving.

The Dark Ages is generally accepted to be the period in our history between 400 and 1000 A.D. Islam is a product of that period when more than 500 years of Greek astronomical observations were temporally lost to be replaced by irrational beliefs such as those found in the Koran and that endure to this day.

The Greeks had identified five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Their path across the sky recorded in the Almagest by Ptolemy of Alexandria [90-169 A.D.). In the Koran, the planets are ornaments and obstacles to guard against the jinn (see Chapter "Allah and the Jinn"). If the “d” in devil is lowercase, as it is in Revelation 37:7, it usually means the jinn.

37:6 We have adorned the lower sky with the ornament of the planets,

37:7 To guard against every rebellious devil.

The stars are lamps illuminating this Maginot Line that is the bottom layer of Paradise and are thrown at the jinn when they get too close to heaven and become the shooting stars in Revelation 37:10.

37:8 They do not listen to the Higher Assembly (the High Council of Paradise, Moududi) and are pelted from every side;

37:9 Expelled; and theirs is a lasting punishment.

37:10 Except for him (the jinn) who eavesdropped once; and so a shooting star followed him.

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67:5 We have adorned the lower heaven with lamps, and We turned them into missiles launched against the devils; and We have prepared for them the punishment of the Fire.

Then there is that pesky Revelation 36:40, among others, about the sun never overtaking the moon.

36:37 And a sign unto them is the night, from which We strip off the day; and lo, they are in darkness.

36:38 And the sun runs into its fixed station. That is the decree of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing.

36:39 And the moon, We have determined its phases, until it became like an old twig.

36:40 The sun ought not to overtake the moon, nor the night outstrip the day; and each in its orbit is floating.

The sun doesn’t overtake the moon because the moon circles the Earth and the Earth circles the sun, although an eclipse might have given that impression to the people in Muhammad’s time. As to the night never being longer than or outshining the day, tell that to an Inuit living above the Arctic Circle on December 21 when the Arctic day is one long night, and be laughed out of his igloo into the cold dark day.

The Near-Earth Constellations

15:16 We have indeed set up constellations in the heavens and made them attractive to the beholders;^[6]

15:17 And guarded them against every accursed devil;

15:18 Except for him (the jinn again) who eavesdrops stealthily and was pursued by a visible flame.

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25:61 Blessed is He Who placed in the heaven constellations and placed in it a lamp and an illuminating moon.

25:62 And it is He who made the night and the day to succeed each other, for him who wants to remember or wants to give thanks.

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[6] In Habib Shakir’s translation, constellations are strongholds:

15:16 And certainly We have made strongholds in the heaven and We have made it fair seeming to the beholders.

This makes sense as stars in the Koran are both lamps and weapons to keep away the jinn.