Quranic cosmology

Last updated November 17, 2024

Quranic cosmology is the understanding of the universe and its creation as described in the Quran. Quranic cosmology can be divided into the Quran's description of the physical landscape (cosmography) of the cosmos, including its structures and features, as well as its creation myth describing how the cosmos originated (cosmogony). The Quran's cosmology is theological, and is often related back to notions of the vastness and orderliness of the cosmos, as well as concepts of purpose, divine will, and the emphasis on the structuring of the world for the existence of human beings.

Cosmographically, the landscape of the Quranic cosmos is described as being primarily constituted into the heavens and the earth. There are seven heavens and possibly seven earths. Each heaven may be alternatively described as a firmament, or a physical edifice that separates the earth from the cosmic ocean above it. Each heaven and earth is flat, with the heavens being superimposed one upon each other, analogous to a stack of plates. Above the highest heaven is the Throne of God, a solid structure. Cosmogonically, the Quran describes God creating the heavens and the earth using a six-day creation formula, with the earth originating first.^[1]^[2]

Cosmography

Heaven and earth

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 generally and in the Quran, the merism of "the heavens and the earth" is used to refer to the totality of creation.^[4]^[5]

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.^[6]^[7]

Seven heavens

In eight different verses, the Quran exclaims that there are seven heavens (Q 2:29, 17:44, 23:86, 41:12, 65:12, 67:3, 71:15, 78:12).^[8] These heavens as arranged ṭibāqan (Q 67:3, 71:15), or "superimposed" over each other, apparently in a flat way, with one heaven layered above another.^[9] The Quran closely shares in its use of imagery, motif, and personification, in describing the heavens, as is particularly found in the Book of Psalms and the Book of Isaiah: God orders the heavens to assemble and they assent (Q 41:11/Ps 50:1–6/Is 48:13–14), the heavens are a witness to the glory of God (Q 17:44/Ps 148), and the injunction to cast one's sight upon the heavens as a testimony of God's creation (Q 67:3–4/Is 40:25–26).^[10]

Multi-layered heavens had been in vogue in Middle Eastern cosmologies since the 3rd millennium BC. Absent from the Hebrew Bible, they first enterred Jewish cosmology in the 3rd century BC and Christian cosmology in a later period. Rabbinic authors most commonly asserted the existence of seven (as opposed to a different number of) heavens, whereas East Syrian Christian authors rejected this figure.^[8]

Seven earths

One passage in the Quran has produced some controversy as to whether, mirroring the heavens, there are also seven earths: "It (is) God who created seven heavens, and of the earth a similar (number) to them" [allāhu lladhī khalaqa sabʿa samāwātin wa-mina l-’arḍi mithla-hunna] (Q 65:12). The competing interpretations are either that God created seven earths to counterbalance the number (seven) of heavens, or, that God's creation of the earth was performed to counterbalance the creation of the heavens (irrespective of their number). The expression of seven earths is much less common than that of seven heavens in the ancient world, with only seemingly implicit references to it in much earlier Sumerian texts. However, the Talmud describes a presence of seven underworlds (to mirror the seven heavens), and other texts either describe multiple names for earth (without implying multiple earths) or that Gehenna is compartmentalized into seven areas. Towards the end of late antiquity, rabbinic (but not other) texts begin to outwardly describe there being seven earths, including Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, Leviticus Rabbah 29:11, Sefer Rabbah di-Bereshit, and others.^[11]

Shape of the earth

The Quran assumes a flat earth, insofar as the Quran commonly emphasizes the extensiveness or flatness of the earth and how it has been spread out. The earth is also frequently compared, as a site for human flourishing, to comfortable pieces of flat furniture such as a carpet, bed, or couch.^[12]^[13]^[14]^[9]

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^[15]). There is some controversy over the shape of the Quranic firmament, namely, whether it is domed^[16] or flat,^[17] although most have understood the firmaments to be flat.^[18]^[14]

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:^[19]

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).

Pillars upholding the firmament

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.^[1] Another commonality between the two in their respective discussions of the firmament is in describing it as being decorated by stars.^[20] 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.^[21]

Demons and shooting stars

Several passages in the Quran describe demons or jinn as ascending to the firmament, nearing the well-protected and fortified heavens, in order to eavesdrop and listen in on heavenly secrets. Upon getting near, however, they are cast away by shooting stars launched at them as projectiles.^[22]

Indeed we have made in the heavens constellations/towers; and we adorned them for the watchers. And we protected them from every accursed demon, except those who eavesdrop after whom follows a strong fame. (Q 15:16–18, cf. Q 37:6–10; 55:33; 67:5; 72:1–9)

Patricia Crone notes that, like jinn, the demons of the Testament of Solomon ascend to the firmament and eavesdrop on heavenly secrets; as did demons of Zoroastrian cosmology, who in addition encounter a heavenly defense systems (as did Islamic jinn).^[23] Similar statements are also found in the Talmud (Berakhot 18b) and the 8th-century Scolion of Theodore bar Konai.^[24]

Cosmogony

Creation in six days

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).^[25] Quran 41:9–12 represents one of the most developed creation accounts in the Quran:^[26]

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.^[27]

Order of creation events

The sequence of creation events is laid out in Q 41:9–12. This passage allocates two days for the creation of the earth, four days for the event in which the "Lord placed the mountains above it [the earth]" and "decreed for it its foods", and then another two days for the creation of the heavens. Literally, this passage suggests an eight day creation, in tension with both biblical models of creation and the six-day formula that appears in other places in the Quran. Furthermore, the earth is created before the heavens are (unlike in the Genesis creation narrative), potentially recalling the debate within Christianity and Judaism about if earth was created first, heaven was created first, or the two were formed simultaneously. The exact Quranic sequence of creation, however, is not known to occur in another text.^[28]

Related Research Articles

Flat Earth is an archaic and scientifically disproven conception of the Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat-Earth cosmography, notably including ancient near eastern cosmology. The model has undergone a recent resurgence as a conspiracy theory.

The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God (Allāh). It is organized in 114 chapters which consist of individual verses. Besides its religious significance, it is widely regarded as the finest work in Arabic literature, and has significantly influenced the Arabic language. It is the object of a modern field of academic research known as Quranic studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Āyah</span> Verse of the Quran

An āyah is a "verse" in the Qur'an, one of the statements of varying length that make up the chapters (suwar) of the Qur'an and are marked by a number. In a purely linguistic context the word means "evidence", "sign" or "miracle", and thus may refer to things other than Qur'anic verses, such as religious obligations or cosmic phenomena. In the Qur'an it is referred to with both connotations in several verses such as:

تِلْكَ آيَاتُ ٱللَّٰهِ نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِٱلْحَقِّۖ فَبِأَيِّ حَدِيثٍۭ بَعْدَ ٱللَّٰهِ وَآيَاتِهِۦ يُؤْمِنُونَ
"These are the āyahs of Allah that We recite for you in truth. So what discourse will they believe after God and His āyahs?"

In Islam, a houri is a maiden woman with beautiful eyes who is described as a reward for the faithful Muslim men in paradise.

Biblical cosmology is the account of the universe and its laws in the Bible. The Bible was formed over many centuries, involving many authors, and reflects shifting patterns of religious belief; consequently, its cosmology is not always consistent. Nor do the biblical texts necessarily represent the beliefs of all Jews or Christians at the time they were put into writing: the majority of the texts making up the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh.

Islamic mythology is the body of myths associated with Islam and the Quran. Islam is a religion that is more concerned with social order and law than with religious ritual or myths. The primary focus of Islam is the practical and rational practice and application of the Islamic law. Despite this focus, Islamic myths do still exist. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology identifies a number of traditional narratives as "Islamic myths". These include a creation myth and a vision of afterlife, which Islam shares with the other Abrahamic religions, as well as the distinctively Islamic story of the Kaaba.

Occasions or circumstances of revelation, in Arabic( أسباب النزول -asbābal-nuzūl,) names the historical context in which Quranic verses were revealed from the perspective of traditional Islam. Though of some use in reconstructing the Qur'an's historicity, asbāb is by nature an exegetical rather than a historiographical genre, and as such usually associates the verses it explicates with general situations rather than specific events. The study of asbāb al-nuzūl is part of the study of Tafsir.

In ancient near eastern cosmology, the firmament means a celestial barrier that separated the heavenly waters above from the Earth below. In biblical cosmology, the firmament is the vast solid dome created by God during the Genesis creation narrative to separate the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear.

Esoteric interpretation of the Quran is the allegorical interpretation of the Quran or the quest for its hidden, inner meanings. The Arabic word taʾwīl was synonymous with conventional interpretation in its earliest use, but it came to mean a process of discerning its most fundamental understandings. "Esoteric" interpretations do not usually contradict the conventional interpretations; instead, they discuss the inner levels of meaning of the Quran.

Nūr is a term in Islamic context referring to the "cold light of the night" or "heatless light" i.e. the light of the moon. This light is used as a symbol for "God's guidance" and "knowledge", a symbol of mercy in contrast to Nar, which refers to the diurnal solar "hot light" i.e. fire. In the Quran, God is stated to be "the light (Nūr) of the heavens and the earth". Many classical commentators on the Quran compare this to God illuminating the world with understanding, not taken literally. The first and foremost to representatively stand to the concept of nūr muḥammadī being the quintessence of everything was Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani, who described this idea in his book Sirr ul Asrar. This concept was then preached by his disciples. One of Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani's disciples was the Andalusian scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, who categorized nūr into different levels of understanding from the most profound to the most mundane. Shias believe nūr, in the sense of inner esoteric understanding, is inherited through the Imams, who in turn communicate it to the people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam in Islam</span> First man and Prophet in Islam

Adam, in Islamic theology, is believed to have been the first human being on Earth and the first prophet of Islam. Adam's role as the father of the human race is looked upon by Muslims with reverence. Muslims also refer to his wife, Ḥawwāʾ, as the "mother of mankind". Muslims see Adam as the first Muslim, as the Quran states that all the Prophets preached the same faith of Islam.

In Islam, qirāʼa refers to the ways or fashions that the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is recited. More technically, the term designates the different linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the Quran. Differences between qiraʼat include varying rules regarding the prolongation, intonation, and pronunciation of words, but also differences in stops, vowels, consonants, entire words and even different meanings.. However, the variations don't change the overall message or doctrinal meanings of the Qur'an, as the differences are often subtle and contextually equivalent.Qiraʼat also refers to the branch of Islamic studies that deals with these modes of recitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexaemeron</span> Genre of theological writing

The term Hexaemeron, literally "six days," is used in one of two senses. In one sense, it refers to the Genesis creation narrative spanning Genesis 1:1–2:3: corresponding to the creation of the light ; the sky ; the earth, seas, and vegetation ; the sun and moon ; animals of the air and sea ; and land animals and humans. God then rests from his work on the seventh day of creation, the Sabbath.

In mythological or religious cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven levels or divisions of the Heavens. The concept, also found in the ancient Mesopotamian religions, can be found in Judaism and Islam; the Christian Bible does not mention seven levels of heaven. Some of these traditions, including Jainism, also have a concept of seven earths or seven underworlds both with the metaphysical realms of deities and with observed celestial bodies such as the classical planets and fixed stars.

Islamic cosmology is the cosmology of Islamic societies. Islamic cosmology is not a single unitary system, but is inclusive of a number of cosmological systems, including Quranic cosmology, the cosmology of the Hadith collections, as well as those of Islamic astronomy and astrology. Broadly, cosmological conceptions themselves can be divided into thought concerning the physical structure of the cosmos (cosmography) and the origins of the cosmos (cosmogony).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quranic studies</span> Academic discipline

Quranic studies is the academic application of a diverse set of disciplines to study the Quran, drawing on methods including but not limited to ancient history, philology, textual criticism, lexicography, codicology, literary criticism, comparative religion, and historical criticism.

Jewish cosmology refers to a cluster of cosmological views held in Jewish systems of thought and theology in premodern times. This includes literature from the period of Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic literature, para-rabbinic literature, and more.

The Hexaemeron of Jacob of Serugh is a 6th-century text composed in the genre of Hexaemeral literature. As such, it offers a commentary on the Genesis creation narrative, and it is the first writing of this type to appear in the Syriac language. There was some precedent in the Commentary on Genesis by Ephrem the Syrian, but this was not a Hexaemeron. Likewise, there is no evident influence of a potential Syriac translation of the Hexaemeron of Basil of Caesarea on Jacob's work. Jacob dedicated a separate homily for each day of the creation week.

Cosmology in the ancient Near East (ANE) refers to the plurality of cosmological beliefs in the Ancient Near East, covering the period from the 4th millennium BC to the formation of the Macedonian Empire by Alexander the Great in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. These beliefs include the Mesopotamian cosmologies from Babylonia, Sumer, and Akkad; the Levantine or West Semitic cosmologies from Ugarit and ancient Israel and Judah (the biblical cosmology); the Egyptian cosmology from Ancient Egypt; and the Anatolian cosmologies from the Hittites. This system of cosmology went on to have a profound influence on views in early Greek cosmology, later Jewish cosmology, patristic cosmology, and Islamic cosmology (including Quranic cosmology). Until the modern era, variations of ancient near eastern cosmology survived with Hellenistic cosmology as the main competing system.

Early Greek cosmology refers to beliefs about the structure (cosmography) and origins (cosmogony) of the cosmos primarily from the 8th to 5th centuries BC before it was superseded by ancient Greek astronomy, which was demythologized and involved the systematic study of the world. The main features of early Greek cosmography are shared with those found in ancient near eastern cosmology. The basic elements of the cosmos include earth, heaven, the sea, and the netherworld (Tartarus), the first three of which corresponded to the gods Gaia, Ouranos, and Oceanus.

References

Citations

1 2 Decharneux 2019.
↑ Anchassi 2022, p. 855–857.
↑ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016, p. 206–207.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 180.
↑ Miller 2024, p. 178.
↑ Janos 2012.
↑ Decharneux 2023.
1 2 Decharneux 2023, p. 185.
1 2 Decharneux 2023, p. 190.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 191–193.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 194–196.
↑ Janos 2012, p. 217.
↑ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016, p. 211.
1 2 Anchassi 2022, p. 857.
↑ Tesei 2015, p. 28.
↑ Tesei 2015.
↑ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016.
↑ Cook 1983, p. 26.
↑ Tabataba'i & Mirsadri 2016, p. 209.
↑ Sinai 2023, p. 413–414.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 128–129.
↑ El-Badawi 2024, p. 81–82.
↑ Crone, Patricia (2016). "QS 32 Q 37:6–11: Crone". In Azaiez, Mehdi; Reynolds, Gabriel Said; Tesei, Tommaso; Zafer, Hamza M. (eds.). The Qur'an Seminar Commentary / Le Qur'an Seminar: A Collaborative Study of 50 Qur'anic Passages / Commentaire collaboratif de 50 passages coraniques (in French and English) (bilingual ed.). De Gruyter. pp. 307–310. ISBN 9783110444797. ISBN 3110444798
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 227–228.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 172–174.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 174.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 174–180.
↑ Decharneux 2023, p. 177–180.

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