Question:
Eamonn Gearon Professorial Lecturer in African Studies at Johns Hopkins University in The History and Achievements of the Islamic Golden Age teaches that the Quran advocates the geocentric theory and also quotes Al-Biruni promoting a geocentric view too.
Answer:
It is correct in the sense that the Qur’an constantly refers to the observational knowledge of the time of day and night and the calculation of months and years, all of which is geocentric by definition. It would be wrong, however, to say that the Qur’an subscribes to a geocentric theory of the nature of the world since that is precluded by its very first words mentioning “the worlds” which comprises the sense of other worlds and systems besides what is observable from the earth.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
