THE SPHERICAL SHAPE OF THE EARTH

THE SPHERICAL SHAPE OF THE EARTH
In early times, people believed that the earth is flat. For centuries, men
were afraid to venture out too far, lest they should fall off the edge. Sir
Francis Drake was the first person who proved that the earth is
spherical when he sailed around it in 1597. Consider the following
Qur’aanic verse regarding the alternation of day and night:
"Seest thou not that Allah merges Night into Day And He merges Day
into Night?" [Al-Qur’aan 31:29]
Merging here means that the night slowly and gradually changes to
day and vice versa. This phenomenon can only take place if the earth
is spherical. If the earth was flat, there would have been a sudden
change from night to day and from day to night.
The following verse also alludes to the spherical shape of the earth:
"He created the heavens And the earth In true (proportions): He makes
the Night Overlap the Day, and the Day Overlap the Night." [Al-Qur’aan
39:5]
The Arabic word used here is Kawwara meaning ‘to overlap’ or ‘to
coil’– the way a turban is wound around the head. The overlapping or
coiling of the day and night can only take place if the earth is
spherical.
The earth is not exactly round like a ball, but geo-spherical i.e. it is
flattened at the poles. The following verse contains a description of the
earth’s shape:
"And the earth, moreover, Hath He made egg shaped." [Al-Qur’aan
79:30]
[The Arabic word dahaha has been translated by A. Yusuf Ali as "vast
expanse", which also is correct. The word dahaha also means an
ostrich-egg.]
The Arabic word for egg here is dahaha, which means an ostrich-egg.
The shape of an ostrich-egg resembles the geo-spherical shape of the
earth. Thus the Qur’aan correctly describes the shape of the earth,
though the prevalent notion when the Qur’aan was revealed was that
the earth is flat.