The claim that the earth rotates and the refutation thereof
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: Your Eminence the Shaykh, may Allah forgive you, I am a geography teacher, and the school curricula include the rotation of the earth. We have heard that you have a refutation of those who claim the earth rotates. There are also books written in refutation of those who claim the earth rotates, such as *Hamulat Tawighi al-Sawa'i' al-Shadidah: The Refutation of the Followers of the New Astronomy*, and also the book *Al-Qawl fi al-Radd 'ala Man Qala anna al-Shams Thabitah wa al-Ardh Sadur li-l-Rahmah Yahya*. So what does the Honorable Shaykh advise in this matter?
Answer:
This is a matter of scholarly disagreement among the scholars of observation, the astronomers, and the geographers. What we believe and profess to Allah is that the earth is fixed and stable; it does not rotate or waver. We have written many refutations on this topic, which have been collected, printed, and distributed, and other brothers have written as well. This is what we believe. Others have come forward claiming that it rotates, asserting that they have learned this through airplanes and such. All of these are baseless claims, and it is an illusion presented to them; we believe it is an illusion, but there is no reality to it. The earth is fixed and stable, while the sun, the moon, and the stars are what revolve around it. As for the earth, it is firmly established. Allah the Exalted said: "Allah, who knows the earth as a stable base," and He said: "So do not be arrogant against Me." In al-Anfal, Allah states that He has secured it with mountains so that it would not shake. Now, if we were to say that it rotates, what would be the case? The sun is moving and rotating, and the moon is the same. But some of them use the rotation of the earth as an argument for the stability of the sun, contradicting Allah in His statement that the sun has a fixed place. This would be disbelief, may Allah protect us from it. Whoever claims that the sun and its companion, the earth, are moving, becomes a disbeliever, because he is denying Allah and the Noble Qur'an. However, if he says it rotates in a specific, particular way, but the sun continues to move as Allah informed us, and the moon moves as Allah informed us, then the matter is easier. But the common practice of those who claim the earth rotates is to use it to support their claim that the sun and the moon stand still, and this is disbelief and misguidance. We ask Allah for safety.
The questioner says: Your Eminence the Shaykh, may Allah forgive you, I am a geography teacher, and the school curricula include the rotation of the earth. We have heard that you have a refutation of those who claim the earth rotates. There are also books written in refutation of those who claim the earth rotates, such as *Hamulat Tawighi al-Sawa'i' al-Shadidah: The Refutation of the Followers of the New Astronomy*, and also the book *Al-Qawl fi al-Radd 'ala Man Qala anna al-Shams Thabitah wa al-Ardh Sadur li-l-Rahmah Yahya*. So what does the Honorable Shaykh advise in this matter?
Answer:
This is a matter of scholarly disagreement among the scholars of observation, the astronomers, and the geographers. What we believe and profess to Allah is that the earth is fixed and stable; it does not rotate or waver. We have written many refutations on this topic, which have been collected, printed, and distributed, and other brothers have written as well. This is what we believe. Others have come forward claiming that it rotates, asserting that they have learned this through airplanes and such. All of these are baseless claims, and it is an illusion presented to them; we believe it is an illusion, but there is no reality to it. The earth is fixed and stable, while the sun, the moon, and the stars are what revolve around it. As for the earth, it is firmly established. Allah the Exalted said: "Allah, who knows the earth as a stable base," and He said: "So do not be arrogant against Me." In al-Anfal, Allah states that He has secured it with mountains so that it would not shake. Now, if we were to say that it rotates, what would be the case? The sun is moving and rotating, and the moon is the same. But some of them use the rotation of the earth as an argument for the stability of the sun, contradicting Allah in His statement that the sun has a fixed place. This would be disbelief, may Allah protect us from it. Whoever claims that the sun and its companion, the earth, are moving, becomes a disbeliever, because he is denying Allah and the Noble Qur'an. However, if he says it rotates in a specific, particular way, but the sun continues to move as Allah informed us, and the moon moves as Allah informed us, then the matter is easier. But the common practice of those who claim the earth rotates is to use it to support their claim that the sun and the moon stand still, and this is disbelief and misguidance. We ask Allah for safety.
Source
فتاوى الحج 1410 هـ - 3 (2) — archive.org (8:28)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.