“The Qur’an teaches that the Earth is flat” -Sam Gerrans (Qur’an Only Advocate)

“Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding.” (Qur’an 3:190)

﷽ 

The above image is an ‘Islamic’ Globe dated from the early 1800s.

Source: https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/19691.html

For those who do not know, follower of the Qur’an Only Religion and translator of the Qur’an, Sam Gerrans believes that in his deep study of the Qur’an that his conclusion is the following:

The Qur’an is clear. We live on a stationary, flat earth, with a solid firmament above us.

You can see his full discussion here:

Sam Gerrans pictured above.

This is the picture that Sam uses in the thumbnail to the video above (with his own modifications).

Now it is not clear if Sam Gerrans believes that we have a universe or if that is also part of the deception. In his thumbnail he puts God “outside” of Creation, or so it seems. On his thumbnail (not included in the picture above) he has the “Heaven of Heavens” and then God is “above” it. Or so it seems. Because if it’s all flat, we don’t really know if God is “above” the Creation or below it.

Theology is not a strong point of those who follow the Qur’an Only Religion; thus, it is hard to glean whether Sam believes that Allah(swt) is outside of space/time.

This was the belief of the ancient people that the Earth that we live on is flat.

“The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, whose top reached the sky and was visible to all the earth.” (Daniel 4:20)

This is the belief of those who believe in a flat Earth. No such tree has existed or ever will exist, because in a spherical world it is impossible to see such an object. Not to mention the fact that objects appear smaller/larger via distance to that object.

“When he had reached the departure of the sun and found it departing in a murky spring, he found people nearby. We said: O Dhu’l-Qarnayn: thou shalt either punish or take concerning them good.” (Qur’an 18:86)

Why Sam feels the need to translate into English “thou shalt” in the 21st century is beyond us.

Now we would personally offer to do this for Sam Gerrans, and we hope others will join in on this fun little project. That we get different people who live in different time zones (unless that too is part of the conspiracy) and as the sun “sets” in our area someone else who is experiencing 1:00pm can tell us if the sun has “departed” or not.

Now, the only place on Earth (with our limited knowledge of topography and geography) that might fit this description would be Iceland, where they experience the “midnight” sun with 6 months of darkness. Yet, we are really hoping that Sam does not believe that, during those 6 months of darkness, that the rest of us who do experience sunlight are under some mass hallucination.

This is how many of the translations of the Qur’an look like when dealing with the verse of the sun “setting in a murky spring.”

“When he had reached the departure of the sun and found it departing in a murky spring, he found people nearby. Allah said, “O Dhul-Qarnayn, either you punish or else adopt among them goodness.” (Qur’an 18:86)

This is side by side with Gerrans translation:

“When he had reached the departure of the sun and found it departing in a murky spring and found people nearby

We said: O Dhu’l-Qarnayn: thou shalt either punish or take concerning them good.” (Qur’an 18:86)

Now either the Qur’an is using language that describes how some human beings perceive their reality (which is very damaging to the claims of Sam Gerrans), or we are confronted with the reality that the Qur’an contradicts observable phenomena. Observable phenomena which is tawatur — continuous mass testimony.

The sun neither sets nor departs. It is part of the language that is used even in the 21st century, unlike “thou shalt”. For example:

For example, it was part of the language of the people when welcoming the Blessed Prophet (saw).

ṭala‘a ‘l-badru ‘alaynā -The full moon rose over us

min thaniyyāti ‘l-wadā‘ -From the valley of Wada‘

The people of Mecca did not believe that the moon rose from the valley of Wada. This was with in the poetic expression of the people. However, from their observable perspective, they likely did believe that the moon literally rose (though not necessarily from the valley of Wada).

Now if we had to choose between the following:

1) 1) There is a massive conspiracy out there to deny the truth about a flat Earth, where the water somehow doesn’t fall off the edge, and there is some ice wall /or barrier we cannot penetrate.

OR

2) Sam Gerrans is part of some psy-op that is out to make the Qur’an look absurd.

If we had to choose between the two, we would say that 2 is more likely. The problem is that science itself is often not very bright, not very intelligent at all when interacting with people who believe the Earth is hallow, or the flat-Earth people like Sam Gerrans.

Take, for example, this video by Neil Tyson whose first point is very dumb. So Neil’s first point is that Flat Earthers believe that other planetary bodies are spherical/round. Actually, we know some that don’t believe that at all. They don’t believe in other planets or that we even have a universe! (Not sure Sam Gerrans stance on this.) However, look at this image and study it for a moment. Why do you think it is not very bright to use 2D images of 9 discs pointed one way and one 2D image of a disc pointed another way to prove that all 10 of the discs are spherical?

Whereas the next point is more cogent and people like Sam Gerrans really struggle to explain this.

So, yes, we are more likely to believe that Sam Gerrans is a part of a psy-op that wants to make the Qur’an look bad than we are willing to believe there is a massive conspiracy to deny that our Earth is flat. However, one’s beliefs need to stand on the merit of their own claims.

It’s fascinating that the people who claim that the Qur’an alone is sufficient for complete guidance are at the same time making videos for their followers offering ‘guidance’, commentary and responding to doubts or questions about what the Qur’an is saying or teaching, like the Qur’an on its own is actually not sufficient for complete guidance. Or how about the fact that these same individuals then start disagreeing or refuting other ‘Qur’an alone’ teachers due to not considering one another’s understanding and interpretation of certain verses to be correct, despite both sides claiming the Qur’an alone is sufficient.

You may also be interested in reading the following:

https://primaquran.com/2023/07/16/is-dr-ali-ataie-of-zaytuna-a-flat-earther/

The Qur’an and the Setting of the Sun in a Murky Spring

May Allah Guide the Ummah.

May Allah Forgive the Ummah.