Response to the Claim That the Sun Sinks into Water in the Quran: Is the Earth Flat According to the Quran?

Starting from the expression “he found it sinking (Mağrib) (مغرب) in a spring of black mud,” in verse 86 of Surah Al-Kahf, it is claimed that the Quran says the sun sinks into water. Again from the expression in these verses they draw the conclusion that the earth is flat. Yet like the others these too are untrue claims. The biggest error in these criticisms is the failure to grasp the meanings of words and a lack of understanding. There are two words occurring in verse 86 of Surah Al-Kahf that have been translated into Turkish as “batmak”. When we examine these, the situation will be understood more easily:

Although it is claimed that in the verse above there is an expression as if the sun sinks into water, the situation is not so. “The sinking of the sun” and “a thing sinking in water” may be the same word in Turkish, but these words are separate words in Arabic.

Not knowing this difference, or wanting to take advantage of the confusion, has caused this extremely wrong claim to be made.

The sinking of the sun is expressed with the verb “Garebe”. In fact, words derived from this root have also passed into Turkish. For example, “garb” (غرب)or “mağrib” (مغرب) are words derived from the same root; they mean “west” (direction).

An object sinking in water, on the other hand, is the verb “gareke” (غرق) and it is a different verb from “garabe” (غرب). This word too has in fact passed into Turkish. We use this verb when we say “suya gark oldu”. In the Quran, too, this word is used in the meaning of a thing sinking into water, for example in Surah Al-Kahf:

…. “Did you pierce it to sink (garake) (غرق) those in it?…..” (18 Surah Al-Kahf – 71) it is said

Now it is clear that the sinking of the sun and a thing sinking in water are expressed with the same word in Turkish, while in Arabic they are different words. Consequently, in the verse above too there is no question of speaking of the sun sinking like an object in water. What is told here is the sinking of the sun.

In fact, even if the Arabic equivalents of the verb to sink are not known, understanding it the way the people making the criticisms above understood it is the result of bad intent. If someone said “I went to the seashore yesterday and watched the sun sinking in the sea.”, would it be understood from this that the sun sinks into water? Or when saying “the sun is born every morning”, would one conclude that the sun has a mother, and that every morning this mother gives birth and delivers the sun? In any case, when the Arabic equivalents of the words are looked at, it will be understood that the subject is very clear.

The original of the word occurring in the verse as the place where the sun sinks is the word “mağrib” (مغرب). This word means a place in the west. This expression expresses the farthest place to go in the west. For example, the Arabs call the North African country Morocco “Mağrip”. They named it so because it is a place to which they went in the western direction. From this too the meaning that the earth is flat definitely does not follow. For example, today too similar expressions are used in Turkish or in other languages.

Japan is a far eastern country. (In English too there is the word “Far East”, which has the same meaning as in Turkish). The farthest country that can be reached in the east is Japan. Saying that Japan is the easternmost country in the world does not show that the earth is flat.

Moreover, in this verse the one who performs the verb is Dhul-Qarnayn. The verse, contrary to what those trying to criticise the verse want to think, depicts these events as the situation Dhul-Qarnayn saw and perceived; it is not, God forbid, by Allah’s narration.

In this verse the verb vajada is used. The meaning of this verb in Classical Arabic dictionaries is;

“to find/discover (something), to be found, to give an impression, to meet/encounter, to witness, to perceive, to live (as experience)”[1]

For this reason this verse speaks only of what Dhul-Qarnayn saw and perceived. That is, when God says “Dhul-Qarnayn found the sun in the state of sinking into mud” He is saying Dhul-Qarnayn’s impression, what he perceived.

And if the verse told of “The sun sinking (physically) into mud”, the word taghrubu would not be used. Because this word is not a verb expressing physical sinking.[2]

As a result, this verse, there is no expression concerning ”the flatness of the earth”. It is nothing other than a distortion by Atheists. In this verse only what Dhul-Qarnayn saw/perceived/lived is spoken of. Not what God saw!!

Footnotes:

[1]= See. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, edited by: J. M. Cowan, 4. edition, 1976, page 1231.

[2]= See. Edward William, Arabic-English Lexicon, Volume 1, London, 1863, page 2241.