Earth like a Carpet?

[Minimalist]

Not a lot of grass in the desert, though.

Point.

So I am right thinking that you all find this ridiculous as a "miracle" of foreseeing science?

Quite.

But then again I find the loaves and fishes, water into wine, and a dead jew coming back to life to be equally ridiculous.

Although.... I can turn beer or wine into piss fairly readily.

[Mister Agenda]

Funny how recent translations make that verse sound like it's more about 'spreading out the universe'...but only since it was discovered that the universe is expanding.

[Something completely different]

It isn`t the worst failure in it.

Pedophelia, mysogeny, warmongering and faith based discrimination of other faiths and non faiths is the worst parts in that book.

[Cato]

I also think that the part with "You can spread out a carpet on a spherical object as well" is total rubbish.

I've been a participant in having carpet spread over a hemispherical object. Is that close enough?

[Rayaan]

Welcome to the forum, katieMatt.

My understanding of that verse (Surah 71:19) is that it basically says that the earth has been spread out like a carpet. And it is using a figurative language. That doesn't mean that the earth itself is like a carpet. The verse simply says that the earth has been spread out or made into a "wide expanse" so that "you may go about therein, in spacious roads" (Surah 71:20), which is the next verse. This implies that you can travel across the surface of the earth forever in any direction you want, but you will never hit an edge or a wall to stop you from going further.

Secondly, based on what I just said above, the point of these verses is not exactly to indicate anything about the shape of the earth, as some Muslims argue, but merely to highlight the wisdom behind Allah's creations and His graciousness towards man. He laid out the earth in such a manner so that we can travel on it without falling off. It's kind of like saying, "Look! I made the earth for you, and I spread out it into spacious roads and paths for you so that it would be easy for you to walk and travel therein." That doesn't mean that the earth is a "carpet."

Thirdly, in the original Arabic, there is actually no use of the word "carpet" in that verse. It only happens to be the case that some of the English translations of it have the word "carpet" inserted into that verse, but it's not there in the Arabic, as you can see in the word-for-word translation at the link below:

http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?c...71:19:1%29

[Confused Ape]

Thirdly, in the original Arabic, there is actually no use of the word "carpet" in that verse. It only happens to be the case that some of the English translations of it have the word "carpet" inserted into that verse, but it's not there in the Arabic, as you can see in the word-for-word translation at the link below:

http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?c...71:19:1%29

Thanks for the clarification. I just checked the word for word translation and it really means an expanse.

[Nine]

Thirdly, in the original Arabic, there is actually no use of the word "carpet" in that verse. It only happens to be the case that some of the English translations of it have the word "carpet" inserted into that verse, but it's not there in the Arabic, as you can see in the word-for-word translation at the link below:

Makes me wonder how they managed to change it to carpet in some of the translations.

[katieMatt]

Thanks for your help!
Cato123, could you please go a bit more into detail? Sorry, but I can't imagine a carpet in the shape of a ball.

Sorry for my bad English, guys, but it's not my mother tongue!

@ Insanity: I sooooo love Matt Smith!!

[Minimalist]

I suppose we should be happy they didn't claim the koran predicted "astroturf," too.

[Rayaan]

Thanks for the clarification. I just checked the word for word translation and it really means an expanse.

You're welcome.

So unfortunately - as demonstrated in my previous post - the greatest problem with a translation of the Quran is that sometimes the real meanings become lost and/or distorted. Sometimes people do this intentionally, and sometimes unintentionally.

In addition to that, almost all the linguistic beauty of the Quran is lost in the process of translation as well. The unique choice of wordings, the syntax of the verse, the powerful rhythm of the passages, the complex metaphors and the layers of meanings that go well beyond the surface, and the manners of eloquence displayed by the Arabic, are virtually all destroyed. The Arabic language is an extremely rich and powerful language and it is simply not possible to convey in another language all the meanings that are conveyed in Arabic.

Even the famous Orientalist, Professor H.R. Gibb, said,

"An English translation of the Quran must employ precise and often arbitrary terms for the many-faceted and jewel-like phrases of the Arabic, and the more literal it is, the greyer and more colorless it must be."

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But wait ... Muhammad was just an illiterate person, so who wrote the Quran, then?

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