RE: [Quranic Reflection]: The universe is expanding
July 6, 2020 at 2:09 am
(This post was last modified: July 6, 2020 at 2:24 am by GrandizerII.)
(June 29, 2020 at 10:05 am)WinterHold Wrote:(June 29, 2020 at 3:54 am)Grandizer Wrote: Well, it's not obvious to me, Atlas. As a fellow Arabic speaking poster, the word "wase3" and its many derivatives is related more to "wide" or "widening" rather than "expand". Even flat-earthers would agree, I think, that the sky is wide and that the earth is "spread out".
I think I know where you're going: you mean واسع is more related to fasee7 فسيح ?
i.e the verse spoke about God making the heavens vast or spacious; not "expanded".
But my defense is the word "وانا ل"; the "ل" doesn't refer to the past, but to an action that will happen in the future.
i.e, if God said "and the sky is wide" then your point is valid. But he said that the widening is going to happen, the letter "ل" turned the meaning of the word to something "that will happen".
The expansion of the universe is happening right now, but it will also keep happening in the future.
That takes away the relationship to the word "فسيح" because the letter "ل" just turned the word into a verb that will happen in the future.
I'm not much familiar with classic Arabic, so don't know what "la" indicates grammatically. Are you sure it's referring to the future, and not the present? That said, it is important to note the good possibility that, as others have said, this resembles a few verses from the Bible itself where also a clear distinction between the heaven and the earth is made. So it seems to me the cosmology implied is that the heaven (sky) is stretched wide (by the divine) and the earth (separate from heaven) is spread out.
Rereading the verse, I'm not convinced "mousi3oun" is a verb, it sounds to me like it's a noun meaning something like the "widener(s)". "la" seems to be a qualifier of some sort, but not clear if it renders the term right after to be "future". It seems to be an article of some form.
