The Quran and Cosmic Motion: Earth's Rotation, the Barycenter, and the Sun's Orbit
Before examining the Quranic verses that pertain to cosmic motion, several foundational principles of modern physics must be established — because without them, the verses cannot be correctly evaluated, and the apparent conflicts dissolve entirely once the physics is understood.
Part One: The Relativity of Motion
There Is No Absolute Rest or Absolute Motion
In light of modern physics, we cannot say that a body is moving or that a body is stationary in any absolute sense — because motion is relative. When we say a body is moving, we must ask: moving relative to what? When we say a body is stationary, we must specify: stationary relative to what? There is no absolute motion and no absolute stillness in the universe. There is only relative motion and relative stillness.
A simple example: Person (A) rides a train. Person (B) sits next to him. Person (C) stands on the ground outside. Is (A) stationary or moving?
Both answers are correct simultaneously: (A) is stationary relative to (B), because both move at the same speed. (A) is moving relative to (C), who stands on the ground.
The following diagrams illustrate the principle:
“If we talk about the movement or stillness of a body, we cannot do so except by comparing it to another body. There is no such thing as absolute rest — all motion or rest is only in relation to other observed objects.”
Source: http://aether.lbl.gov/www/classes/p139/exp/introduction.html
When a car passes at 50 km/hour next to a road: relative to the road, the car moves at 50 km/hour. Relative to the car, it is the road that moves at 50 km/hour. From a physical perspective, both descriptions are 100% correct. Before describing the movement of any body, the reference point must first be specified — because changing the reference point changes the description entirely.
A bus standing on the ground is stationary relative to the earth’s surface — and simultaneously moves with the earth’s rotation around its axis. Both statements are true from their respective reference frames. See also: Einstein and Relativity.
Part Two: The Earth, Sun, Moon, and the Barycenter
The Barycenter — The True Center of Orbital Motion
“The Earth revolves around the Sun” is a simplification — the precise statement is that the Earth and Sun revolve around their common center of mass, called the !!barycenter!!. This is true for all orbital pairs.
The barycenter is located inside the Sun — but not at the Sun’s center — because the Sun is much more massive than the planets. However, it remains distinct from the Sun’s center, meaning the Sun does orbit this point, albeit with a small wobble compared to the planets’ wider orbits.
In the case of the Sun and Jupiter specifically: the center of mass between them is located outside the Sun entirely — because Jupiter is very large compared to the Earth. This confirms that the barycenter shifts depending on the masses of the bodies involved.
Which Revolves Around Which?
The answer depends entirely on the reference frame chosen. If the Sun or a star outside the solar system is taken as the reference, the Earth revolves around the Sun — which is why this is the standard description. If the Earth is taken as the reference, the Sun revolves around the Earth.
Both references are correct from a physical standpoint. The Sun-centered description is preferred because it makes calculations far simpler — not because it is more “true” than the Earth-centered description.
The Sun’s Own Movements
The Sun is not stationary. It has four distinct movements:
First — rotation around its own axis.
Second — revolution around the solar system’s barycenter (as established above).
Third — revolution around the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Fourth — movement toward the star Vega (the solar apex).
Part Three: The Framework for Evaluating Quranic Verses on Motion
What Would Constitute a Challenge vs. a Miracle?
Before examining specific verses, the criteria must be established:
Regarding Earth’s axis rotation:
- A challenge to the Quran would require: a text proving the Earth’s absolute stillness or explicitly denying its rotation around its axis.
- A miracle would be: a text proving Earth’s rotation around its axis.
Regarding the Earth-Sun relationship:
- A challenge would require: a text proving the Sun’s rotation around the Earth relative to the Sun as reference, or proving Earth’s rotation around the Sun relative to Earth as reference, or denying that Earth and Sun orbit their common center of mass.
- A miracle would be: a text proving Earth’s rotation around the Sun relative to the Sun or any non-Earth reference, or a text stating that Earth and Sun rotate around their center of mass.
Regarding the Sun:
- A challenge would require: a text denying the Sun’s rotation around its axis, denying its revolution around the barycenter, denying the solar system’s revolution around the galactic center, or denying the Sun’s movement toward Vega.
- A miracle would be: a text proving its rotation around its axis, its revolution around the barycenter, the solar system’s revolution around the galactic center, or its directed movement.
Part Four: The Quranic Verses on Earth’s Stability — Properly Understood
The “Stability” Verses Are Human-Centric, Not Cosmic Claims
The Quran contains numerous verses describing the Earth as a resting place, a carpet, spread out, and stabilised by mountains:
“Allah is He who made for you the earth a resting place and the sky a canopy.”
“And We placed within the earth firm mountains, lest it should shift with them, and We placed within it paths as roads that they might be guided.”
“Or is it He who made the earth a stable place and placed within it rivers and placed for it firm mountains and placed between the two seas a barrier?”
“Do they not look at the camels, how they are created? And at the sky, how it is raised? And at the mountains, how they are erected? And at the earth, how it was spread out?”
All of these verses are 100% correct from a physical perspective — because the Earth is fixed for man, since he moves with it at the same speed. The context of these verses is God’s reminder of His blessings upon humanity — not a cosmological treatise about the Earth’s absolute position in space.
The evidence for this is in the verses themselves: they speak of camels, sky, mountains, earth — in the context of signs for human observation, not cosmic mechanics. Just as when Allah says “a firm lodging place” for the sperm in the womb — the womb moves with the entire body, yet it is a firm lodging place for the sperm within it. This does not negate the movement of the womb with the body.
The Mountains Do Not Prove the Earth Is Stationary
The mountains analogy in the Quran — anchors preventing the earth from shaking — has been misread. Anchors do not prevent a ship from moving; they prevent chaotic, unstabilised movement.
“The mountains verse proves not the negation of the Earth’s movement, but proves a scientific movement known today to be an organised and very precise movement throughout the year that does not differ for a second. Our Lord organised the rotation of the earth like the rotation of a horse around a peg — He made the mountains pegs. The anchors do not prevent the ship from moving. If the ship is light, the waves play with it and it sways right and left. If you place something heavy in it, it refrains from tilting and turmoil and remains stable even though it is moving.”
The Islamweb fatwa confirms:
Source: http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/Fatwa — Fatwa ID 12870
Part Five: The Sphericity of the Earth
The Scholars Agreed — The Earth Is Spherical
The Quran and the classical Islamic scholarly tradition affirm the sphericity of the Earth.
[!scholar] Ibn Taymiyyah — Risalah fi al-Hilal (Epistle on the Crescent)
“It has been proven by the Book, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the scholars of the Ummah that the spheres are round. Allah said: {Each in an orbit floats} [21:37]. Allah said: {It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. Each in an orbit floats} [36:40]. Ibn Abbas said: ‘In an orbit like the orbit of a spindle.’ And in Lisan al-Arab: the orbit is the round thing. Allah said: {He wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night} [39:5]. Wrapping is turning — and from this was said: ‘He wrapped the turban and rolled it.’ This is why the spheres are called spherical, because the root of sphere (kura) implies roundness. Allah said: {The sun and the moon are calculated} [55:5] — like the calculation of the millstone. This only occurs in rounded bodies, not in polygons such as triangles or squares, because their angles are different from their right angles. The round body has similar sides and aspects, none differing from the other.”
“There is no disagreement among scholars that the sky is like a sphere, and that it revolves with all the planets in it like a sphere’s rotation on two fixed, unmoving poles — one in the north and one in the south. All the planets revolve from the east, falling in one order in their movement until they reach the middle of the sky, then they descend in that order, as if fixed in a sphere that all revolve in one rotation. They also agreed that the earth, with all its land and sea, is like a sphere.”
“None of the imams of the Muslims who deserve the name of imam through knowledge denied the sphericity of the Earth. No word has been preserved for any of them to refute it. Rather, the evidence from the Quran and Sunnah has come affirming its sphericity.”
“Daha” — Spreading the Earth Does Not Mean Flat
“And the earth, after that, He spread it out.”
The word daha (spread out) was interpreted by Ibn Kathir, on the authority of Sa’id ibn Jubayr:
[!scholar] Ibn Kathir — Tafsir al-Quran al-Azeem, on the authority of Sa’id ibn Jubayr
“‘He spread it out’ means that He brought forth from it water and pasture, and split rivers in it, and made mountains, sand, paths, and hills in it. This is what His words mean: ‘And the earth, after that, He spread it out.’ The earth was created before the creation of the heaven, but it was spread out after the creation of the heaven — meaning He brought forth what was in it potentially into action.”
Lights of Explanation notes: if the Earth were flat like a piece of paper, a walker would eventually reach its end and fall. Considering it a sphere, he would complete his circle and repeat it — his path would have no end, because he would circle its surface from all sides. And knowledge is with Allah. Source: http://islamqa.info/ar/ref/70217
Part Six: The Sun’s Movement in the Quran
”Each in an Orbit Swims” — A Confirmed Scientific Miracle
“And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; each in an orbit is swimming.”
“And the sun runs to its resting place. That is the determination of the Almighty, the Knowing. And the moon — We have determined for it phases… each in an orbit floats.”
[!scholar] Ibn Kathir — Tafsir al-Quran al-Azeem (5/341)
“(Each one, in an orbit, is swimming) — meaning: they revolve. Ibn Abbas said: They revolve as the spindle revolves in the orbit. Mujahid said the same: The spindle does not revolve except with the orbit, and the orbit does not revolve except with the spindle. Likewise, the stars, the sun and the moon do not revolve except with it.”
[!scholar] Al-Qurtubi — Al-Jami’ li Ahkam al-Quran (11/286)
“Each one — meaning the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the night and the day — is swimming in an orbit — meaning they run and move quickly like a swimmer in water.”
“A Muslim can find what makes him feel — if not what explicitly states — that the Earth is like the Sun and the Moon, in that they are all in this void, as Allah said:{And each, in an orbit, floats}. Especially if we bear in mind that before this divine expression, the word ‘all’ (kullu) means the three bodies — as He began with the Earth, then the Sun, then the Moon. So the word ‘all’ includes in the first verse the Earth, then the Sun, then the Moon. This is clear in the context of the verses. There is absolutely nothing in the Quran — as I said — or in the Sunnah that negates this scientific fact.”
Sheikh al-Sha’rawi on Quran 27:88 — The Mountains Pass Like Clouds
Why did Allah use the movement of clouds to describe the movement of mountains? Because clouds do not move by themselves — they move by the force of winds. If the winds stopped, the clouds would remain. The same applies to mountains: they do not have self-movement from place to place. Their movement is done by an external force — and since mountains exist above the earth, there is no force that moves mountains unless the earth itself moves and the mountains move with it. Mountains appear fixed before us because they do not change their place relative to us — but at the same time they move because the earth rotates around itself and the mountains rotate with it, just as the wind moves the clouds. We do not feel the earth’s rotation around itself, and therefore we do not feel the movement of the mountains either.
(And it passes like the passing of clouds) means there is a period between each period in which it passes — because clouds do not remain forever, and likewise the movement of the mountains rotates and returns to the same place every period.”
Part Seven: The Fatwa on Ibn Baz, Ibn Uthaymeen, and Earth’s Rotation
Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen also denied Earth’s rotation and did not declare anyone who said it to be an infidel. The reason for their position was what appeared to them regarding the textual evidence — in addition to their belief that the rotation of the Earth was merely a theory at the time. There is no doubt that the rotation of the Earth around itself, and then the solar system around the galaxy, has become an established scientific fact.
It is not a condition of a scholar to be free from error — perfection is rare. Everyone’s statement may be accepted or rejected, except for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Every mujtahid is rewarded: if he strives and gets it right, two rewards; if he strives and gets it wrong, one reward.
Source: http://www.islamweb.net — Fatwa ID 59419
The relativity of motion — established by modern physics — means that no Quranic verse describing the Earth as stable or the Sun as moving contradicts any scientific fact. Both descriptions are physically correct depending on the reference frame chosen. The Earth’s stability verses are human-centric blessings, not cosmic claims. The orbit verses — “each in an orbit swims” — describe real motion of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars that science confirms. The sphericity of the Earth was affirmed by Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Hazm, and the consensus of Muslim scholars. The mountains verses describe the prevention of chaotic shaking, not the denial of orbital motion. And there is nothing in the Quran or Sunnah that contradicts what science has established about the rotation and revolution of the Earth.
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