Cosmology · a Light

One word in Surah al-Dhariyat is often pushed too far

The verse says the heaven We built with power, and that We are musi'un. The word comes from a root meaning breadth or capacity, and the classical commentators, al-Tabari among them, read it as We are able, or possessed of vastness. After Hubble published his measurements in 1929, translators began rendering it as We are expanding it, and it is now quoted as though the Qur'an announced cosmic expansion. The observation itself is solid: distant galaxies recede, and the further away they are the faster, which is what an expanding space looks like from inside. But hanging that on one contested word makes the credibility of scripture depend on the next revision of cosmology, which is a poor trade.

Surah al-Dhariyat 51:47

Source · Qur'an 51:47