Answering Anti-Islam: Sun Sets in a Muddy Spring?
The Verse Is Clear That It Is In His Own POV & Not That It Literally Happened, Now Let’s Get The Evidence.
وَقَوْلُهُ: ﴿وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍ﴾ أَيْ: رَأَى الشَّمْسَ فِي مَنْظَرِهِ تَغْرُبُ فِي الْبَحْرِ الْمُحِيطِ، وَهَذَا شَأْنُ كُلِّ مَنِ انْتَهَى إِلَى سَاحِلِهِ، يَرَاهَا كَأَنَّهَا تَغْرُبُ فِيهِ، وَهِيَ لَا تُفَارِقُ الْفَلَكَ الرَّابِعَ الَّذِي هِيَ مُثَبَّتَةٌ فِيهِ لَا تُفَارِقُهُ
He found it setting in a spring of Hami’ah, meaning, he saw the sun as if it were setting in the ocean. This is something which everyone who goes to the coast can see: it looks as if the sun is setting into the sea but in fact it never leaves its path in which it is fixed.
This is just talking about his pov and this is what everyone see.
“And some scholars said: this doesn’t mean that he reached the sun itself because the sun rotates with the sky around the earthand it is even bigger than the earth much times. The true meaning is from dhul qurnayn perspective it is setting in a muddy spring just like it would appear to anyone looking at the setting from a distance that is why in 18:90 it says the sun rose above a group of people it doesn’t mean literally that the sun rose above the earth and touched them”
-Source: Jamī’i li ahkam al-Qūr’ān al-Qurtubi (RH) volume 13 page number 370 interpretation of “setting in a muddy spring” Qūr’ān 18:86 print of mu’asasat al-risalah
Regarding Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 3991, which states: Narrated Abu Dharr:
I was sitting behind the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who was riding a donkey while the sun was setting. He asked: Do you know where this sets ? I replied: Allah and his Apostle know best. He said: ”It sets in a spring of warm water”.
Grade: Sahih in chain (Al-Albani)
This was graded sahih in chain however the narration itself is not accepted as we have multiple other narrations that retell the same incident however it leaves out the information regarding the setting of the sun in the muddy spring.
Also, this hadith contains 2–3 problems:
- It contradicts the authentic narrations in bukahri and muslim that is agreed upon
- it has sufyan bin husayn and according to syar a’alam al-nubalaa volume 7 page number 303 he has very poor memory and isn’t hujjah
- it has al-Hakam bin utba who according to thiquat bin habban volume 4 page number 144 is a mudalis and he did tadlis and an an nah in the narration
- here is a scan of a scholar saying so
the claim no early scholar said this is a lie:
al-baghawi in his tafsir says it is an eye seeing by dhul-qurnayn
Now we look at Tafsir Al-Baghawi and he quotes Al-Qutayba who is from the salaf who gives different types of interpretations and one of them is that this is referring to what one can see.
Al-Qutayba (276 AH) says that it is permissible for the meaning of the ayah “fee ‘aynin ham’iah” to have the interpretation of the eye, meaning that one can interpret this ayah to mean what one can see. In this case, this is referring to what Dhul Qarnayn saw.
Source: موقع التفير الكبير
This Al Nukat Wal Uyuun Tafsir Al Mawardi (D.450 A.H)
He says that this is referring to the eye, so what Dhul Qarnayn saw
source: موقع التفير الكبير
It is important to note that if the Quran wished to give the implication that the sun entered the body of water it wouldn’t of said:
Until, when he reached the setting of the sun (maghrib), he found/perceived/saw (wajada) it set (taghrubu) in a spring of murky water…
It would have said:
Until, when he reached the setting of the sun (maghrib), it set in a spring of murky water…
…
The usage of wajada shows that it is from Dhul-Qarnayn’s perspective.
Maghrib
Meaning of تَغْرُبُ (Taghrubu)
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The word used to describe the setting of the sun ‘in the murky spring’ is مَغْرِبَ [stemming from the word غرب — meaning to leave, be absent, be hidden, to depart, to be distant]. مَغْرِبَ just means setting or disappearing. Meaning Dhul-Qarnayn found/saw/perceived the sun setting/disappearing.
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It is important to note that the word used doesn’t mean to enter [دخل], neither to sink in/be swallowed up [خسف]. If the Quran wished to say the Sun entered the water it wouldn’t have used مَغْرِبَ (taghrubu) as مَغْرِبَ (taghrubu) doesn’t mean entering. It would of used دخل meaning to enter.
If anyone calls Quran 18:86 a scientific error, show them what NASA said regarding the sun
“…captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars.”
Does NASA have a geocentric view now? No, because their statement isn’t meant to be taken literally. This is describing what is seen, not reality.
Also al-Razy (D.604 A.H) here he writes a whole refutation proving that this is just a eye vision from dhul quranyn
Tafsir al-kabir w mafatih al-Ghayb volume 21 page number 167 interpretation 18:86
Quran 18:86 isn’t meant to be taken literally, just like NASA’s statement about the sun sinking below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars isn’t meant to be taken literally. If anyone calls you a liar for saying that Quran 18:86 isn’t meant to be taken literally, ask them if NASA believes in a geocentric view, keep pressing them on this point. Why can’t Non-Muslims be more charitable with their interpretation of Quran like how they are charitable with how they understood NASA’s statement about the sun sinking?
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Imam Al-Baidawi notes,
*He probably reached shore of the ocean and saw it like that because there was but water at the furthest of his sight that’s why He says “he found it set”* and does not say “it sets”.
(Al-Baidawi, Anwar-ut-Tanzil wa Asrar-ut-Taw’il, Volume 3, page 394. Published by Dar-ul-Ashraf, Cairo, Egypt)
Response to “The Masked Arab” — The Apostate — IslamQA
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More classical scholars have commented on the fact that 18:86 is not literal. For instance, ʾImām al-k͟haṭṭābī as͟h-s͟hāfiʿī (d. 388 AH) writes:
❝The meaning of the phrase “sets in a muddy spring” is not that it falls into that eye and covers it, but rather it is a description of the extreme point reached by Dhul-Qarnayn in his journey, where he found no path beyond it. He observed the sun setting over this eye or in the direction of this eye, similar to how the sunset appears to someone in the sea who cannot see the coast, making it seem as if the sun is setting into the sea, even though it is actually setting behind the sea.❞
[Iʿlām al-ḥadīṯẖ | 3/1895]📚
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