Abdullah, I'm not a Muslim, but you don't have to be a Muslim to know that during the Islamic era, a spherical Earth was common knowledge. Several Arabs calculated the circumference of the Earth. Any mentions of a flat Earth in ancient scripture are at best, accidental.
No one in history ever believed in a flat Earth. I suggest you read the "Flat Earth myth" on Wikipedia. The only reason many people today think that ancients believed the Earth was flat was because it was a lie repeated by the Catholic Church.
These neo-atheists think think they have something against islam
Whoa, don't generalize them all!
I, as an atheist, acknowledge that there are scientifically relevant verses in the Qur'an, but they're not miracles, they were well known facts. For example, the big bang, an expanding universe, the expanding universe is mentioned in the Bible, long before that, in Hindu scripture.
Tip: Any verse that contradicts modern science or logic and reasoning is metaphorical.
1. this verse is not metaphorical, as the heavens [ie anything in space above earth, the heavenly bodies] are held from falling onto earth i[ ie colliding with trhe eath] by the centrifugal force.
2. meaning of the word heaven:
in the Quran, the word heaven is used in two senses: [a]. in the first sense, the extraterristerial space is referred to as the heaven and the heavenly bodies constitute the first heaven. Quan says, '' and he decorated the nearest haeaven with stars''. The nearest heaven refers to the first heaven, as there are 7 heavens. In the second semce , heaven refers to the layers of the atmosphere, which are also seven. allah says in the quran, 'he sends down rain from the heaven'. the layers of the atmosphere are also seven:
- troposphere
stratosphere
ozone layer
mesosphere
thermosphere
exosphere
magnetosphere
the ionosphere is present in the thermosphere and mesosphere.
3. why did allah swt not use the term heavenly bodies directly?
the quran is not only meant for our time but for all times to come and all people in all the corners of the world and itr was also meant for the Arabs of that time. the term heaven, when it was used in the Quran 1400 years ago, was understood well by the Companions of the Prophet [pbuh], as per their knowledge, as at that time heaven ereferred to anything above the surface of earth. with time, when later scholars came, they understood it according to their own knowledge. similarly, in our time the universe is vastly unexplored and we have not even peeped otside the material universe. and hence we cannot prove the exixtence of the other heavens or we cannot disprove it. what can be said about it is only frrom the knowledge of the reveletion. in order not to confuse the earlier generations, the term samaa was used.
I am really sorry to tell you this, but the Magnetosphere is not a layer of the atmosphere. I believe the seven heavens in the Qur'an are referring to the seven heavenly bodies. The ancients thought there were only seven heavenly bodies. Pluto is no longer considered a planet, that brings us down to six. Two new planets were discovered that brings our number to eight planets. Our days of the week are named after the seven ancient heavenly bodies.
"The seven planets of the old cosmology included the Sun (Sol) and the Moon (Luna), which we now don't regard as planets at all. The other five were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn."
The correct layers of the atmosphere are:
Troposphere
Stratosphere
Mesosphere
Thermosphere
Exosphere
