ISLAM AND SCIENCE (II)

While explaining the Eighty-eighth âyat of Naml Sûra: “You see the mountains stand motionless, but in fact they are moving like clouds,” Qâdî Baydâwî states: “The mountains which, as you see, seem to stay in their places, are travelling fast thru space. When big objects move with speed in a direction, people who are on it do not feel its motion.” In the explanation of the thirty-third âyat of Anbiyâ Sûra, Fakhraddîn-i Râdî writes that Dahhâk and Kalbî said that the moon, the sun and the stars rotated about their axes and revolved in their orbits. While explaining the twentyninth âyat of Baqâra Sûra, Fakhraddîn-i Râdî says: “Asîruddîn-i Abharî, the author of the physics book Hidâya and of the logic book Îsâgujî, used to teach with the astronomy book entitled Majastî (the Almagest) by Ptolemy. Somebody who considered the use of such a book as intolerable asked him with a harsh voice why he was teaching it to Muslim children. He answered that he was explaining the sixth âyat in Sûra Qaf which purports: ‘Don’t they see how beautifully I have created the earth, the skies, the stars, and the plants?’ thus giving him a beautiful reply.” Imâm-i Râdî writes in his tafsîr that this reply of Abharî’s was correct and stated that scientists who observe Allah’s creatures understand the infinitude of His power very well. [Please read the twenty-fourth chapter in the Endless Bliss's first fascicle!]