Short answer
No. No verse says the sun goes round the earth. The Qur'an says the sun and the moon each swim along in their own orbit. That is true: the moon circles the earth, and the sun carries its planets round the centre of our galaxy. Other verses speak of sunrise in the east, or of the sun passing to the right of a cave. They describe the sky as people see it from where they stand, as we still do. Islam's answer is that the Qur'an names no centre, and nothing it says about the sun is wrong.
Full explanation
The objection
Critics say the Qur'an pictures a still earth with the sun going round it. They point to verses where the sun runs its course and each body swims in an orbit. They add the verse where Abraham says God (﷾) brings the sun from the east. They add the cave, where the sun passes to the right and the left. And they add a sound hadith, in which the sun goes at sunset to prostrate beneath the Throne.
“And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).”
“It is He Who created the Night and the Day, and the sun and the moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course.”
“Hast thou not Turned thy vision to one who disputed with Abraham About his Lord, because Allah had granted him power? Abraham said: "My Lord is He Who Giveth life and death." He said: "I give life and death". Said Abraham: "But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the east: Do thou then cause him to rise from the West." Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance) rejected faith. Nor doth Allah Give guidance to a people unjust.”
“Thou wouldst have seen the sun, when it rose, declining to the right from their Cave, and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they lay in the open space in the midst of the Cave. Such are among the Signs of Allah: He whom Allah, guides is rightly guided; but he whom Allah leaves to stray,- for him wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way.”
Abu Dharr reports that at sunset the Prophet (ﷺ) asked him whether he knew where the sun goes, and he answered that Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: it goes until it prostrates beneath the Throne and asks permission, and permission is given. A time is coming when its prostration will not be accepted and permission will not be given. It will be told to go back the way it came, and it will rise from the place where it sets. He said this is the meaning of Qur'an 36:38.
What the verses say
The Qur'an says God (﷾) created the night and the day, the sun and the moon. Then it says that all "swim along, each in its rounded course". It says the sun may not catch up the moon, nor the night outstrip the day. It says each runs its course "for a term appointed". None of these verses says what the sun goes round. None makes the earth the centre. The word for orbit, falak, names a rounded path, not its middle.
“It is He Who created the Night and the Day, and the sun and the moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course.”
“And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).”
“He created the heavens and the earth in true (proportions): He makes the Night overlap the Day, and the Day overlap the Night: He has subjected the sun and the moon (to His law): Each one follows a course for a time appointed. Is not He the Exalted in Power - He Who forgives again and again?”
“Allah is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; is firmly established on the throne (of authority); He has subjected the sun and the moon (to his Law)! Each one runs (its course) for a term appointed. He doth regulate all affairs, explaining the signs in detail, that ye may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord.”
The sun and the moon each swim in their own orbit
Each runs its course for a term appointed
Night is wound over day
The earth stands still at the centre
The sun goes round the earth
The sun does move
The moon goes round the earth. The sun is not still either. It carries the earth and the other planets round the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. NASA puts its average speed at 828,000 kilometres an hour. One full circuit takes about 230 million years. So the sun and the moon do each swim along in an orbit. The Qur'an does not need this to be true. But nothing in its words has had to be taken back.
Explains that the sun, with the whole solar system, orbits the centre of the Milky Way galaxy at an average speed of 828,000 km/h, and takes about 230 million years to make one complete orbit.
“And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).”
- 828,000 km/hThe sun's average speed round the centre of the galaxy
- 230 million yearsOne full circuit
Speaking from where people stand
Abraham told a king that God (﷾) brings the sun from the east, and asked him to bring it from the west. The king could not answer. That is the sun as everyone sees it rise. In the cave, the sun passed to the right of the sleepers when it rose, and to the left when it set. Right and left need someone to stand at. Here it is the people in the cave. Almanacs still print the times of sunrise and sunset. No one says they teach that the sun circles the earth.
“Hast thou not Turned thy vision to one who disputed with Abraham About his Lord, because Allah had granted him power? Abraham said: "My Lord is He Who Giveth life and death." He said: "I give life and death". Said Abraham: "But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the east: Do thou then cause him to rise from the West." Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance) rejected faith. Nor doth Allah Give guidance to a people unjust.”
“Thou wouldst have seen the sun, when it rose, declining to the right from their Cave, and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they lay in the open space in the midst of the Cave. Such are among the Signs of Allah: He whom Allah, guides is rightly guided; but he whom Allah leaves to stray,- for him wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way.”
| Verse | What it describes |
|---|---|
| 2:258 | The sun rising in the east, as everyone sees it |
| 18:17 | The sun passing to the right and the left of the sleepers in the cave |
| 18:86 | The sun found setting in dark water, at the western sea |
Running to a term appointed
The Qur'an says the sun runs its course "for a period determined for him". The Arabic, li-mustaqarrin laha, can mean a resting place or a set time. If it is a set time, it is the end of the sun's course, when this world ends. Another verse says each runs "for a term appointed". On this reading the verse speaks of a time, not of a path round the earth. The sound hadith about where the sun goes explains this same verse. It is answered on its own page.
“And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).”
Gives two views of "a resting place for it". The first is a place: beneath the Throne, on the side facing the earth. Wherever the sun is, it is beneath the Throne, it and all creatures, because the Throne is their roof. The Throne, he adds, is not a sphere, as many astronomers claim, but a dome with legs, carried by the angels, above the world over the heads of people. The sun, turning in its fourth sphere, is nearest the Throne at noon and farthest from it at midnight; then it prostrates and asks permission to rise, as the hadiths say. The second view is a time: the end of its course on the Day of Resurrection, when its movement stops and this world ends.
“Allah is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; is firmly established on the throne (of authority); He has subjected the sun and the moon (to his Law)! Each one runs (its course) for a term appointed. He doth regulate all affairs, explaining the signs in detail, that ye may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord.”
Abu Dharr reports that at sunset the Prophet (ﷺ) asked him whether he knew where the sun goes, and he answered that Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: it goes until it prostrates beneath the Throne and asks permission, and permission is given. A time is coming when its prostration will not be accepted and permission will not be given. It will be told to go back the way it came, and it will rise from the place where it sets. He said this is the meaning of Qur'an 36:38.
Does the sun bow down beneath the Throne every night (Sahih al-Bukhari 3199)?
A fair test
One test serves for any scripture. Where it speaks of what people see, read it as a view. Where it speaks of the sun itself, check whether it is right. On the sun itself, the Qur'an says it runs its course, swims in its own orbit and obeys its Maker. It gives no centre, distance or size. Where it speaks of what people see, it speaks as people still do.
“It is He Who created the Night and the Day, and the sun and the moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course.”
“And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).”
“Hast thou not Turned thy vision to one who disputed with Abraham About his Lord, because Allah had granted him power? Abraham said: "My Lord is He Who Giveth life and death." He said: "I give life and death". Said Abraham: "But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the east: Do thou then cause him to rise from the West." Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance) rejected faith. Nor doth Allah Give guidance to a people unjust.”
The objection answered
Qur'an 36:38-40 — Surat Ya Sin (Yaseen), verses 38-40
“And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing. And the Moon,- We have measured for her mansions (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date-stalk. It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).”
Cited for
The sun runs and swims in an orbit. In a seventh-century book, that can only mean round the earth.
The response
The verses never say round what. They give the moon an orbit too, and the moon does go round the earth. The sun moves as well: it carries the planets round the centre of the galaxy. A verse that names no centre cannot be made to name the earth.
Where it lands — The Qur'an gives the sun an orbit and names no centre. Both parts are true.
Tafsir Ibn Kathir, on 36:38
Gives two views of "a resting place for it". The first is a place: beneath the Throne, on the side facing the earth. Wherever the sun is, it is beneath the Throne, it and all creatures, because the Throne is their roof. The Throne, he adds, is not a sphere, as many astronomers claim, but a dome with legs, carried by the angels, above the world over the heads of people. The sun, turning in its fourth sphere, is nearest the Throne at noon and farthest from it at midnight; then it prostrates and asks permission to rise, as the hadiths say. The second view is a time: the end of its course on the Day of Resurrection, when its movement stops and this world ends.
Cited for
Even Muslim commentators read the Qur'an as earth-centred.
The response
Many did, because that was the astronomy nearly everyone held before Copernicus. Ibn Kathir summed up the astronomers' order of the planets. He said they differ, and that his point was only the seven heavens. A commentator's science is not the verse. When the astronomy changed, the verses' words did not have to change with it.
Where it lands — The old commentators held the science of their age. The Qur'an's words did not depend on it.
Perspectives
The critics' reading
The Qur'an has the sun running, rising in the east and passing the cave. A hadith has it go at sunset beneath the Throne. Critics say this is a still earth with the sun circling it.
Qur'an 36:38 says the sun runs its course, and 21:33 says each swims in an orbit. Critics read this as the sun circling the earth.
Rebuttal
The verses say the sun moves in its own orbit. They do not say round what. The sun does move: it carries the planets round the centre of the galaxy.
In 2:258 Abraham says God (﷾) brings the sun from the east. That assumes the sun moves and the earth stands still.
Rebuttal
That is the sun as everyone sees it. The challenge works on any model: only God (﷾) could make it rise in the west. People still say the sun rises.
In 18:17 the sun moves to the right and the left of the cave.
Rebuttal
Right and left are always from someone's place. Here it is the sleepers in the cave. That is a view, not a claim about what circles what.
Ibn Kathir set the sun in its fourth sphere, and summed up an order of planets in the heavens.
Rebuttal
True. That was the astronomy of his age, held by nearly every learned person before Copernicus. It is his explanation, not the verse. He himself said his point was only the seven heavens.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3199 says the sun goes at sunset to prostrate beneath the Throne.
Rebuttal
The hadith explains 36:38 and says nothing of what the sun circles. The Throne is above all creation, so the sun is beneath it wherever it is. The full answer is on its own page.
The Islamic perspective
No verse says the sun goes round the earth. The Qur'an gives the sun and the moon each its own orbit, and speaks of sunrise and sunset as people see them.
The Qur'an says the sun and the moon each swim along in their own rounded course, and names no centre.
The sun carries the planets round the centre of the Milky Way, in about 230 million years.
Verses on sunrise, the cave and the moon following the sun describe the sky as seen from the earth. Al-Tabari reads "follows" as the moon rising after sunset.
"A period determined for him" in 36:38 is also read as a time: the end of the sun's course when the world ends.
The commentators' earth-centred astronomy was the science of their time, not the words of the Qur'an.