Will you explain the verse, “Lord of the heavens and of the earth, and all between them and Lord of every point at the rising of the sun!” (as-Saaffat, 5)?

Will you explain the verse, “Lord of the heavens and of the earth, and all between them and Lord of every point at the rising of the sun!” (as-Saaffat, 5)?

Dear Brother / Sister,

We find it useful to make the following explanations taking into consideration various expressions existing in the Quran. We can explain the issue based on the verse in the chapter ar-Rahman as follows: 

The expression “two easts and two wests” in the verse, “(He is) Lord of the two Easts and Lord of the two Wests.”(ar-Rahman, 55/17) points out more than one truth:

a) As it can be understood from the expression, “The sun and the moon follow courses (exactly) computed “in the 5^th verse of the same chapter, it means, “the easts and wests of the sun and the moon.”

b). In the verse, “Now I do call to witness the Lord of all points in the East (easts) and the West (wests)!"(al-Maarij, 70/40), the words east and west are used in plural forms and their everyday situations are pointed out. The expression “easts and wests” is used in order to indicate the different times of sunrise and sunset in summer and winter based on the drawing in and out of the days.  

c) Since the world is round and in the form of a sphere, one east and one west are pointed out for each hemisphere. Thus, the verse also indicates that the world is round. In this case, a point that is regarded as east is also west and a point that is regarded as west is also east.   

d) The rising of the dawn and the sun, the setting of the sun and the dusk... This view is attributed to Ibn Abbas.

It is possible to explain the view as follows:

When the rays of the sun, which are much larger than the earth, hit the part of the earth that faces the sun, that part becomes day. The rays of the sun pass by the two sides of the globe too. Therefore, the two sides of the globe become half-luminous because the rays do not hit those parts fully. The middle parts of the globe that do not face the sun are completely dark. As a result, parts that are completely luminous, slightly luminous, completely dark and slightly dark occur on the roundish globe. Thus, two luminous and two dark sides occur, which explain the meaning of two easts and two wests. Maybe there are tens of east-west axes between those two easts and wests, which are in the position of two ends, which is in compliance with the expression easts-wests. (see Niyazi Beki Rahman Suresinin tefsiri).

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