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Title: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: Ruhi_Rose on April 22, 2019, 05:34:22 pm BismEm (55:17, Surah Ar-Rehman) رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ "rabbu al-mashriqayni warabbu l-maghribayni." (55:17) Surah Ar-Rehman. "Rab (of) the two Easts and Rab (of) the two Wests." (55:17) [Translation word by word, Corpus Quran) "Rab of the two Easts, and Rab of the two Wests!" (55:17) [Translation Pickthall] As-Salam Alaykum dear everyone: The note in Pickthall's tafsir explains "two Easts" and "two Wests" as the two rising places of the sun in summer and two setting places of the sun in winter. Word by word translation at Corpus Quran also translates same as Pickthall. Alhumdulilah! Can anyone give some information on the differences of rising and setting places in winter and summer? Title: Re: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: Zainab_M on April 22, 2019, 06:06:33 pm Walaikum As-Salaam Sis Ruhi. Yes very true. There's a slight change in the rising and setting points of the sun each day; thus the rising and setting points in summer and winter are quite different. All astronomers of modern times who have carefully observed the sun's path have reported this phenomenon. It's a complicated one with plenty of details and this change in summer and winter rising/setting points also involves the earth's rotation around its axis. As we know, in the Noble Quran there are several direct references to aspects of astronomy and physics, and Verse 55:17 is one such reference. It's a direct allusion of this occurrence. Let's not forget, Allah Almighty provided us with this factual information in the 7th century. Allah does not want to get into too many details of everything He has created and established with a system in the entire heavens because that would be very difficult for the people of medieval times to grasp; they would end up completely confused and disinterested. Rather, in the Noble Quran, Allah Almighty wants all such references to be briefly and articulately balanced so that it wouldn't be too tough for the 7th century society to understand, and at the same time would also fit into the more detailed discoveries of later times. The following are some quotes from modern astronomical sources that fully support Verse 55:17. Writes Solar Center Stanford (http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/sunrise.html) "Each day the rising and setting points change slightly. At the summer solstice, the Sun rises as far to the northeast as it ever does, and sets as far to the northwest. Every day after that, the Sun rises a tiny bit further south." Quoting Sun path in Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_path) "The Earth's axis of rotation tilts about 23.5 degrees, relative to the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. As the Earth orbits the Sun, this creates the 47° declination difference between the solstice sun paths, as well as the hemisphere-specific difference between summer and winter. ..... Solstice day arcs as viewed from 50° latitude. During the winter solstice Sun does not rise more than 16.56° above the horizon at midday, but 63.44° in summer solstice above the same horizon direction. The difference in the length of the day between summer and winter, from here to the north, begin to be striking – slightly more than 8 hours at winter solstice, to more than 16 hours during the summer solstice. Likewise is the difference in direction of sunrise and sunset." Writes Slate technology - position of the sun in the sky changing over a year (https://slate.com/technology/2013/04/analemma-the-position-of-the-sun-in-the-sky-changing-over-a-year.html) - "So if you measure the Sun's height above the southern horizon every day at the same time, that height changes. In summer it's high, in winter it's low." So, in a nutshell, the angles change with the abstract lines of the earth's latitude. This means that the inclination of our planet's rotation axis causes the four seasons of a year as well as a slight change in the sunrise and sunset positions each day. Thus, the maximum angular distance between two sunrises or two sunsets is the angle between two solstices, making the rising and setting points in winter and summer very different. Alhumdulilah. All praise be to YOU, ya Allah. Title: Re: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: Ruhi_Rose on April 22, 2019, 06:31:28 pm SubhanAllah ya Rab! I hope all our guests read this too. Btw, summer and winter solstices refer to June 21 and December 21, respectively, right? These were the days in which the ignorant pagans would worship the sun. Thus, in V.28:50 Allah says about such people: "وَمَنْ أَضَلُّ مِمَّنِ اتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ بِغَيْرِ هُدًى مِنَ اللَّهِ" ("And who is more astray than one who follows his desire without guidance from Allah?"). In fact the so-called christmas and new year celebrations are practices borrowed directly from this period of pagan Europe dunk in utter mindlessness and painful ignorance (jahilya). Many thanks for your time and this articulation, sister. Title: Re: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: Zainab_M on April 22, 2019, 06:44:22 pm Btw, summer and winter solstices refer to June 21 and December 21, respectively, right? Correct .... also known as the longest day and shortest day of the year, respectively, when Earth's rotation axis has its maximum tilt away from or toward the sun. For the southern hemisphere it has to be reversed, that is, longest day Dec.21 and shortest day June 21. These were the days in which the ignorant pagans would worship the sun. Thus, in V.28:50 Allah says about such people: "وَمَنْ أَضَلُّ مِمَّنِ اتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ بِغَيْرِ هُدًى مِنَ اللَّهِ" ("And who is more astray than one who follows his desire without guidance from Allah?"). In fact the so-called christmas and new year celebrations are practices borrowed directly from this period of pagan Europe dunk in utter mindlessness and painful ignorance (jahilya). Yes, precisely, and the continuation of this pagan practice with those different labels is just so unfortunate. Even many thoughtless Muslims indulge in such ignorance. Title: Re: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: Ruhi_Rose on April 22, 2019, 06:51:01 pm Absolutely right sister. Title: Re: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: N. Truth Seeker on April 26, 2019, 07:18:59 pm Alhumdulilah. Awesome thread full of education. Title: Re: Different rising & setting places of the sun - V.55:17, Ar-Rehman Post by: Heba E. Husseyn on April 29, 2019, 09:34:13 pm اَللّٰهُ أَكْبَر |