I'm pretty sure I know alot more about this deen than you do. We don't leave the religion of our forefathers on a whim. Does it take excellent "comprehension" to realise Muhammad was wrong about the sun setting in a black muddy spring?
In refutation of @JohnDoe’s claim…
Brothers and sisters, do not take this guy’s comments seriously. If you’re not careful enough, he could mislead you from the true understanding of the Deen. This person regularly makes absurd claims about our religion. I was soo desperate to finish some coursework and solve some problems before I refute this man’s claims (that he probably got off reddit or some other website).
The Ayah goes as follows:
Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it [as if] setting in a spring of dark mud, and he found near it a people. Allah said, "O Dhul-Qarnayn, either you punish [them] or else adopt among them [a way of] goodness." 18:86.
The thing is, بلغ means “he reached” this is a masculine past tense verb with the doer of the verb being mustatir, but we know it’s dhul qarnayn (AS) who’s being referred to. It is used to denote location amongst other things.
مغرب الشمس means the setting place of the sun, this does not mean that it’s where the sun actually sets, they are abstract terms used to refer to a location. So “setting place of the sun” actually means “the west”, it’s (obviously) in the West that the sun sets, it rises from the East.
So بلغ مغرب الشمس put together means he reached the setting place of the sun (i.e. he reached the West).
وجدها means “he found it (I,e. he found the sun or seen the sun, I’ll explain the rest, bear with me). وجدها تغرب في عين حمئة means he found it (as if) it was setting in a spring of dark mud. This means for example, you’re walking down a path and you see the reflection of the sun in a puddle, this doesn’t mean that, it’s in that puddle the sun sets in, does it?
This is why in the interpreted version they put “(as if)” in brackets.
It’s very hard to explain in English, this is way the Qur’an cannot be understood properly in English. I’m trying my best though.
So he (Dhul Qarnayn) reached the setting place of the sun (i.e. he reached the West) and he found it (as if) setting in a spring of dark mud, yacni from his perspective, he was seeing the reflection of the sun in the puddle.
Also we know that us Muslims are supposed to fast from dawn until sun-set. If the sun actually settled on a part of the Earth, doesn’t this mean there’s a place on Earth where the sun never sets? Thus this is contradictory. Wallahi whenever I have come across this verse it has never crossed my mind that the sun LITERALLY set on a spring of dark mud.
Only a stupid person would think this means the sun literally set on a spring of dark mud.
Brothers and sisters, this is why learning the Arabic language is very important. You can be easily misguided by the shayateen from amongst man (e.g.
@JohnDoe) and jinn if you’re not careful. This is why the Qur’an was revealed in Arabic in the first place.
Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand. 12:2
Everything that I've written is from what I know and I've not copied a single person Alxamdulilah. May Allah increase us (Muslims) in knowledge.
