Cosmology in the Muslim world is the cosmology of Islamic societies. Islamic cosmology is not a single unitary system, but is inclusive of a number of cosmological systems, including Quranic cosmology, the cosmology of the Hadith collections, as well as those of Islamic astronomy and astrology. Broadly, cosmological conceptions themselves can be divided into thought concerning the physical structure of the cosmos (cosmography) and the origins of the cosmos (cosmogony).
In Islamic cosmology, the fundamental duality is between Creator (God) and creation.
Quranic cosmology
Overview In Quranic cosmography, the cosmos is primarily constituted of seven heavens and earth. Above them is the Throne of God, a solid structure. Some interpretations state the Quran indicates a flat earth, calling the earth "stretched" or "spread out" (Qur'an 2:22; 13:3; 15:19; 50:7; 51:48; 79:30; 88:20; 91:6) and comparing its structure to a "bed" (Qur'an 20:53; 43:10) or a "carpet" (71:19), though these verses may highlight a metaphorical concept or referring explicitly to the 'land'(al-ard) from our perspective. The Quran also explicitly refers to wrapping "night over the day" and vice versa (Qur'an 39:5) with connotations of a continuous, spherical cycle, like the wrapping of a turban, derived from "يُكَوِّرُ" [/ju.kaw.wi.ru/ , yukawwiru, "He wraps"].Possibly referring to a globe-shaped Earth.This view was adopted by scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim and several other contemporary scholars such as Ibn Baz .Though some classical literalist viewpoints of "flat Earth" remain
Heavens and the earths
The most important and frequently referred to constitutive features of the Quranic cosmos are the heavens and the earth:The most substantial elements of the qurʾānic universe/cosmos are the (seven) heavens and the earth. The juxtaposition of the heavens (al-samāʾ; pl. al-samāwāt) and the earth (al-arḍ; not in the plural form in the Qurʾān) is seen in 222 qurʾānic verses. The heavens and the earth are the most vital elements on the scene—in terms of occurrence and emphasis—compared to which all other elements lose importance, and around which all others revolve. The same motif is used in the Bible as well.References to heavens and earth constitute a literary device known as a merism, where two opposites or contrasting terms are used to refer to the totality of something. In Arabic texts, the merism of "the heavens and the earth" is used to refer to the totality of creation.
Contemporary and traditional interpretations have generally held in line with general biblical cosmology, with a flat Earth with skies stacked on top of each other, with some believing them to be domes and others flat circles. The Quranic cosmos also includes seven heavens and potentially seven earths as well, although the latter is disputed. Beginning in the second Islamic century, medieval scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathir believed the Earth was round.and that alongside it the heavens were like a dome and round covering the Earth and each heaven covering the heaven before it in a round-like shape.
Six day creation
The Quran states that the universe was created in six days using a consistent, quasi-creedal formula (Q 7:54, 10:3, 11:7, 25:59, 32:4, 50:38, 57:4). Quran 41:9–12 represents one of the most developed creation accounts in the Quran:Say: "Do you indeed disbelieve in the One who created the earth in two days [bi-lladhī khalaqa l-'arḍa fī yawmayni], and do you set up rivals to Him? That is the Lord of the worlds. He placed on it firm mountains (towering) above it, and blessed it, and decreed for it its (various) foods in four days, equal to the ones who ask. Then, He mounted (upward) to the sky [thumma stawā 'ilā l-samā'i], while it was (still) smoke [wa-hiya dukhānun], and said to it and to the earth, 'Come, both of you, willingly or unwillingly!' They both said, 'We come willingly'." He finished them (as) seven heavens in two days [qaḍā-hunna sabʿa samāwātin fī yawmayni], and inspired each heaven (with) its affair.This passage contains a number of peculiarities compared with the Genesis creation account, including the formation of the earth before heaven and the idea that heaven existed in a formless state of smoke before being formed by God into its current form.
Cosmography
Theories of the entire cosmos One theory of the entire cosmos was articulated by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1209). In this conception, the entire cosmos can be divided into five spheres: five are part of the celestial sphere of the sun (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the fixed stars, and the "Great Sphere" (al-falak al-aʿẓam)), five within the sphere of the sun (Venus, Mercury, the moon, the "sublime sphere" (al-kurrat al-laṭīfah) of fire and earth, and the "gross sphere" (al-kurrat al-kathīfah) of water and earth), and finally the sun itself, which is also the center of the cosmos. For al-Razi, it is also true that the sun, moon, and the stars are themselves distinct from each of the spheres that they move in.
Seven heavens
The basic structure of the Islamic cosmos was one constituted of seven stacked layers of both heaven and earth. Humans live on the uppermost layer of the earth, whereas the bottommost layer is hell and the residence of the devil. The bottommost layer of heaven, directly above the earth, is the sky, whereas the uppermost one is Paradise. The physical distance between any two of these layers is equivalent to the distance that could be traversed with 500 years of travel. Other traditions describes the seven heavens as each having a notable prophet in residence that Muhammad visits during Miʿrāj: Moses (Musa) on the sixth heaven, Abraham (Ibrahim) on the seventh heaven, etc.
Shape of the earth
Some scholars, among them the hadith traditionalists, advocated the notion of a flat Earth and rejected notions of a round Earth once they had been introduced by the discovery of Hellenistic astronomy, especially the astronomical paradigm developed by Ptolemy and elaborated most extensively in his Almagest. Debate over the shape of the earth raged on in the medieval Islamic world, including among Kalam theologians.Against Ptolemy? Cosmography in Early Kalām (2022). Omar Anchassi. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 142(4), 851–881.
Multiverse Al-Ghazali, in The Incoherence of the Philosophers, defends the Ash'ari doctrine of a created universe that is temporally finite, against the Aristotelian doctrine of an eternal universe. In doing so, he proposed the modal theory of possible worlds, arguing that their actual world is the best of all possible worlds from among all the alternate timelines and world histories that God could have possibly created.
Al-Razi in his Matalib al-'Aliya explores the possibility that a multiverse exists in his interpretation of the Qur'anic verse "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." Al-Razi decides that God is capable of creating as many universes as he wishes, and that prior arguments for assuming the existence of a single universe are weak:
Al-Razi therefore rejected the Aristotelian and Avicennian notions of the impossibility of multiple universes and he spent a few pages rebutting the main Aristotelian arguments in this respect. This followed from his affirmation of atomism, as advocated by the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology, which entails the existence of vacant space in which the atoms move, combine and separate. He discussed in greater detail the void, the empty space between stars and constellations in the Universe, in volume 5 of the Matalib. He argued that there exists an infinite outer space beyond the known world, and that God has the power to fill the vacuum with an infinite number of universes.
Cosmographical writings ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt (, meaning Marvels of creatures and Strange things existing) is an important work of cosmography by Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud Abu Yahya al-Qazwini who was born in Qazwin year 600 (AH (1203 AD).
Cosmogony
Rejection of an eternal universe
In contrast to ancient Greek philosophers who believed that the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. The Christian philosopher John Philoponus, presented the first such argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. His views were adopted and elaborated in many forms by medieval Jewish and Islamic thinkers, including Saadia Gaon among the former and figures like Al-Kindi and Al-Ghazali among the latter. The two arguments used against an actual infinite past include arguments against the possible existence of an actual infinite and arguments against the possibility of arriving to an infinite sum by successive addition. The second argument was especially popularized in the work of Immanuel Kant. Today, these lines of reasoning form an important component of what is called the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of God.
Six day creation The Ismaili thinker Nasir Khusraw (d. after 1070) believed that the six-day creation period concerned not the creation of the physical cosmos but instead the spiritual one. Each of six days, from the first day of the week (Sunday) until Friday were symbolized by an individual figure, from Adam (Sunday), Noah (Tuesday), Abraham (Wednesday), Moses (Thursday), and Muhammad (who completes the six days on Friday). The seventh and final day was for the allocation of rewards and retribution.
Age of the universe Early Muslim scholars believed that the world was six to seven thousand years old, and that only a few hundred years were remaining until the end/apocalypse. One tradition attributes to Muhammad a statement directed to his companions: "Your appointed time compared with that of those who were before you is as from the afternoon prayer (Asr prayer) to the setting of the sun". Early Muslim Ibn Ishaq estimated the prophet Noah lived 1200 years after Adam was expelled from paradise, the prophet Abraham 2342 years after Adam, Moses 2907 years, Jesus 4832 years and Muhammad 5432 years.
Astrology
With the sole exception of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in the 13th century, all notable philosophers that commented on astrology criticized it. However, astrology was often confused and/or conflated with astronomy (and mathematics). For this reason, and to evade the criticisms being made of astrologers, the astronomers themselves (including al-Farabi, Ibn al-Haytham, Avicenna, Biruni and Averroes) would try to carve out a separate identity from them by joining the fray in the attacks against astrology. Their reasons for refuting astrology were often due to both scientific (the methods used by astrologers being conjectural rather than empirical) and religious (conflicts with orthodox Islamic scholars) reasons.
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) spent over two hundred pages of his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah refuting the practices of divination, especially in the form of astrology and alchemy. He recognized that the stars are much larger than the planets, and thus argued:
Al-Jawziyya also recognized the Milky Way galaxy to be a myriad of individual stars among the fixed stars and therefore that the situation was too complex to infer the influences of such stars.
Astronomy
Reception of Hellenistic astronomy