Salam
I completely agree with psyah and USresident that we do need define certain things more precisely to get a more congruous meaning of the entire matter. But I would like to add that I have some serious reservations about cherry-picking when it comes to proving through Koran or interpretations. We should not consider any single ayat in isolation. For example, Hamza and Shahmir123 have enthusiastically cited the verse 27:88 to support their theory that the Koran miraculously implies a rotating earth. “The mountains, firm as you make think them, will pass away like clouds…” Now the preceding the following verses are clearly devoted to the Day of Judgment. What shahmir123 and hamza did was that they ignored the context and interpreted it to suit their theory and completely discarded the fact that destruction is mentioned. In fact, elsewhere in the Koran, the annihilation of the mountains is mentioned again and it’s noteworthy that the context is Day of Judgment. “They ask you about the mountains. Say: ‘My Lord will crush them to fine dust and reduce them to a desolate waste…..” 20:105. My point is that there is this intractable (which is really frustrating) tendency of some people to be swayed by emotions or whatever in proving the ‘miracle’ even when there is none or interpreting the verse in a particular way. What it does is that it makes the author less credible and even forces you to look at ayats in a certain way.
Brother, the context of the last part of verse 40 is not 37 but clearly the first part of verse 40 itself. The sun does not overtake the moon NOR does the night overtake the day. In essence, its simply referring to the obvious fact that day and night cannot happen at the same time, each has its own time and neither can contravene.
We would love to see it that way but we cannot. The following hadith of the prophet(s) will be more insightful.* “*Narrated Abu Dharr: The Prophet asked me at sunset, “Do you know where the sun goes (at the time of sunset)?” I replied, “Allah and His Apostle know better.” He said, “It goes (i.e. travels) till it prostrates Itself underneath the Throne and takes the permission to rise again, and it is permitted and then (a time will come when) it will be about to prostrate itself but its prostration will not be accepted, and it will ask permission to go on its course but it will not be permitted, but it will be ordered to return whence it has come and so it will rise in the west. And that is the interpretation of the Statement of Allah: ‘And the sun Runs its fixed course for a term (decreed). That is The Decree of (Allah) The Exalted in Might, The All-Knowing.’”
Anyhow, my point was in connection to Surah al-Shams, where, according to hamza, the verse somehow reveals that earth is rotating. Clearly it’s a jump from being a mere observer on earth to 3-D scientific reality. Before that, it’s important to note that Koran regularly mentions Day/Night and Sun/Moon separately. Take the verse 14:33 for example: “…..He has subdued for you the sun and the moon, which steadfastly pursue their courses. And He has subdued for you the night and the day”. In other words, Night/Day and Sun/Moon are two distinct signs of Allah. Other verses will reveal a similar pattern. So when the verse 91:33 reads “by the day, which reveals his splendor: by the night, which veils him” it’s simply a continuation of the Koranic tone to describe the signs of Allah. Well that might even explain the ambiguous word ‘orbit’. Since the Sun/Moon and Day/Night are never mentioned in the Koran (as far as I know) in a way to imply causality the word ‘orbit’ can make more sense, especially when the word ‘KULL’ is mentioned
Take the verse 21:33 here: “It was He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon: each moves swiftly in an orbit of its own” Again the word “kullun-fii falakin yasbahun” is used. And yet again in the verse 31:29 “ Do you see how God causes the night and day to pass into the day and the day to pass into the night and has pressed the sun and the moon into His service, each (kullun) running (yajrii) for an appointed term” Apparently it does seem that Kullun refers to day/night and sun/moon, which begs the question of how can the ‘orbit’ in its normal treatment be used for Night/Day? If the Arabic language accommodates a more vast meaning of orbit, something like a ‘cycle’ then it will solve the problem. So what do you think?
Its the hadith that has a very confusing tone. When taking the ayat and the hadith in conjunction the only understanding I can come to is that Allah SWT has created the suns orbit (or routine) as such to rise from the east and set in the west for an appointed term i.e. till the beginning of the day of judgement, this is when its fixed term comes to an end and it breaks its orbit (or normal routine).
So far I am still of the opinion that orbit has been used in the general sense of a cyclical routine and not a celestial orbit though it holds true in certain cases but the audience at the time could not have comprehended such a thing.
More specifically the night and day are manifestations of the rotational movements of the earth along its axis. Is the earths axial rotation considered orbital motion though today?