[Assam] “WE WILL REMOVE THIS SITE IF PROVEN WRONG”: Series of logical articles from THE site posted here to prepare for the challenge, as some people in Assam even using loud speakers to spread their message without a challenge. Article 10: Heaven

[Bartta Bistar]

 http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina40712.htm 7 Layers of Heaven

Arabic Translation  <http://www.faithfreedom.org/Arabic/sina40712Ar.htm>

By Ali Sina <http://www.faithfreedom.org/Author/Sina.htm>

Dear Ali,

Please explain the claim that Muhammad predicted the layers of the
atmosphere 1400 years ago when this knowledge was not yet known. Here is the
claim:



*The Layers of the Atmosphere*

One fact about the universe revealed in the verses of the Qur'an is that the
sky is made up of seven layers.

"It is He Who created everything on the earth for you and then directed His
attention up to heaven and arranged it into seven regular heavens. He has
knowledge of all things."
(The Qur'an, 2:29)

"Then He turned to heaven when it was smoke. In two days He determined them
as seven heavens and revealed, in every heaven, its own mandate."
(The Qur'an, 41:12)

The word "heavens", which appears in many verses in the Qur'an, is used to
refer to the sky above the Earth, as well as the entire universe. Given this
meaning of the word, it is seen that the Earth's sky, or the atmosphere, is
made up of seven layers.

The Earth has all the attributes that are needed for life. One of them is
the atmosphere, which serves as a shield protecting living things. Today, it
is an established fact that the atmosphere is made up of different layers
lying on top of one another. Just as it is described in the Qur'an, the
atmosphere is made up of exactly seven layers. This is certainly one of the
miracles of the Qur'an.

Indeed, today it is known that the world's atmosphere consists of different
layers that lie on top of each other. Furthermore, it consists, just as is
described in the Qur'an, of exactly seven layers. In a scientific source,
the subject is described as follows:







14 centuries ago, when the sky was believed to be one unified body, the
Qur'an miraculously stated that it consisted of layers, and what is more,
"seven" layers. Modern science, on the other hand, discovered the fact that
the atmosphere surrounding the Earth is made up of "seven" basic layers only
very recently.

* *

      ------------------------------

The above claim was made by  Harun Yahya in his
site<http://www.harunyahya.com/miracles_of_the_quran_p1_09.php>but
after I published the following rebuttal he removed that page from his
site. You can still find what he wrote in
this<http://www.geocities.com/islamimiracles2/scientific_miracles_of_Quran.htm>Islamic
site.
The Truth About 7 Layers of Heaven

The pre Copernican concept of the universe was geocentric, i.e. they thought
that the Earth was flat and was located at the center of the universe. They
believed that the Sun and the Moon along with Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus
and Mercury that made the seven known objects of the heaven were deities.
These were the only objects people could observe with their naked eyes
moving in the sky while the stars appeared to be fix.

[image: Pre-Copernican Universe Notion]

They believed that these planets or "gods" each had its own sphere. These
layers are not the same as the orbits that we know. The planets did not
orbit the Sun but they all revolved around the flat Earth in this order:

*[image: Ancient Egyptians and Greeks both concocted myths about the moon to
explain why year length had changed from 360 to 365
days.]<http://www.12x30.net/moonmyth.html>
*

**

*[image: Speculation about Archangels quotes the Catholic Encyclopedia as
saying 'The name Lucifer originally denotes the planet
Venus...']<http://www.12x30.net/angel.html>
*

**

*[image: View a Martian Calendar] <http://www.12x30.net/marscal.html>*

**

*[image: There have been at least six different notions about Saturn thru
the ages.] <http://www.12x30.net/saturn.html>*

*Moon *

*Mercury*

*Venus*

*Sun*

*Mars*

*Jupiter*

*Saturn *

The closest to the Earth was the Moon and the farthest, was  the Saturn.
Therefore the concept of the 7 layers of heaven is based on ancient
astronomy, where each celestial body occupied a crystal sphere one placed on
top of the other like layers of an onion. .

Both Judaism and Christianity make reference to these layers of heaven. For
example Dante in his Divina Comedia refers to it and Paul the apostle, in 2
Corinthians 12:2<http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=2COR+12:2&language=english&version=NIV&showfn=on&showxref=on>
says: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the *
third* *heaven*. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not
know–God knows."

The heaven was the physical world above. The concept of a spiritual heaven
is a new concept. In the mind of the ancient man the distinction between
physical heaven (sky) and spiritual heaven was fuzzy. For example "cielo" in
Spanish still means both sky and heaven.

Not only the Heaven had seven layers, the Earth also had seven layers and it
represented the underworld or the Hell. Dante, for example on visiting the
lowest level of Hell meets two men with their bodies split and he learns
that they were Muhammad and Ali. He describes his encounter with these two
wretched men graphically:

"Truly cask, by losing mid-board or cross-piece, is not so split open as one
I saw cleft from the chin to where the wind is broken: between his legs were
hanging his entrails, his inner parts were visible, and the dismal sack that
makes ordure of what is swallowed. Whilst all on seeing him I fix myself, he
looked at me, and with his hands opened his breast, saying, "Now see how I
rend myself, see how mangled is *Mahomet. Ali* goeth before me weeping,
cleft in the face from chin to forelock; and all the others whom thou seest
here were, when living, sowers of scandal and of schism, and therefore are
they so cleft."

The number seven was so engrained in the mind of the ancient man that you
can find it everywhere.

Seven planets or gods had been identified and the phases of the moon changed
every seven days. The Bible states that God rested on the seventh day after
he completed his Creation. And every seventh year was sabbatical and that
the seven times seventh year ushered in the Jubilee year.

The Pagans divided their weeks in seven days each day representing a deity.

   1. *Saturday* which was the first day of the week (as it still is in
   Islamic countries) was dedicated to Saturn (Dies Saturni),
   2. *Sunday* to Sun (Dies Solis),
   3. *Monday* to Moon (Dies Lunae),
   4. *Tuesday* to Mars (Dies Martis),
   5. *Wednesday* to Mercury (Dies Mercurii),
   6. *Thursday* to Jupiter (Dies Jovis), and
   7. *Friday* to Venus (Dies Veneris). [1]

Out of this order come the familiar seven Archangels which include Michael,
Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and the fallen Lucifer.

The pagan concept of the seven layer of Heaven crept into Judaism and the
number seven can be found in Judaism more than anywhere else. Why? Because
Midrash teaches, there are seven layers of Heaven, obviously an influence of
Paganism in Judaism.

"When Adam sinned, the *Shechinah* departed to the First Heaven. The sin of
Kayin forced it to the Second Heaven; the Generation of Enosh to the Third;
the generation of the Flood to the Fourth; The generation of the Dispersion
to the Fifth; Sodomites, to the Sixth; Egypt of Avraham's day, to the
Seventh ... (*Bereishis Rabbah* 19:7)" [2]

According to Judaic scriptures, creation took 7 days; Naaman had to wash 7
times in the Jordan to be cleansed from leprosy; the Israelites had to march
around Jericho 7 days and 7 times on the 7th day; they had to set aside one
day in 7 for rest and worship. There was a 7-armed lampstand in the temple,
etc. In the last book, Revelation, we find mentioned 7 spirits, 7
lampstands, 7 churches, 7 stars, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 vials, 7 thunders, 7
plagues, 7 mountains and 7 kings. The tribulation period is to be 7 years
being the last "week of years" of Daniel's 70 weeks (Dan 9:24 ff).[3]

Muhammad did not invent the concept of the seven layers of Heaven. He merely
parroted it  without understanding the Pagan origin of this idea. He
wrote:

"So He ordained them seven heavens in two periods, and revealed in every
heaven its affair; and We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars… "(*
Fussilat* 41: 12)



This verse has nothing to do with layers of the atmospheres as claimed by
the charlatan Harun Yahya. It has to do with the geocentric concept of the
universe that was prevalent at the time of Muhammad. Note also that
according to Muhammad, stars are lamps that are affixed to the ceiling of
the lower layer of the Heaven for adornment purposes. The lower level is the
sphere of the Moon. Obviously stars are not in the same layer where Moon is
and neither the Moon nor the stars are in the lower atmosphere of the
Earth.



In fact the concept of the layers of heaven as mentioned in the Quran is so
unrelated to the layers of the atmosphere that the Islamic site
www.understanding-islam.com tries to give a completely mystical significance
to that verse and claims that it talks about the "*spiritual heavens"* which
the soul will encounter after the death. [4]

"The reference to the fact that God has created seven heavens has generally
been given in the Qur'an, in reply to the skepticism shown by the
disbelievers regarding the possibility of life after death. … it refers to
the vastness of His creation. It says that God has not just created one sky
-- i.e., one universe, but seven such skies -- or seven universes.

It seems that the huge universe that we live in, the one whose boundaries
are not yet known to man, is just one of these heavens (universes) there are
seven others, of which we -- with all our scientific developments -- do not
know anything about. Certain verses of the Qur'an clearly indicate that the
whole huge mass of space around us is just one of these universes..."

The Islamic site www.pakistanlink.com quotes Maududi, the renowned Muslim
scholar and the interpreter of the Quran  who says:

 "It is difficult to explain precisely what is meant by the 'seven heavens'.
In all ages man has tried, with the help of observation and speculation to
conceptualize the 'heavens', i.e. that which lies beyond and above the
earth. As we know the concepts that have thus developed have constantly
changed. Hence it would be improper to tie the meaning of these words of the
Qur'an to any one of these numerous concepts. What might be broadly inferred
from this statement is that either Allah has divided the universe beyond
earth into seven distinct spheres, or that this earth is located in that
part of the universe which consists of seven different spheres." [5]

>From the Ahadith (especially the Hadith of Mi'raj) we learn that the first
heaven is the one that is closest to the earth. So the order begins from the
earth and the highest heaven is the seventh heaven [6].



As one can see the real scholars of Islam are unable to explain the meaning
of the seven heavens mentioned in the Quran and try to give esoteric
significance to it. If we had to believe that the seven heavens is an
allusion to the seven layers of the atmosphere then we have to assume that
stars must be no more than eleven kilometers above the Earth, because as the
verse 41:12 says the lower heaven is adorned with brilliant stars. The
Troposphere ends at about eleven kilometers above the surface of the Earth.


Not only Muhammad, like other men of his time, believed that the sky had
seven layers, he also thought that the Earth was made of seven layers too.

"Allah is He Who created seven Firmaments and of the earth a similar
number…" *[Quran 65.12]*

 In this verse the number of the earths is not in question. It assumes that
everyone agrees that there are seven earths. The emphasis is on the claim
that Allah is the creator of these seven earths. The reason is because just
like the seven heavens, the ancient people had agreed that there were also
seven layers of earth. Muhammad was simply stating what seemed to be obvious
to the people of his time but of course he was dead wrong according to the
modern science.

What are these seven earths that Muhammad was talking about? If there were
seven continents on Earth, the Muslim apologists would not waste time to
claim this verse is a miracle. But we do not have seven continents. Muhammad
is talking about the seven layers of Earth. He is talking about the same
layers that were described by Dante in his Inferno. Several hadith make this
clear. Here is one:

Allah's Apostle said, "Whoever usurps the land of somebody unjustly, his
neck will be encircled with it down the seven earths (on the Day of
Resurrection). " [7]

Down the seventh earth is allusion to the bottom of the Hell, where Dante
found Muhammad and Ali with their bodies torn asunder. It is interesting to
note that both Muhammad and Ali raided innocent people killed them or exiled
them and usurped their lands unjustly. Fadak was a beautiful village with
many gardens that Muhammad usurped from the Jews of Khaibar after
annihilating them and gave it to his daughter Fatima the wife of Ali. I am
surprised Dante did not see Fadak around the neck of Muhammad and Ali when
he saw them in Hell. Isn't this another proof that even their description of
Hell was wrong?

The detailed description of these seven earths is given by Muhammad ibn 'Abd
Allah al-Kisa'i:

"... There are seven earths. *The first is* called Ramaka, beneath which is
the  Barren Wind, which can be bridled by no fewer than seventy thousand
angels. With this wind God destroyed the people of Ad. The inhabitants of
Ramaka are a nation called Muwashshim, upon whom is everlasting torment and
divine retribution. *The second earth* is called Khalada, wherein are the
implements of torture for the inhabitants of Hell. There dwells a nation
called Tamis, whose food is their own flesh and whose drink is their own
blood. *The third earth *is called Arqa, wherein dwell mulelike eagles with
spearlike tails. On each tail are three hundred and sixty poisonous quills.
Were even one quill placed on the face of the earth, the entire universe
would pass away. The inhabitants thereof are a nation called Qays, who eat
dirt and drink mothers' milk. *The fourth earth* is called Haraba, wherein
dwell the snakes of Hell, which are as large as mountains. Each snake has
fangs like tall palm trees, and if they were to strike the hugest mountain
with their fangs it would be leveled to the ground. The inhabitants of this
earth are a nation called Jilla, and they have no eyes, hands or feet but
have wings like bats and die only of old age. *The fifth earth* is called
Maltham, wherein stones of sulphur hang around the necks of infidels. When
the fire is kindled the fuel is placed on their breasts, and the flames leap
up onto their faces, as He hath said: *The fire whose fuel is men and stones
* (2:24), and *Fire shall cover their faces* (14:50). The inhabitants are a
nation called Hajla, who are numerous and who eat each other. *The sixth
earth* is called Sijjin. Here are the registers of the people of Hell, and
their works are vile, as He hath said: *Verily the register of the actions
of the wicked is surely Sijjin *(83:7). Herein dwells a nation called Qatat,
who are shaped like birds and worship God truly*. The seventh earth* is
called Ajiba and is the habitation of Iblis. There dwells a nation called
Khasum, who are BLACK and short, with claws like lions. It is they who will
be given dominion over Gog and Magog, who will be destroyed by them…  [8]

It is not hard to see these tales are nonsense. These are fairy tales that
even children today would laugh at.

As it has been proven time and again, Quran is wrong in almost all its
assertions. One error would have been enough to prove Muhammad was not a
messenger of God but a liar. We have shown that there are hundreds of errors
in the Quran. Yet Muslims desperately keep looking for "miracles" to fool
themselves and find validation for their  belief.

*           *
 ------------------------------

1- [To understand why this order was chosen see this link:
http://www.12x30.net/origin.html]

2-  http://www.neveh.org/winston/parsha63/nitzvylc.html

3-  http://www.answering-islam.org/Nehls/Ask/number19.html

4- http://www.understanding-islam.com/rq/q-014.htm

5 -  (Towards Understanding the Qur'an, translated by Zafar Ishaq Ansari,
vol. 1, p.58 note no. 34.) From the Ahadith (especially the Hadith of
Mi'raj) http://www.pakistanlink.com/religion/2000/03-31.html

6- Ibid

7- *[Bukhari Volume 3, Book 43, Number 63. see also: Volume 3, Book 43,
Number 633: and Volume 3, Book 43, Number 634:]*

*8- *(*Tales of the Prophets-Qisas al-anbiya*, trans. Wheeler M. Thackston
Jr. [Great Books of the Islamic World, Inc., Distributed by Kazi
Publications; Chicago, IL 1997], pp. 8-9)" taken from:
http://answering-islam.org.uk/Quran/Science/seven_earths.html
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