Let me put it this way. Try finding the primary or reliable secondary sources for these. If you can't, that you may realize where I'm coming from.
Agreed.
Cosmology
See also:
Orbit of the sun,
Geocentric model,
Astronomy in Islam, and
Apostasy in Islam
In 1966, when Ibn Baz was vice-president of the
Islamic University of Medina, he wrote an article denouncing
Riyadh University for teaching the "falsehood" that the earth rotates and orbits the sun.
[28][29] In his article, Ibn Baz claimed that the sun orbited the earth,
[30][31][32] and that "the earth is fixed and stable, spread out by God for mankind and made a bed and cradle for them, fixed down by mountains lest it shake".
[32] As a result of the publication of his first article, Ibn Baz was ridiculed by Egyptian journalists as an example of Saudi primitiveness,
[33] and
King Faisal was reportedly so angered by the first article that he ordered the destruction of every unsold copy of the two papers that had published it.
[28][32] In 1982 Ibn Baz published a book,
Al-adilla al-naqliyya wa al-ḥissiyya ʿala imkān al-ṣuʾūd ila al-kawākib wa ʾala jarayān al-shams wa al-qamar wa sukūn al-arḍ ("Treatise on the textual and rational proofs of the rotation of the sun and the motionlessness of the earth and the possibility of ascension to other planets"). In it, he republished the 1966 article, together with a second article on the same subject written later in 1966,
[34] and repeated his belief that the sun orbited the earth.
[35] In 1985, he changed his mind concerning the rotation of the earth (and, according to Lacey, ceased to assert its flatness), when
Prince Sultan bin Salman returned home after a week aboard the space shuttle
Discovery to tell him that he had seen the earth rotate.
[28][36]
In addition, there was controversy concerning the nature of the
takfir (the act of declaring other Muslims to be
kafir or unbelievers) which it was claimed Ibn Baz had pronounced. According to
Malise Ruthven, he threatened all who did not accept his "pre-
Copernican" views with a
fatwa, declaring them infidels.
[37] Ibn Baz wrote a letter to a magazine in 1966 responding to similar accusations:
I only deemed it lawful to kill whoever claims that the sun is static (thābita la jāriya) and refuses to repent of this after clarification. This is because denying the circulation of the sun constitutes a denial of Allah (Glorified be He), His Great Book, and His Honourable Messenger. It is well established in the Din (religion of Islam) by way of decisive evidence and Ijma` (consensus) of scholars that whoever denies Allah, His Messenger or His Book is a Kafir (disbeliever), and their blood and wealth become violable. It is the duty of the responsible authority to ask them to repent of this; either they repent or be executed. Thanks to Allah that this issue is not debatable among scholars.
[38][39]
Ibn Baz's second article written in 1966 also responded to similar accusations:
I did not declare those who believe that the earth rotates to be infidels, nor those who believe that the sun moving around itself, but I do so for those who say that the sun is static and does not move (thābita la jāriya), which is in my last article. Whoever says so being an infidel is obvious from the Quran and the Sunnah, because God almighty says: 'And the sun runs on (tajri) to a term appointed for it' ... As for saying that the Sun is fixed in one position but still moving around itself, ..., I did not deal with this issue in my first article, nor have I declared as infidel anyone who says so.
[34][40] Western writers subsequently have drawn parallels between their perception of Ibn Baz and the
trial of Galileo by the
Catholic Church in the 16th century.
[41]
Ibn Baz is often said to have believed that the
Earth was flat. Author
Robert Lacey says that Ibn Baz gave an interview "in which he mused on how we operate day to day on the basis that the ground beneath us is flat ... and it led him to the belief that he was not afraid to voice and for which he became notorious."
[36] Though satirized for his belief, "the sheikh was unrepentant. If Muslims chose to believe the world was round, that was their business, he said, and he would not quarrel with them religiously. But he was inclined to trust what he felt beneath his feet rather than the statements of scientists he did not know."
[36] According to Lacey, Ibn Baz changed his mind about the earth's flatness after talking to Prince
Sultan bin Salman Al Saud who had spent time in a space shuttle flight in 1985.
[42]
However, Malise Ruthven and others state that it is incorrect to report that Ibn Baz believed "the earth is flat"
[35] Professor Werner Ende, a German expert on Ibn Baz's fatwas, states he has never asserted this.
[33] Abd al-Wahhâb al-Turayrî calls those that attribute the flat earth view to Ibn Baz "rumour mongers". He points out that Ibn Baz issued a fatwa declaring that the Earth is round,
[43][44] and, indeed, in 1966 Ibn Baz wrote "The quotation I cited [in his original article] from the speech of the great scholar
Ibn Al-Qayyim (may Allah be merciful to him) includes proof that the earth is round."
[38]
Lacey quotes a fatwa by Ibn Baz urging caution towards claims that the
Americans had landed on the moon. "We must make careful checks whenever the
kuffar [unbelievers] or
faseqoon [immoral folk] tell us something: we cannot believe or disbelieve them until we get sufficient proof on which the Muslims can depend."
[36]
A Saudi cleric has appeared in a recent video rejecting the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun and claiming the opposite holds true, prompting a
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