agreed that the earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun moved. The famous astronomer, Copernicus, who was the protagonist of the new theory, discovered the movement of the earth and the immobility of the sun. Until his time all the astronomers and philosophers of the world followed the Ptolemaic system, and whoever said anything against it was considered ignorant. Though Pythagoras, and Plato during the latter part of his life, adopted the theory that the annual movement of the sun around the Zodiac does not proceed from the sun, but rather from the movement of the earth around the sun; this theory had been entirely forgotten, and the Ptolemaic system was accepted by all mathematicians. But there are some verses revealed in the Qur’án contrary to the theory of the Ptolemaic system. One of them is, “The sun moves in a fixed place” (Sura 36), which shows the fixity of the sun, and its movement around an axis. Again, in another verse, “And each star moves in its own heaven” (Sura 36). Thus is explained the movement of the sun, of the moon, of the earth, and of other bodies. When the Qur’án appeared all the mathematicians ridiculed these statements, and attributed the theory to ignorance. Even the doctors of Islám, when they saw that these verses were contrary to the accepted Ptolemaic system, were obliged to explain them away.
It was not until after the fifteenth century of the Christian era, nearly nine hundred years after Muḥammad, that a famous astronomer, Galileo, made new observations and important discoveries by the aid of the telescope which he had invented. The rotation of the earth, the fixity of the sun, and also its movement around an axis, were discovered. It is thus evident that the verses of the Qur’án agree with existing facts, and that the Ptolemaic system is imaginary.
In short, many Oriental peoples have been reared for thirteen centuries under the shadow of the religion of Muḥammad. During the middle ages, while Europe was in the lowest depths of barbarism, the Arab peoples were superior to the other nations of the earth in learning, in the arts, mathematics, civilization, government, and other sciences. The enlightener and educator of these nomadic tribes, and the founder of the civilization and perfections of humanity among these different races, was an illiterate man, Muḥammad. Was this illustrious man a thorough educator or not? A just judgment is necessary.