For as long as humans have lived, the sky and universe that we see every night have always been a spectacle of intrigue and curiosity. And consequently, many theories on astronomy have been made over the years—many of them being proven true, and confirmed by the Qur’an.

In the mid-second century, the Ptolemaic system was the widely accepted model for how the universe functioned; formulated in 150 AD, it claimed that the Earth acted as the center of the universe and that everything else in the universe moved in a perfect, circular path around our planet. Ptolemy of Alexandria, the creator of this theory, believed that all celestial bodies rode on invisible, solid spheres, meaning no celestial body in space would be able to cross one another.

Ptolemy’s theory was generally accepted until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus first proposed a heliocentric model of the universe, which claimed the sun was the center of the universe rather than the Earth.

Yet, the knowledge to disprove Ptolemy’s theory had already been revealed around 900 years prior to Copernicus with the revelation of the Qur’an.

In Surah Yasin verse 40, Allah says:

Unlike the Ptolemaic system, the Qur'an claims that the celestial bodies travel in an independent “orbit of their own.” As such, the model of Ptolemy’s universe wouldn’t fit with the model of the universe proposed by the Qur'an, as every celestial body according to Ptolemy moves in the identical, circular orbit. Yet, we now know that each celestial body has its own unique paths that are far from circular and perfect.

Additionally, the Qur'an then goes on to also disprove Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe. This heliocentric model claimed that everything rotates around the sun, meaning the sun itself does not rotate.

In Surah Al-Anbiya verse 33, however, Allah says:

The Qur'an claims the sun also travels in an orbit. Does this mean the Qur'an got it wrong?

On the contrary, it only corroborated science when early 19th-century scientists Thomas Wright and Immanuel Kant disproved heliocentrism and replaced it with the galactocentric model, which was later replaced by the ascentric model (brought on by Edwin Hubble), which theorizes that the universe is constantly expanding and that the sun moves in orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy.

And thus, the Qur'an manages to correctly identify the orbit of the sun and moon thousands of years before modern science got a chance to. How could a 6th-century Arab shepherd in the middle of a desert ever come up with this on his own, when it took thousands of scientific discoveries, scientists, and years later to come to the same conclusion?