Flat earth?

Matthew 4:8—”Here it says that the earth is flat, which is not true.”

If the critic had read carefully, he would see that this was a miraculous and instantaneous vision, which Luke 4:5 makes clear: “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.” It is ridiculous to assume that Luke or Matthew fancied Rome could be viewed from a high mountain—they were recording a miraculous vision. One might as well question the Mi’raj, how the Prophet could have rode a winged horse to Jerusalem, up to heaven and back in one night.

The Qur’ān also has verses which appear to indicate a flat earth:

“Do they never reflect on .. the heaven, how it was raised on high? The mountains, how they were set down? The earth, how it was made flat?” (Al-Ghashiyah 88:18-20 )

Renowned commentator Al-Jalalayn’s tafsir on this verse reads,

“As for His words sutihat , ‘laid out flat’, this on a literal reading suggests that the earth is flat, which is the opinion of most of the scholars of the Law, and not a sphere as astronomers have it…”1

Likewise, the Egypt Shafi’ie theologian Imam al-Suyuti also taught that the earth is flat.

1. Available online from http://altafsir.com (Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan).