Surah 18: 83 - 86:
Dhul-Qarnain (Allegedly Alexander the Great.) found the setting place of the sun, which set in a spring of “black, muddy (or hot) water” and he found it near a people.
This implies we can reach the setting place of the sun, because Dhul-Qarnain reached it. The counter argument to this is it looked as if it were setting, not that it actually was. However, the Quran doesn’t talk as if it were from Dhul-Qarnain’s perspective, but rather objectively. At no point is it ever written from Dhul-Qarnain’s perspective. It never says “as if.”
It’s clear the writer of the Quran didn’t know the world was round. Muhammad lived near the sea, and he saw the sun set in the west, and that’s all he knew. So when he wrote about Dhul-Qarnain, he wrote that he was so mighty that he reached the place where the sun sets, and rises.
Book of recitations: 4002:
It was narrated that Abu Dharr said: “I was riding behind the Messenger of Allah while he was on a donkey, and the sun was setting. He said: “Do you know where this (sun) sets? I said: “Allah and his messengers know best.” He said: “It sets in a spring of warm water.”
- Dhul-Qarnain isn’t mentioned. This isn’t a story of someone travelling anywhere, it’s Muhammad asking a follower of his if he knows where the sun sets, and his follower replying with “I don’t know” and then Muhammad saying it sets in a body of warm water. It never says “It appears as if” or “it seems to”
- It is graded as “sahih” or “authentic”, yet Muslim apologists claim it isn’t reliable, because it is just one account. An alternative hadith is often used, where a “resting place” is mentioned, however we know that the sun doesn’t have a “resting place” as the Earth rotates around the sun continuously.
