A Very Concerned Reader: Mr. Khattab and the Ostrich and her eggs Part 3

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Apr 18, 2021 at 09:21

The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Arabic defines the words دحا دحو or Daha and Dahw as: To spread, flatten, level, unroll. And this is very similar to the definitions in tafsir al-Tabari. As for the word مدحى or Madha it is defined as: Roller steam roller page: 273

Notice, nothing about an egg or an ostrich.

Now, if you check the other top tier امهات التفاسير (the mothers of al-Tafasir) the likes of Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi they also both define the word Dahahha as: بسط ومد or: Flatten, unroll and stretch and nothing about the ostrich or her egg.

Next, Ibn Abbas the cousin of Muhammad tells us (preserved in al-Qurtubi's tafsir): خلق الله الكعبة ووضعها على الماء على اربع اركان .....ثم دحيت الارض من تحت البيت or: Allah created al-Ka'ba and he placed it on the water then the earth was made flat (duhiyat) from under the house (al-Ka'ba)!

So Ibn Abbas is saying that Duhiyat means made flat. More? He also fixes Allah's wrong chronology by telling us that the word بعد or "after" in the verse should be مع or "with"! So the correct verse should be: والارض مع ذالك دحاها

And no mention of ostrich or her egg.

We have to go back and check the Qur'an about what happened to the flat earth that was created?

Now we go to Surat al-Qalam aka Surat Nuun

We have to take a detour into Aramaic/Syriac

This is the Quranic ن or N and this is how it is read by al-Tabari نون or Nuun. And as usual no one has a clue what this نون really means. Well, in Aramaic/Syriac the word ܢܘܢܐ or Nunna and it means fish.And this is indeed what the word in the Arabic text really means. However, al-Mufasereen, as you shall see later could not see the earth sitting on a fish. So al-Tabari changes the fish and makes it a "whale" or حوت (Hoot). Then al-Tabari tells us that the creation is as follows: Allah created the skies, then the pen, then he raised the vapor of the water and created from it the skies (pl.) and then he created Nuun (the whale) then he spread the earth (Dahaaha) and placed the earths (plural) on top of the whale called Nuun. However, the pesky earth moved (no I'm not kidding) and Allah created the mountains so the pesky would not move!

So imagine this: We have the flat earth sitting on top of a whale (Nuun) which is floating in water!

No wonder the Meccan pagans called his stories: Asateer al-Awaleen or fables of the ancients

And no ostrich or her egg.

BTW: We in this forum danielpipes.org got to know about this funny claim by a Muslim from either Pakistan or India who used to post in this forum and told us that Dahaaha means: Allah created the earth like the egg of an ostrich! And that Dahaaha is a Berber word! Well there is no Berber language. There is Amazigh language and the Qur'an is an Arabic book and not an Amazigh book. So it is a big fat lie

Now, let us check Lisan al-'Arab: This is what Ibn Manzur wrote: دحا or Daha (verb past tense) means: البسط واوسعها or To flatten and expand. Very similar to al-Tabari

Then Ibn Manzur explains the various derivatives of the word Daha and his gives an example: مبيض النعام في الرمل لان النعامة تدحوه برجلها ثم تبيض فيه وليس للنعام عش or the place where the ostrich lays her eggs in the sand, (the ostrich) makes it flat with her legs then she lays the eggs and an ostrich does not have a nest!

More? ومدحى النعلم:موضع بيضها (notice the word Madha in Hans Wehr dictionary) or The place where the ostrich lays her eggs is called Madha al-Na'am or the flat area created by the ostrich in-order to lay her eggs!

So much for the bogus and shameful claim that the word Dahaaha means Allah created earth like the egg of an ostrich.

I cannot prove it but I suspect that some fool whose command of Arabic is poor or he is a liar read it as the earth is like the egg of an ostrich and the word Dahaaha means made like an egg and it became the old nonsense: "How can an illiterate man some 1400 years ago know that the earth is like the egg of an ostrich" and every tablighee and his cousin in Pakistan and India believe and repeat this nonsense.

Here is Ibn Manzur's Dahaaha and the Ostrich and her eggs

https://islamweb.net/ar/library/index.php?page=bookcontents&ID=2479&bk_no=122&idfrom=2476&idto=2476

Dear readers: You think we should tell Mr. Khattab that his Footnote about Dahaaha means "made it like an egg" is bogus and shameful?

So how many stars should we award Mr Khattab for his translation?

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