by Oeditor wrote:That's a better explanation than the apologists come up with - get it copyrighted! As you say, though, it just confirms fallibility - its just cracking up Mohammed's knowledge of folklore instead of imparting any knowledge of real astronomy.
It actually seems to be a fairly common tafsir (exegesis), at least the part about the passage being a response to a challenge for Muhammed to come up with the story. Interestingly,though, most of these "scholars" still seem to consider the story to be some sort of historical narrative, rather than a fable or legend. I guess that's unavoidable if one believes the Quran to be the revelation of God, because then you have to explain why this silly story was included in there.
Of course, to my mind, the explanation is quite simple: A group of skeptics decided to test Muhammed by asking him to recount a story they were convinced he did not know. Perhaps, just by luck, Muhammed actually happened to know the story, or he managed to find it out later. He then went into his standard "I'm getting a revelation from Allah, now!" act, and started rolling his eyes back, falling to the ground, speaking in a spooky voice, or whatever medium tricks he habitually employed, and told the story. Some of his followers, of course, memorized and/or recorded this because, strictly speaking, it was a revelation from Allah, and it eventually became a permanent part of the Quran, even though Muhammed probably never meant it to be such.
Anyway, just my guess.
