EARTH, The. Arabic arz ارض Muhammad taught his followers that
hust as there are seven heavens [HEAVEN.] on above another, so
there are seven earths one beneath another, the distance between
each of these regions being five hundred years’ journey.
(Mishkat, book xxiv c I part 3) In the Qur’an the earth is said
to be stretched out like a carpet or bed (Surah ii 20; xiii 8;
xxviii, 6), which expression the ancient commentators understood
to imply that the earth was a vast palne, but circular; and
(Surah xxxix 67) to be but a handful in the sight of God, which
in the last day shall be changed with another earth (Surah xiv
49). The earth is believed by Muslim writers to be surrounded by
a great sea called al-Bahru ‘l-Muhit, or the circumambient ocean
which is bounded by the mountains of Qaf. The extent of the
earth is said to be two hundred years journey being allotted to
the sea two hundred to the uninhabited desert, eighty to the
country of Gog and Magog (Yajuj wa Majuj) and the rest to the
civilized world. Cert