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Know that they have agreed that the earth is spherical. It lies within water that surrounds most of it, since dry land constitutes slightly more than one-sixth of it. The water, too, curves around the earth on every side. The distance between the water above the earth and heaven is like the distance between us and heaven overhead. Beneath the earth’s surface lies only its interior, and the ultimate point downward is the center.

Thus, we have only two clearly defined directions: up and down. Directions vary according to a person’s position. The earth’s upper side is its surface on every side. Its lower region lies beneath its surface, and the ultimate central point is what is called the resting place of heavy bodies. Movement from the surface of the earth and water toward the center, from any direction, is descent; movement from the center toward the surface is ascent.

Since the lowest heaven is above the earth and surrounds it, the second heaven is spherical, as are the remaining heavens. The Kursī (Footstool) is above all the celestial spheres, and the Throne is above the Kursī. The celestial spheres and everything within them, compared with the Kursī, are like a ring in a vast wilderness; all of them together, compared with the Throne, are like a ring in a vast wilderness.

The celestial spheres are round, as established by the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus. The word falak (celestial sphere) itself denotes roundness. Hence Allah’s words:

“And each floats in an orbit.”

Ibn ‘Abbās said: “In a circle like a spindle whorl.”

The same usage appears in the expression tafallaka thady al-jāriya, said when a young woman’s breast becomes rounded. Scholars of cosmography and mathematical calculation agree on this.