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Sura 43
Aya 38
38
حَتّىٰ إِذا جاءَنا قالَ يا لَيتَ بَيني وَبَينَكَ بُعدَ المَشرِقَينِ فَبِئسَ القَرينُ

Ali Unal

But in the end, when such a one comes to Us (on Judgment Day), he says (to his comrade): “Ah, would that between me and you were the distance of the two easts.1 How evil a comrade!”
  • This phrase is highly typical, and suggests that the earth is sphere. As we know, the point where the sun sets in a hemisphere is, in fact, the same point where it rises in another; and so the setting of the sun is a relative fact. What is meant is the distance between the east and the west – the distance which is impossible to cross.