WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE HADITH THAT SAYS "THE WORLD IS ON THE BULL AND THE FISH"?

This time you ask in your question: “The hojas say that the earth rests on a bull and a fish. Whereas geography sees it hanging in space and travelling like a star. There is neither a bull nor a fish?”

T h e A n s w e r : There is a sound narration attributed to people like Ibn Abbas (May God be pleased with him), that they asked the Most Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace): “What is the world on?” He replied: “On the Bull and the Fish.” In one narration, he said one time, “On the Bull,” and on another occasion he said, “On the Fish.” Some of the scholars of Prophetic traditions applied this Hadith to the superstitions and stories taken from Isra’iliyat, related since early times. Especially some of the scholars of the Children of Israel who became Muslims, they applied the Hadith to the stories about the Bull and the Fish they had seen in the former scriptures, changing its meaning to something strange. For now I shall write Three Principles and Three Aspects in connection with your question.

FIRST PRINCIPLE

When some of the scholars of the Children of Israel became Muslims, their former knowledge became Muslim along with them and was ascribed to Islam. However, there were errors in that former knowledge of theirs which were certainly their errors and not Islam’s.

SECOND PRINCIPLE

On comparisons and metaphors passing from the elite to the common people, that is, on their falling from the hands of learning to those of ignorance, with the passage of time they are imagined to be literally true. For example, when I was a child there was an eclipse of the moon. I said to my mother: “Why has the moon gone like that?” She replied: “A snake has swallowed it.” “It can still be seen,” I said. She replied: “The snakes up there are like glass; they show the things that are inside them!”

For a long time I recalled this memory of childhood. I would say, pondering over it: “How could such a false superstition come to be repeated by serious people like my mother?” Then when I studied astronomy I realized that those like my mother who repeated it were supposing a metaphor to be reality. For on the vast circle termed the zodiac, which is the circle of the degrees of the sun, and the circle of the declination of the moon, which is the circle of the mansions of the moon, passing over one another, it gives each of the two circles the form of an arc. Using a subtle metaphor the astronomers called the two arcs “the two great serpents.” They called the points of intersection of the two circles “the head” and “the tail.” When the moon comes to the head and the sun to the tail, in the terminology of astronomy, “an interposition of the earth” occurs. That is, the globe of the earth passes right between the two of them and the moon is eclipsed. According to the above metaphor, “the moon has entered the serpent’s mouth.” Thus, when this elevated and scholarly metaphor entered the language of the common people, in the course of time it took on the shape of a huge snake swallowing the moon. Thus, with a sacred and subtle metaphor and meaningful allusion, two great angels were given the names of the Bull (Thawr) and the Fish (Hut). But on this entering the common language from the elevated tongue of the Prophethood, the metaphor was transformed into the literal meaning, and quite simply they took on the form of a truly enormous bull and awesome fish.

THIRD PRINCIPLE

Just as the Qur’an contains allegories and comparisons, and by means of them teaches most profound matters to the ordinary people, so too do Hadiths contain comparisons and allegories; they express most profound truths through familiar comparisons. For example, as we have described in two other places, one time in the presence of the Prophet (PBUH) a deep rumbling was heard. He said: “It is the sound of a rock which has been rolling downhill for seventy years and now has hit the bottom of Hell.” A few minutes later someone arrived and reported that a famous dissembler who had been seventy years old had died, thus proclaiming the reality of the Noble Prophet’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) most eloquent comparison.

For now, Three Aspects will be explained in reply to your question:

T h e F i r s t : Almighty God appointed four angels-called the Eagle (Nasr) and the Bull (Thawr)¹-as ‘bearers of the Divine Throne and the heavens,’ to supervise the sovereignty of His dominicality. He also appointed two angels as supervisors and bearers of the earth, which is the small brother of the heavens and companion of the planets. One of the angels was called the Bull and the other, the Fish. The reason for His giving these names is this:

There are two parts to the earth, one is water, and the other is earth. It is fish that inhabit the part that is water, while agriculture, which is the means of man’s life, is with bulls and oxen, which inhabit the part of the earth which is earth, and it is on the shoulders of oxen. Since the two angels appointed to the earth are both commanders and supervisors, they surely have to have some sort of relationship with the bovine and piscine species. Indeed, And the knowledge is with God, the angels are represented in the Worlds of the Inner Dimensions of Things and of Similitudes in the forms of a bull and a fish.² And so, alluding to that relationship and supervision and to those two important species of creatures of the earth, the Prophet (PBUH) stated in his miraculous manner of expression: “The earth is on the Bull and the Fish,” thus expressing in a fine, concise sentence a page of profound truths.

S e c o n d A s p e c t : For example, if it is said: “What does this government and rule rest on?,” it will be said in reply: “On the sword and the pen.” That is, it rests on the valour of the soldier’s sword and the perspicacity and justice of the official’s pen. In the just same way, since the earth is the dwelling-place of animate beings and the commander of animate beings is man, and fish are the means of livelihood of the majority of men who live by the sea, and the means of livelihood of the majority of those who do not live by the sea is through agriculture, which is on the shoulders of bulls and oxen, and fish are also an important means of trade, for sure as the state rests on the sword and the pen, so it may also be said that the earth rests on the ox and the fish. For whenever the ox does not work and fish does not produce millions of eggs, man cannot live, life ceases, and the All-Wise Creator destroys the earth.

Thus, with a most miraculous, elevated, and wise reply, the Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) said: “The earth is on the bull and the fish.” He taught an extensive truth with two words, showing how closely connected are man’s life and the life of the animal species.

T h i r d A s p e c t : In the view of ancient cosmology the sun travelled, and they defined a constellation every thirty degrees of its journey. If hypothetical lines are drawn connecting the stars in the constellations with one another, when a single situation results, sometimes they show the shape of a lion, sometimes the shape of scales, sometimes the shape of a bull, sometimes the shape of a fish. Names were given to the constellations as a consequence of those relationships. But in the view of astronomy this century, the sun does not travel. The constellations remained idle and without work, for the globe of the earth travels instead of the sun. In which case it necessitates them being formed in small measure in the annual orbit of the earth on the ground instead of those lofty idle constellations above. Thus, the heavenly constellations are represented out of earth’s annual orbit, and each month the earth is in the shadow and likeness of one of the heavenly constellations. It is as if the heavenly constellations are represented in the mirror-like yearly orbit of the earth.

Thus in this respect, as we mentioned above, the Most Noble Prophet(Upon whom be blessings and peace) on one occasion said: “On the Bull,” and on another occasion, he said: “On the Fish.” Yes, indicating a most profound truth which would be understood many centuries later, he one time said in the miraculous tongue of Prophethood: “On the Bull,” because at the time in question, the earth was in the likeness of the Constellation of the Bull. And on being asked one month later, he said: “On the Fish.” For then the earth was in the shadow of the Constellation of the Fish.

So, indicating to an elevated truth that would be understood in the future, and alluding to the duty of the earth’s motion and journeying, and to the facts that the heavenly constellations are idle and without guests in regard to the sun, and that the constellations that truly work are in the earth’s annual orbit, and that it is the earth which journeys and performs duties in the constellations, he said: “On the Bull and the Fish.”

And God knows best what is right.

The extraordinary and unreasonable stories in certain Islamic books are either Isra’iliyat, or they are allegories, or they are the interpretations of scholars of Hadith, which certain careless people have supposed to be Hadiths and attributed them to the Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace).

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.³

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.⁴

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1. Bayhaqi, Shu’abu’l-Iman 433; Zahabi, Mizanu’l-I’tidal iv, 352; Suyuti, ad-Durru’l-Mansur i, 329.
2. The globe of the earth is a dominical ship ploughing the oceans of space, and according to a Hadith, is the tillage of the Hereafter, that is, an arable field and nursery. So it is clear how fitting are the name of Fish for the angel who commands that huge lifeless and (Over)

3. Qur’an, 2:282.
4. Qur’an, 2:32.