Hi is Naaji,
Sorry i have LOADS of revision for exams so im not gonna be able to post very often at all any more, maybe as little as once a week, id like to answer what twohumble says about the setting of the sun.
Sorry twohumble, but your wrong, Al-Quran is right. The Quran is not telling us where the sun sets, it is telling us a location on earth, which is clear to see if you read the verses! These ayat in surah eighteen are describing three events of a traveller. the one you are talking about is describing the traveller going to where the sun sets i.e. the west. or as far west as the traveller knew. When he got there "he found it set in a spring of muddy water" this doesnt say that the sun set in a spring of muddy water! Merely the traveller at the location found that where he saw the sun set (i.e. towards the west of the land) he had found springs and unclear water... this is understood by many interpreters to be Ochrida (west of macedonia), which is fed entirely by underground springs, and the water is never very clear in this region. it is clear to see that when we look at ayat 90, the quran is talking about location where the sun sets, and NOT where the sun actually sets:
018.086 Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.
018.090 Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom
are you going to say that the sun rises from people because of this ayat, it is wrong to assume that, read the verse you will see that Ayat 86 says that the sun sets where there is murky water andsprings, and that the sun then rises where there are a people without protection from the sun. No contradiction exists in Al-Quran. ul