The Seven Earths

Their Existence and their Location
It may come as a surprise to some of our readers to find that the Qur'an teaches that Allah created seven earths.

"It is Allah Who has created seven heavens, and earths as many ..." S. 65:12, F. Malik's translation

What should we understand these seven earths to be? Earth in the sense of a land mass, i.e. seven continents located on our one planet earth? Other planets similar to our earth? Before we can evaluate whether this Quranic statement is true, i.e. decide about its scientific correctness, we need to clarify the exact understanding of these ‘seven earths’, particularly how Muhammad understood them. The teaching on the seven earths is found in the early Islamic data, the ahadith and commentaries on the Qur'an.