The Qur’an speaks of the existence of seven skies or seven heavens, but where are they?

Question:
The Qur’an speaks of the existence of seven skies or seven heavens, but where are they? Does the Qur’an refer to the billions of galaxies that exist in the universe?

Answer:
The Arabic term “sama”, which is used for sky or heaven, has a much wider linguistic sense. In defining it, Arabic linguists say, “whatever is raised above you is your sama”. The word certainly does not refer to the blue color that we see because that color is not an object. The Quranic reference to “seven heavens created, one on top of another” should be understood in general sense. Moreover, the term seven is often used in Arabic to denote, “plenty”. It is often used not to suggest a specific number, but to imply a large number. The same applies to the figure seventy.

The Prophet (PBUH), for example, is told in the Qur’an not to seek forgiveness for the hypocrites. God tells him, “…if you were to ask seventy times for their forgiveness, God will not forgive them…” (At-Tawba 9:80)

The Prophet comments: “Had I known that if I would go beyond seventy they could be forgiven, I would have done so.

This shows clearly that the Prophet understood the Quranic statement that uses the figure seventy as implying an indefinite number. Now that we know that there are hundreds of galaxies, each with billions of stars and planets, we take the Quranic reference to seven skies as denoting the vast universe. That is because the term “sky” or “sama”, is readily understood to refer to what we see in the sky of the planets and stars. Therefore, we cannot see any contradiction between the Quranic statements in this connection and what astronomers tell us about the universe.