A statement in the holy qu'ran

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It technically says the same thing in the Bible, you know (not in one of the inspired books, though of course by now none of them are inspired anymore since they've all been corrupted). Funny thing is, it's in the middle of a verse which also describes the earth as a circle:

It is he [God] who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; [and it is also He] who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:22, Revised Standard)
 
Aha! Found it! A.J. Arberry does indeed render it exactly as I remembered, with that same present tense verb and verbatim:

And heaven—We built it with might, and We extend it wide. (Surah 51, verse 47)

This is from one of the two most renowned English translations ever written—a translation made by a non-Muslim with no pro-(or anti-)Islamic message to push. Khaleel Mohammed, for instance, said of it that “the translation is without prejudice and is probably the best around” (source). And I don’t think that it was common knowledge among scientific laypeople when the translation came out in 1955 that the cosmos are expanding anyway.
 
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When I posted the post above even though I had pressed the post button only once I was, bizarrely, taken to a screen saying that you have to wait for twenty seconds or whatever after posting before you can post again. As a result, I ended up with a duplicate post where there certainly wouldn't have been one had the board not malfunctioned. Unable to delete my own post, I am stuck having to edit it instead. I request that the mods delete this, please. I'm sure they can.
 
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