A New Look at the Issue of Returning the Sun; A Comparative Study between Shiite Sources and the Bible

The issue of returning the sun, especially when it was raised as a virtue for Imam Ali (AS), led to long-standing debates among Quran commentators, hadith scholars, and theologians. What has remained unnoticed concerning this matter is its background in the Bible and related studies. In this article, we seek to compare the Shiite and biblical approaches to this issue, in order to identify the currents of thought in these two groups and compare them with each other. The existence of two currents, textualist and rationalist, in Shiite and biblical studies is one of the similarities between two groups. The textualist current wants to accept this incident as it has been narrated, although they do not find any rational justification for it. But the rationalist current seeks to give a plausible justification for this event, in accordance with external events and scientific discoveries, justifications such as the occurrence of earthquakes, which, although difficult, can somewhat explain the possibility of this event.