Apostate prophet finds a crack; the solid sky of the Quran?

In answer to the video "43 Scientific Mistakes in the Quran"

The Quran implies the non-solid nature of the various created samawaat/heavens. It firstly says that the primordial sama' was gaseous 41:11. It calls sama' the area where we are, above the ground composed of jaww/air where birds fly, clouds move 16:79,30:48 which is nothing else than the troposphere. There are living creatures WITHIN (not under or upon) the heavens/assamawaat 27:87,29:22,42:29, including ourselves. 

"Pieces from the sky" coming down on earth, as the disbelievers repeatedly challenged the prophet 17:92,26:187 does not mean chunks coming off the gaseous atmospheric entity above, but rather simply signifies originating from the region of the sky. This includes any meteorological phenomena such as hail, or stones as occurred with the destroyed town of Lot, or as similarly happened with the invading army of the elephant in Mecca, meteors, asteroids or any other space debris. It even includes clouds, coming down from the sky. In fact the Quran states that when this phenomenon occurs on the resurrection, these disbelievers will think they are invaded by clouds 52:44, yet it will neither be solid pieces nor clouds but a smoke coming from assama'/the sky that will overtake them in such a way they will not find any escape route from it 44:10-11. Had the Quran assumed a solid sky, this would have been the most appropriate place for it to speak of chunks of canopy detaching and falling. 

A quiet dreadful image is pictured in 39:16,77:30-4 with the disbelievers on the day of resurrection, told to proceed and advance to what they denied, only to find themselves trapped from their front, left and right, from above and below, with a kind of "shade" that will neither be cooling nor protecting, but rather blazing and sparking.

That shade, which actually is the darkness cast by a thick and burning smoke, will pursue them until hell 56:43-44 -hence the often alluded to blackened and dusty face of the doomed 80:40-2- where they will be trapped from all sides and engulfed by the fire 7:41,29:55.

If the opponent wants to argue that the broad and general word sama' refers in 17:92,26:187,52:44 to the atmosphere, then it still means the Quran is correctly implying it is composed of gases. No solid entities will fall from it. As a side note, the Quran says the sama' is expanding 51:47 and that the sun and moon, which are all in one same sama' with other cosmic bodies like the stars 25:61, all literally swim/yasbahun in it 21:33,36:40,79:3. There is no swimming in a solid entity.

All the samawaat/plural of sama', have been raised high 20:4 (see Bible in Isa55:9). Particular attention is directed at one of these layers and how it was raised 88:18,55:7 with its highest point, which we could interpret as the top of the atmosphere, appearing like a vault above the earth, called the roof/saqf 52:5. The sama' was originally one entity, then perfected into a "good" state, made thick/samk 79:28, into several distinct but harmonious entities as denoted with tabaq/levels/layers 2:29,67:3,71:15. Each layer has its function 78:12 and is firmly secured. Some of these layers offer protection to the earth like a roof does (stratosphere, mesosphere, upwards) 2:22,40:64 which is why many translators rendered binaa'/structure as roof or canopy in these verses. As shown earlier these verses clearly parallel the hospitability of our world to a tent, with its comfortable floor (earth), elsewhere likened to a cradle 20:53,78:6 and its stretched roof providing protection.

The spreading of heavens is a notion found all throughout the Hebrew Bible Ps104:2,Isa42:5,44:24,45:12,Jer10:12, with the added qualification that it is a "hard" entity that could not have been spread other than by the power of God Job37:18. Due to that hardness, the descent of an entity down to earth necessitates the bending and parting of the solid heavens 2Sam22:10,Ps18:10. These heavens also appear like a circular canopy above the earth, on which God "sits" Isa40:22.
Nothing even remotely similar appears in the Quran although the metaphors of creation employed in both the HB and the Quran are very close.

The samawaat/heavens are in a state of harmony, they are guarded and remain layered as they are for the maintenance of life on Earth. The massive heavenly components above do not collide nor come down on Earth as to cause complete destruction 21:32,22:65. It is Allah Who upholds all the heavens/samawaat so as to avoid that outcome, without any pillars as we can see 13:2. This verse, meant at striking the reader with the constant necessity for Allah's might and mercy by holding up the complex order of things above at all times without relying on any supports like pillars, would make absolutely no sense if it meant Allah actually relied on invisible pillars to do the job. He does so through His laws of nature which He maintains at each instant 32:5,65:12 making both heavens and earth to subsist by His command 30:25, these laws through which He prevents both heaven and earth from ceasing to function, and which uphold them BOTH

22:65,35:41"upholds the heavens and the earth lest they come to naught".

Allah therefore upholds/yumsik both heavens and earth, not only the heavens or what is above the earth. This gives an additional dimension to the word "upholding", giving it the sense of "sustaining" as well. This passage also demonstrates the delicate balance the Quran makes in its use of general but appropriate words, so as to not confirm nor deny the views of nature of its reader, focusing instead on the spiritual message. By upholding both heavens and earth, the Quran does not depict the earth as "the bottom" of the universe for just as the heavens are upheld, the earth too is upheld by Allah. If one wishes to find "indications" on whether the earth is stationary or not, then one can as well reflect the Quranic depiction of the general motion of all celestial bodies floating in their independent trajectories, as applying to the earth too which is floating in space. A modern reader could then also assume, since this upholding is done without any visible pillars, then it must be done through God establishing an equilibrium between the repelling and attractive forces at play in the universe. These forces by the way are known to be on the thinnest of razor edges, where the slightest variation will throw the entire system into disarray 

54:49"Surely We have created everything according to a measure".

In the Hebrew Bible, God causes earthquakes by "touching" the land Amos9:5, which in turn shakes the pillars underneath and above it

Job9:6"He Who causes the earth to quake from its place, and its pillars shudder"  

Isa24:18"the foundations of the earth have trembled"  

Job26:11"The pillars of the heavens trembled and are astonished from His rebuke".

As stated again in 2Sam22:8, when the earth shakes, the tremor is felt in the heavens too because of the pillars holding them up. God's anger causes this quacking and the mountains are what the writers had in mind when speaking of "pillars" Ps18:7,104:32,114:4,Isa5:25.

To the primitive and imaginative mind, mountains, these huge objects set on the earth with the strength of God Ps65:7, existing since the beginning of the earth's creation Ps104:5-6, appear to be preventing earth and heavens from collapsing into one another. Elsewhere however there is mention of other pillars, holding the world itself up and that are visible at the bottom of the seas 1Sam2:8,2Sam22:16. These are the pillars that keep the land afloat above  the waters on which it was established Ps24:2,136:6.

These citations arent meant at disparaging the Bible, rather at showing how different would have the Quran looked, had it represented the views of the ancients people who are supposed to have authored it. The Quran had plenty of occasions to make such statements, as the imageries used are many cases similar with the HB. And yet in not one instance does it even slip so as to betray the hand of its 7th century Arabian scribes.

Back to the Quran, it is God only that preserves the order of the things above us without having recourse to massive structures like pillars, as well as below us. He maintains that order despite man's ungratefulness, and if He would stop upholding them both, nothing -no pillars- would maintain them in order

"and if they should come to naught, there is none who can uphold them after Him; surely He is the Forbearing, the Forgiving".

Linguistically, the negation of a possibility does not necessarily entail its opposite. The statement "without pillars you can see" does not entail "with pillars you cannot see".

The universe, above and below, is thus maintained without disruptions, although cataclysms from heaven may exceptionally descend

22:65"except with His permission".

Until such a time arrives, the sky remains a source of protection to man like a structure just as the earth is a comfortable "couch" or a "cradle" allowing the development of life 2:22,20:53,40:64.

The verse 50:6 directs our eyes to a specific region of the sky; that of the stars where it precisely says that the cosmic bodies literally swim/yasbahun, ie a non-solid area. The verse 67:3 directs us for inspection not only to that same area but to all the heavens. These verses ask the audience and readers to look at all that is above and notice the coherence. There is no break in that coherence because of the regularity and uniformity of the laws working in the universe

"Who created the seven heavens one above another; you see no incongruity/futur in the creation of the Beneficent Allah; then look again, can you see any disorder?".

"Futur" literally means splitting lengthwise, though it also connotes breaking the fast, inconsistency, and corruption. Corruption is the intended sense herein. The blessed Verse is saying that no matter how attentively man studies the world of Creation, he may not find the least defect or disharmony in it. Many natural occurrences whether in the earth when floods, or earthquakes occur, or in the heavens when stars explode and celestial bodies collide, appear as blemishes at the first glance within the order of things. Further observations however reveal that there are significant causes behind them.

These verses come in the context of providing proof for divine justice because just as One Being subjected this world to coherent laws without any sudden break in uniformity, He will subject the hereafter to the same principle of coherence especially in regards to the just reward of good and evil.