Researched by: Ashraf Salmawi
Part One
One of the
oldest questions to be asked about the universe was "How did it begin?" That
question always puzzled mankind. The answer to such question depended on the
faith and civilization current to the scientist.
In the early days of the Greek philosophers the
universe was the making of gods and goddesses, but how they actually performed
the act of creation was not to be inquired into, for such matters were
considered divine and, thus, laid outside man's comprehension. The Greek plan
incorporated a marvelous scientific picture of the universe, for whilst they
described the motions of the planets with mathematical precision, they believed
them to be, like the stars, made of some celestial material that never decayed.
In ancient China, the whole universe, everything on
earth and in the sky, was considered part of a giant organism. However, they
envisaged a universe that was many millions of years old and, in this respect,
they were close to today's view.
Western civilization has grown up under the influence
of Greek ideas and also that of Chinese teachings, which insist on a single God
who is creator and sustainer of the universe; a God, who is also the single God
of the Muslim faith. The Bible does not contain any scientific information of
note about the universe. Galileo used to be fond of saying that the Bible
teaches the way to go to heaven, not the way heavens go. The Church, in its
constant attempts to keep the masses under its control, permitted no speculation
into these divine matters. The misfortune of Copernicus, as a result of his
statement, that it was the sun and not the earth to be the centre of the
spherical universe, is well known.
Even after the beginning of the modern scientific
period, when Newton had worked out the motions of planets in great detail and
also invented the idea of universal gravitation, people still considered the
creation of the universe to be a divine act, that lies above speculation.
With the vast amount of information collected by
observation of deep space in the last sixty years, as well as the development of
relativity and quantum theory, scientists are at last in a position to work out
how the universe began.
Today, speculation and scientific research into
cosmology lies outside the realm of religion, to the extent that some scientists
today do not consider the creation of the universe to be a divine act
altogether. However, these scientists are forgetting that when they trace the
origin of the universe to its origin, or to that moment that sparked the
beginning ....... they too concede that science becomes unable to function, for
at that initial moment all the laws of physics seem to break down.
The failure of some scientists to contribute this
initial moment of creation to a divine force stems from the fact that they think
of this initial moment as the moment when all the laws of physics break down,
rather than being the moment when all the laws of physics came to be.
The creation of the universe is a subject that is
given great attention in the Quran. The huge and varied amount of information
contained in the Quran about almost every stage and aspect of the creation
continues to astound scientists today because of its very accurate agreement
with 20th century knowledge. How can a book written in the 7th century contain
such a rich amount of scientific information that was to be attained 14
centuries later? Much of this information was discovered only in the last fifty
years! Neutral and unbiased observers do consider this to be valid evidence that
such a book could never have been the product of any human being for the simple
reason that, at the time, no human possessed such knowledge.
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All the evidence available today suggests an explosive
origin to the universe that brought both space and time into existence. This is
what is referred to as the Big Bang. The theory of the Big Bang which has
successfully taken over the place of the 'Steady state' theory was worked out in
the 1920's by two scientists quite independently of each other, the Russian
meteorologist Alexksandr Friedmann and the Belgian mathematician Georges
Lemaitre. ( Deep Space, Colin A. Ronan, p. 156)
The Big Bang itself resulted from an extremely dense
singularity. The creation of the universe is one of matter, space and time that
are intimately linked together. Matter and space were joined as one and then
were separated in the explosion. This is very accurately described in the Quran:
"Do not the unbelievers see that the
skies (space) and the earth (matter) were joined together (as one unit of
creation) and we ripped them apart?" The Quran, 21:30
The subsequent history of the Big Bang saw the
Americans George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Robert Horman indicate that the whole
event took place at a very high temperature; it was a hot Big Bang. This view
has been confirmed by the later discovery of the background microwave radiation.
The eventual formation of galaxies resulted as a condensation, under
gravitational pull, of hot gases which was mainly Hydrogen, but may also have
contained Helium and a few other light elements as well. Over the ages, and with
the formation of galaxies, the gas has gradually condensed into individual
starts. The universe in its very early stages was, thus, still in the form of
hot gases which is mentioned in the Quran in the following verse:
"Then He took hold of the sky when it
was smoke." 41:11
Note that the verse did not say clouds or gas, but
smoke, which is a very accurate description as smoke is hot gas, whilst clouds
are cold.
Once these stars were formed a system had to be
devised to govern their motion. The kinetic energy stored in the foreword
movement of these bodies could not be relied upon on its own, otherwise stars
and also planets would have shot off in straight lines dispersing into space. No
planet would ever revolve around its mother star, which also applies to earth
and, thus, life would not have evolved on earth, because the whole of life on
earth is so dependent on the sun.
Gravity was the brilliant divine invention, working as
an equating factor to the centrifugal force to induce precise orbits for all
heavenly bodies. The speed, mass and distance of two bodies have to be worked
out very precisely to induce an orbit.
If you were to throw a tennis ball upwards towards the
sky, it would travel upwards as a result of the kinetic energy stored in the
throw but, eventually, the gravity of the earth will overcome and the ball fall
back to the ground. But, if you were to throw the ball at a very high speed (say
10km per second) it would escape the gravity of the earth and leave the earth
altogether. This is what is known as the escape velocity. It is the speed
required for a moving body to enable it to escape the gravity of a planet or
star.
When an artificial satellite is placed in orbit around
the earth, what happens is that at a required distance, while the satellite is
shooting out of the earth's gravitational field, its speed is reduced which
reduces its kinetic energy and with some directional adjustments its kinetic
energy can be equated with the earth'' gravity. All these adjustments must be
very precisely executed at a precise distance and speed otherwise a correct
orbit cannot be obtained.
When one looks at the endless intricate orbits and
mathematical precision in the universe one can only gasp in awe. All the planets
that circulate around stars, which in turn revolve round the centre of gravity
of their own galaxies.
These very accurate balances are mentioned in the
following verses:
"The sun and the moon follow courses
precisely computed" 55:5
"And the sky He raised and set the
balance" 55:7
The orbits of the heavenly bodies are mentioned in the verse:
"and the sun and the moon, all
travelling in orbits." 21:33
Note that the last verse said "all" and not
'both' which indicates that the reference to
the sun and the moon is symbolic, that is, of all other heavenly bodies that
obey the same rules.
The next stage sees these massive newly formed stars
start to shrink under their own gravitational pull. As a result, their central
regions become denser and, thus, hot. When the material in the centre of the
star has heated up sufficiently, to be exact, at least seven million degrees K.,
nuclear reactions begin. These reactions, which are similar to those which take
place in a hydrogen bomb, continue throughout the life of the star. These
reactions are distinctly different from ordinary combustion (as in burning
wood). What actually takes place inside a star is that hydrogen is converted to
helium with the emission of huge energy.
This is precisely what the Quran speaks of with the
words:
"…as if it were a brilliant
star……..whose oil (fuel) is well lit, even no fire touches it." 24:35
The verse mentions a star, it's fuel, and a reaction
which is not combustion (fire). Short of saying 'nuclear reactions' the verse is
a very accurate description of what goes on inside a star.
These nuclear reactions cause the stars to radiate all
types of radiation into space, from x-rays and gamma rays in the short waves all
the way to the longer radio waves. The visible section of those waves which are
found between the ultra-violet and the infra-red is what we call sunlight.
On the other hand, planets do not emit any light of
their own, but only reflect light. This differentiation between natural light
and reflected light is pointed out with the words:
"Blessed is He who made constellations
in the sky and placed there in a lamp, and a moon giving light." 25:61
And also:
"It is He who made the sun to light up
(the sky) and the moon that is lit." 10:5
In 1965, a very important discovery was made, and that
was the background radiation which supported the Big Bang theory. But, the Big
Bang theory, together with the detection of the red shift in the spectrum of far
away galaxies, gave birth to yet a new concept and that was the universe is
expanding.
When you hear a police car or ambulance approaching
you and then moving away, you will notice a change in sound of its siren. As the
vehicle approaches, the siren wails at a higher pitch than when it moves away.
Yet, really, the siren is wailing at the same pitch all the time. To the driver
of the vehicle the sound of the siren never changes. Why does this happen? The
reason is that the waves of sound emitted by the siren change in frequency,
which causes a changed in pitch. This principle, which is called the Doppler
effect after its discoverer, applies to any waves and not only that of sound.
When applied to light waves it was found that if the source of light is
approaching its light would be shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum,
while as light from a receding source would be shifted towards the red end of
the spectrum. When analysing the light we receive from distant galaxies it was
found that they all had a red shift meaning that they were flying away from us.
That contribution of the red shift analysis meant that the universe is indeed
expanding.
This conclusion is literally mentioned in the Quran:
"and the heavens we created with might
(power) and we are expanding it." 51:47
Note that the word "expanding" is used in the
present tense and not in the past which again is in agreement with the fact that
the expansion of the universe is a continuous process.
At the time of the Quran (7th century), it was still
believed that all the stars in the sky including our sun were eternal and are
made of a material that never fades or decays. No one was really aware of the
nature of the reactions that took place inside stars for that was to be 20th
century atomic theory territory but that, and as was mentioned before, was
mentioned in the Quran. These atomic reactions would take place inside a star
for a finite time and then the star would eventually run out of energy when it
has used up all its resources. When that stage is reached, a star like our sun
will undergo a series of drastic changes. First, it will expand to become a red
giant. The nearest planet, Mercury, would be swallowed up and the intense heat
given off by the sun in this red giant stage would cause all the seas and oceans
on earth to boil over and evaporate, signalling the end of life on earth.
Eventually, the star would start to collapse and lose its lustre and end up as a
white dwarf. Here, the Quran uses the very accurate scientific words:
"when stars lose their lustre"
77:8
The finite life of stars is also referred to:
"He has ordained the sun and the moon,
each one runs (it's course) for an appointed time." 13:2
Surah, 81 in its opening verse, describes the end of
time as follows:
"When the sun is rounded (swelling like
a ball)"
"When the stars have collapsed"
"When the oceans boil over in a swell"
81:6
It is very significant how the verse said
"when the stars have collapsed" and not 'when the
sun has collapsed', because the boiling of the oceans will be a result of the
expansion of the sun (red giant stage) and not it's collapse, that is, the ocean
will boil over long before the sun starts to collapse. Also, the term
"collapse", as used in the Quran, is the precise
term used by today's astronomers to describe that stage of a star's life.
Whilst the Big Bang provided an explanation as to the
origin of the universe, it still remained necessary to calculate its age.
To do so, astronomers once again rely on red shift to
calculate the speeds and distance of the furthest galaxies and quasars. These
distances give us indications to the age of the universe. The most distant
quasars, which have velocities of some 240,000 km/sec. (80% the speed of light),
are at distances of up to 14 billion light years (a light year being the
distance travelled by light in one year). When we look into depth of space, we
are actually looking back far into the past. When we look at that distant
quasar, we are not seeing it as it is now, but as it was 14 billion years ago.
The modern accepted figure for the age of the universe
is a little bit more than 18 billion (thousand million) years.
Could it be possible that the age of the universe is
also found in the Quran?
Well, let's take a look at two verses:
1) "the angels and the spirit ascend
unto Him in a day, the measure of which was fifty thousand years." 70:4
This verse refers to the ascent of angels and the
spirit (meant to be Gabriel) back to heaven after settling all matters of life
in the universe.
The verse clearly said a day that
"was" and not a day that 'is', which clearly
indicates that that day was in the past (50,000 years ago).
2) "…a day relative to your God is
equivalent to a thousand years of your count." 22:47
With a few simple equations:
If 1 day (for God) = 1000 years (for man)
1 year = 1000 x 365 (for man)
= 365,000 years
50,000 years (for God) = 365,000 x 50,000 (for man)
= 18.25 billion!
The 50,000 years mentioned in verse 1 are meant to be
of God's years and not of man. That is because man was not mentioned at all in
that verse, and more importantly because the subject of the verse (creation of
the universe) is obviously a matter executed by God and not by man and, so, its
description must also be as related to God and not to man.
This becomes evident when we compare this verse to
other verses that clearly speak of years as related to man's count, like the
verse:
"…on a day, the measure of which was a
thousand years of your count." 32:5
MULTIPLE UNIVERSE
When astronomers discuss the universe, they are always
thinking about the universe which they see and observe. If we go back to the
days of the ancient Egyptians five thousand years ago, we find that the size of
the universe seemed to be no more than the dome of the sky, covering the earth
like the dome in a planetarium. The stars seemed, at the most, some thousands of
kilometres away. The Greek astronomers, some two thousand and more years ago,
thought of the universe as a sphere but still approximately of the same size.
Copernicus, who believed the sun and not the earth to
be the centre of the spherical universe, thought it was much bigger than this,
but not until about 160 years ago did anyone really know the distance of even
the nearest stars.
Then they found that they should be measured in
millions of millions of kilometres. But, still, it was a very small universe,
with all the stars together in one large star island.
Not until the 1920's did astronomers discover that our
galaxy was only one of millions of others. Only then did astronomers start to
appreciate the actual size of the universe.
Astronomers are today debating the issue whether our
universe is the only one in existence.
The idea of multiple universes is closely linked with
the Black Hole concept. Certainly, the squashing of matter into an infinitely
small area inside a Black Hole is in sharp disagreement with the Law of
conservation of matter which was referred to in Part One. It has been suggested
that all the matter falling into a Black Hole could be ejected into another
time-space universe in what is referred to as a 'White Hole'. Mathematical
studies of space and time do show that this is possible in theory. Does it
happen in practice? We do not know, but there certainly seems to be regions in
deep space from which material is pouring out into our universe.
The jet of material from the active elliptical galaxy
M 87 is a case in point. Has it come from a While Hole connected to a Black Hole
somewhere else?
An alternate analysis that could also provide an
equally valid justification for the existence of multiple universes is
associated with the speed of light.
Between the years 1905-15, and in his theory of
relativity, Albert Einstein stated that the speed of light is a limiting
velocity in the universe; nothing can travel faster than that. His theory also
took the speed of light to be constant, unaffected by the movement of its source
and independent of all observers. Quasers, which are the most distant objects in
the universe travel at speeds approaching 80% of the speed of light but nothing
travels faster than the speed of light
Could it be that the speed of light acts as a gate, a
valve or a barrier between our universe and other universe? A different
time-space universe where matter, if it can still be called so, exists and is
travelling at speeds higher than that of light? We cannot cross that barrier
ourselves nor can any physical matter, but there is strong indications that
there is some kind of existence on the other side.
A mention should be given here to some speculation
concerning some new particles called 'tachyons' which occur in some nuclear
reactions. These particles are believed to travel faster than light. They can
never travel at the speed of light, only faster. That also supports the idea of
the speed of light being a barrier. In short 'tachyons' behave in just the
opposite way from matter, but as no one has actually observed a 'tachyon', could
the reason be because they exist in a different dimension of time-space?
When we examine the verses in the Quran that relate to
this support, we find incredible information concerning not only the creation
and existence of multiple universes, but also regarding the barriers lie between
them. All that 1400 years ago at a time when the size of the whole universe was
estimated to be not more than a few kilometres.
Multiple universes are mentioned in more than one
verse in the Quran as in:
"Have you not seen how God has created
seven skies one above the other?" 71:15
The barriers that exist between these universes are
mentioned in the following verse:
"……if you can penetrate through the
zones of the skies and the earth, then penetrate, you will not do so without
authority." 55:33
The word "penetrate"
implies the existence of some kind of barriers between the zones of the skies
(universes).
Our universe, as we know it today, includes within it
all the stars and galaxies that we have detected in the sky so far. If multiple
universes exist, they lie outside and beyond all these galaxies. That, too,
seems to be in accordance with the information given in the Quran:
"And we have decorated the lowest
heaven (universe) with lanterns (stars)." 41:12
It is worth mentioning here the suggestion put forward
by some Muslim interpreters concerning the boundaries that lie between the
multiple universes and that are spoken of in the Quran. What they suggested is
that the region beyond the Earth's atmosphere up till the moon forms the second
universe, while the solar system constitutes the third universe and so on. They
add that when man landed on the moon, he has actually moved into a higher
universe. However, and if we quote the previous verse which clearly states that
all the lanterns (stars) are to be found in the lowest universe, we can quickly
dismiss the previous interpretation. If the lowest universe includes within it
all the stars and galaxies that we know, then the next universe must lie outside
the comprehension of mankind, if anything that speaks much more favourably of
the capacity of God's creation than if the different universes where all too
tangible.
For part Two,
"Life On Earth" click here.
Other Links :
Quran & Science
Creation on man
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