The Expanding Universe Explained

August 26, 2020Science & Faith

Research, carried out thanks to modern-day advanced technology, observation, and calculation have shed light on many secrets concerning the universe.

One of these is the fact that it is constantly expanding.

This idea of expansion was first raised in the early 20th century. The Russian physicist, Alexander Friedmann, and the Belgian cosmologist, Georges Lemaître, theoretically calculated that the universe is in constant motion and that it is expanding.

This notion was confirmed by the use of observational data in 1929.

While observing the sky with a telescope, Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer, discovered a surprising fact;

The stars and galaxies were constantly moving away from each other.

This discovery is regarded as one of the greatest in the history of astronomy.

A universe where everything constantly moves away from everything else implied a constantly expanding universe.

Bodies in the universe were like points on the surface of a balloon being inflated.

The more a balloon is inflated, the further away the points on its surface move from one another. Similarly, celestial bodies also move away from one another as the universe expands.

There was no technology and no science of astronomy 14 centuries ago when the Qur’an was revealed. Nobody was then aware of this fact.

Yet, it was clearly stated in Qur’anic verses that the universe was expanding:

And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it. (Surat adh-Dhariyat: 47)