The Universe

Such was human observation in ancient times. Man could see that above his head the sun, moon and stars had no visible supports. And these words are equally meaningful for the scientific man of today, because the latest observations show that the celestial bodies exist in an infinite space with the invisible pull of gravity that holds them in position. Of the sun and other celestial bodies, the Qur’an says, “Each floats freely in an orbit of its own” (21:3).

Ancient man was familiar with the movement of celestial bodies, so he was not confused by this, “floating” being the most appropriate term to describe the movement of celestial bodies in a vast and subtle space. And how much more significance had been lent to this word by recent discoveries.

Day and night, the results of such movement by a celestial body, are depicted thus in the Qur’an: ‘He throws the veil of night over the day. Swiftly they follow one another’ (7:54).

Dr. Maurice Bucaille, in his The Bible, the Qur’an and Science, lists a number of similar extracts from the Qur’an, which gave accurate descriptions of the alternation of day and night, long before modern deductions or the observations of cosmonauts bore this out. He then makes the important point that at a time when it was held that the Earth was the center of the world and that the Sun moved in relation to it, how could anyone have failed to refer to the sun’s movement when talking of the sequence of night and day? This is not however referred to in the Qur’an (p. 163). He then discusses the special significance of the Arabic verb kawwara, (Qur’an 39: 5), the original meaning of which is to coil or wind a turban round the head, when describing the change from night to day, evidently conveying the idea of the rotation of the earth (Most translators seem to have misinterpreted this). ‘This purpose of perpetual coiling, including the interpretation of one sector by another is expressed in the Quran just as if the concept of the earth’s roundness had already been conceived at the time—which was obviously not the case’ (p.164).

There are many descriptions in the Quran of a similar nature, some of them being scientific statements about phenomena of which seventh century men had no knowledge whatsoever. I should now like to present recent examples from a variety of disciplines which bear out the truth of these Qur’anic assertions.

Up until barely a century ago, the concept of this material universe as having a beginning and an end was something which appeared to have its origin in religiously inspired texts, but which did not seem to have any scientific basis in fact. Of the origin of the universe, the Qur’an said:
“Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were one solid mass which was tore asunder, and that we made every living thing of water? Will they not have faith?” (12:30).

But now we find that modern studies in astronomy have confirmed the truth of this concept, various observations having led scientists to postulate that the universe was formed by an explosion from a state of high density and temperature (the “big-bang” theory) and that the cosmos evolved from the original, highly compressed, extremely hot gas, taking the form of galaxies of stars, cosmic dust, meteorites and asteroids. The present outward motion of the galaxies is a result of this explosion.

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984), this is “the theory now favored by most cosmologists.”

Once the process of expansion had set in—about six billion years ago—it had to continue, because the more the celestial bodies moved away from the center, the less attraction they exerted over one another. Estimates of the circumference of the original matter place it at about one thousand million light years and now, according to Professor Eddington’s calculations, the present circumference is ten times what it was originally. This process of expansion is still going on. Professor Eddington explains that the stars and galaxies are like marks on the surface of a balloon, which is continuously expanding, and that all the celestial spheres are getting further and further apart. Ancient man supposed quite wrongly, that the stars were as close to one another as they appeared to be. How significant that the Qur’an should state in Sura 51, verse 47, “The heaven, We have built it with power.

Verily we are expanding it.” Now science has revealed that since the universe came into existence 90 thousand million years B.C., its circumference has stretched from 6 thousand to sixty thousand million light years. This means that there are inconceivably vast distances between the celestial bodies. And it has been discovered that they revolve as part of galactic systems, just as our earth and the planets revolve around the sun.

Just as within the Solar systems, many planets and asteroids are situated at great distances from each other, yet revolve according to one system, likewise every material body is composed of innumerable ‘Solar Systems’ on an infinitesimally small scale.

These systems are called atoms. While the vacuum of the Solar System is observable, the vacuum of the atomic system is too small to be visible. That is, all things, however solid they appear, are hollow from the inside. For instance, if all the electrons and protons present within the atoms of a six foot tall man were to be squeezed in such a manner that no space were left, his body would be reduced to such a tiny spot as would be visible only through a microscope.

The farthest galaxy that has been observed is situated several million light years away from the sun. Yet it is held that if the total quantum of cosmic matter as worked out by astrophysicists—and it is enormous—were to be compressed so as to eliminate all space, the size of the universe would be only thirty times the size of the sun. In view of how recently these calculations have been made, it is quite extraordinary that 1500 years ago the Qur’an asserted that not only had the universe expanded from a condensed form but that its original quantum of matter had remained constant, so that it could conceivably be re-condensed into a relatively small space. It describes the end of the universe thus: “On that day, we shall roll up the heaven like a scroll of writing” (21:104).

The moon is our nearest neighbor in space, its distance from the earth being just 2,40,000 miles. Due to this proximity, its gravitational force affects the sea waves, causing an extraordinary rise in the water level twice a day. At certain points these waves rise as high as sixty feet.

The land surface too is affected by this lunar pull, but only in terms of a few inches. The present distance between the earth and moon is optimal from man’s point of view, there being several advantages. If this distance were reduced, for example to only fifty thousand miles, the seas would be so stormy that a major part of the earth would be submerged in them and, moreover, the continual impact of the stormy waves would cut the mountains into pieces and the earth’s surface, more fully exposed to the moon’s gravitation would start to crack open.

Astronomers estimate that at the time the earth came into existence, the moon was close to it and the surface of the earth had, therefore, been exposed to all kinds of upheavals. In the course of time, the earth and the moon drew apart, to their present distance from one another, according to astronomical laws. Astronomers hold that this distance will be maintained for a billion years, then the same astronomical laws will bring the moon back closer to the earth. As a result of conflicting forces of attraction, the moon will “burst when close enough and glorify our dead world with rings like those of Saturn.”

This concept bears out the Quran’s prediction to a remarkable degree. The following lines, in addition to presenting this phenomenon as a physical fact, explain its religious significance: The Hour of Doom is drawing near, and the moon is cleft in two. Yet, when they see a sign, the unbelievers turn their backs and say, ‘Ingenious magic!’