CHAPTER 1
WE LIVE IN AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE
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47- With power did We construct the heaven, verily, We are expanding it.
51-The Dispersing, 47
Is firmament an infinite space or a finite expanse? This has been the bone of contention between great minds from the very beginning. Hot debates and ratiocination of all kinds failed to clarify this dilemma. This had once been the subject matter of philosophical speculations before it yielded its place to the science of physics. Some of the great minds argued that the universe was not a confined space, while others contended that its boundaries were drawn. The Quran’s description of it was a continuously expanding and dynamic universe. According to this description, the universe had a new aspect every instant that deviated from the concept of a fixed infinite space; its perpetual expansion defied the concept of a confined and steady state universe. Thus, the Quran propounded a third alternative, leaving the heated controversy of thinkers in abeyance.
This may contribute to the formulation of a judgment for the inquiring minds, probing whether the Quran is God’s revelation or not. We have, on the one hand, Muhammad in the desert, neither a philosopher nor a physicist, and, on the other hand, the assumptions of great thinkers and philosophers of the past such as Aristotle, Ptolemeo, Giordano Bruno, Telesio Parrizzi, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, to name but a few. The greatest minds in history basing on observations and formulas they ingeniously devised, claimed that the universe had its confines, or, that it was an endless space, but it occurred to none of them to think of a dynamic expanding universe, until the 20th century, when Edwin Hubble, by means of a telescope – known today under the name of ‘Hubble Space Telescope’ – demonstrated that the distance of a galaxy is directly proportional to its observed velocity of recessing from us, a natural consequence of a uniformly expanding universe. The theory of expansion of the universe was first advanced in the 1900s. No other source had made such an assertion until the descent of the Quran!
MUHAMMAD’S TELESCOPE
The unbelievers contended that the Quran was Muhammad’s own invention and not the revelation of God. How then would these dissenters explain the fact that Muhammad had been the only person who was aware of the expanding universe long before the 1900s. Could it be that he had invented in the 600s a telescope similar to the one contrived in the 1900s? Could it be that he had been familiar with the handling of such a telescope and acquainted with the motion of stars and that he had concealed it from his fellow men? If those who accused the Prophet of lunacy and alleged that in his delusional states he imagined himself the messenger of God, are justified in their claims, how will they account for the fact that he knew facts not known to his contemporaries, facts that were to be discovered 1300 years after his revelation of them? If those who assert that the Prophet had devised a religion to serve his own ends how can they explain that his so-called delusions materialized after a lapse of 1300 years? His pronouncements at the time did not promote his interests in any way; quite the reverse was the case, since he unwittingly gave his enemies a hint they might take advantage of. Can a person whose own interests prevail over the interests of others declare something not to his own advantage that was sure to be bitterly censured and much derided by those whose naked eyes failed to observe the expansion of the universe. If despite this, a person came up with the contention that Muhammad was an intelligent man who might have perceived this truth, what sort of an intelligence this might have been? And, instead of boasting of having been the depository of such knowledge, why did he prefer to tell an untruth and claimed that this was not his own discovery but the revelation by God? While the inventor or discoverer of a pin is inclined to brag about his breakthrough, why on earth did Muhammad choose to be modest and categorically declared that the Quran was not his own production, but revelation of God? Was this due to humility? Would these people – who had denied his prophet hood and accused him of having been an impostor – have dared qualify him with the laudable attribute of ‘humility’?
DISCOVERY OF THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
In Newton’s physics there was a gap. Newton believed in an endlessly vast and static universe. His law of gravity encountered a difficulty. How was it that the physical bodies defying their mutual attractions, had failed, in the course of aeons, to collapse into a unity? The formula that Einstein devised had abandoned the notions of absolute notions of space and time as reference points for all objects in the universe.
Alexander Friedmann, Russian physicist, basing on Einstein’s formulas, discovered that the slightest effect would cause the universe to expand or to contract. Georges Lemaître, a Belgian cleric, astronomer and cosmologist, formulated that the universe had begun in a cataclysmic explosion of a small, primeval super-atom, like the growing of an oak tree from acorn. This theory explained the recession of galaxies within the framework of Alfred Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This was so incredible that even Einstein could not believe it, although all this had originated from his own formulas. He claimed that physics was not the forte of Lemaître, and the universe was an infinite expanse.
The initial theory posited that the universe was expanding. This was a statement that no philosopher had ever postulated. Kant had said in his Critique of Pure Reason that this was an antinomy insoluble by human intelligence. This theory fitted everything and explained the reason why the universe did not collapse despite gravity; he combined thus the formulas of Newton and Einstein. There was no alternative. The key had fitted the lock. It was the correct explanation of the enigma. However, this statement met with usual adverse reaction: “No, it is not the fact…”
Outside the sphere of theoretical squabble, about the same time, American astronomer Hubble was making observations with his sophisticated telescope in the Mount Wilson observatory. He had observed that galaxies were receding from each other, which proved that the universe was expanding. In answer to those who said they could not believe in things their eyes had not witnessed, Hubble’s discovery led to the following declaration: “Now that you see it, you’ve got to believe”. Hubble had showed this by the Doppler Effect, by the change in apparent frequency or wavelength because of relative motion of a source of radiation and an observer. Thus the wavelengths of receding bodies prolonged in the spectrum of light waves, shifting to red, while, if the bodies approached each other, the wavelengths would shorten shifting to blue. The light that came from galaxies shifted to red that showed that the galaxies receded. In line with this observation, Hubble found out a striking law; the speed of galaxies that receded was directly proportional to the distance between galaxies. The farther stood a galaxy, the more its speed of recession augmented. The result was tested again and again. In 1950, a high-magnification telescope was installed on Mount Palomar in USA, the largest instrument of its kind. The new tests and controls justified this observation. The measurements made pointed to the fact that the creation of the universe had taken place about 10-15 billions years ago.
Both Einstein and Lemaître took an interest in Hubble’s work, Einstein, who did not agree with Lemaître at first, eventually acknowledged during a conference that Lemaître was right after all. He confessed that his failure to endorse Lemaître’s findings had been the gravest error in his life. The fact that the universe was of a dynamic nature and expanding, confirmed by observations was also validated by the great physicist Einstein.
In the examples presented by Hubble and Lemaître, we see illustrated how a physicist arrived at a conclusion both in theory and through observation. Lemaître demonstrated how he had had recourse to Einstein’s formulas to substantiate his discovery theoretically achieved, while Hubble presented the data that his observations had supplied and the conclusion he had arrived basing on them. As we see, the result obtained by physicists is the consequence of a chain of researches. The Creator of physical laws provides answer in the Quran to the issue of towering importance on the agenda throughout history. The Quran’s communication makes a beeline for his addressees unlike the devious paths the scientist follows; the path it has followed and the manner in which he attained the truth are not important. The provider of this answer does not have to go through all the labyrinths a scientist has to go. The Quran’s method is perfectly straightforward, unswerving and explicit.
Had we had the possibility to look at the universe from above and somebody asked us to describe what we saw, our answer would be that it was expanding. To the Quran’s revelation of this fact 1400 years ago, we could have access only by the assistance of accumulated scientific data acquired throughout long years and sophisticated telescopes. Some ask:”Why people did not believe in Jesus who had performed miracles and healed the sick and the blind?” At a time when science confronted religion, the Quran had furnished answers to the most arduous scientific problems, in a way nothing could challenge them. Observations made by sophisticated telescopes confirm the statements of the Quran. Despite such miracles the Quran contains, unprecedented in history, the persons resolved not to take heed, prefer to remain adamant in their creeds. The Quran, perfectly aware of the human psyche with its prescience, states that the unbelievers will insist on their convictions. This example shows the way why the people did not believe in Christ and other prophets despite their miracles. Miracles change in fact as time goes by, but the type of human being resolved to remain a nihilist remains unchanged.
POWER LIES IN THE CORE OF MATTER
At the beginning of verses (51-47) it is said that power lies in the origin of creation. The word ‘power’ is the equivalent of the Arabic word ayd derived from yad, meaning ‘hand’, but it has the signification of “power” in many contexts of the Quran. See for instance (38-Sad, 17) (“and remember our servant David, the possessor of power”…). The word ‘power’ given emphasis may have its special significance. (Some of the scientific miracles in the Quran are explicit, like the expansion of the universe. Others, namely the scientific ones, are but symbolically expressed, so that one must have recourse to interpretation and exegesis. In our book we have tried to explain a great many miracles we have selected for their evidence. However, we submit to your consideration such miracles calling for interpretation without caption, under a subtitle.) The said ‘power’ translates the power or the strength contained in the nucleus of the atom, or, better put, the fact that the nucleus is based on this power or strength. Einstein’s equation (Energy = mass x square of velocity of light) may be the most important formula of physics. Stephen Hawking, in his best seller A short History of Time had recourse only to this formula of Einstein, avoiding to use all other mathematical equations. This formula revealed that mass or matter was a form of energy and that matter could be transformed into energy. This meant that matter could be defined as power; matter and power should be considered apart. The statement that matter in the universe was created from power, points to a physical reality of towering importance. Power then formed the bases of everything, from the sun to the infinite number of galaxies and supernovas.
The fact that such a multitude of particles of matter in the wake of the Big Bang began to recede from each other at an immense velocity in such a vast space thanks to power (energy) shows the stunning potential of the Big Bang before explosion. This unfolding power expanded the universe and the elementary particles were prevented from collision. This immense power is ingeniously devised to function. Had the power been weaker, the elementary particles would have attracted each other to their reciprocal detriment, rendering impossible the formation of planets, galaxies and the earth, and the life on its surface would be unimaginable. Had the said power been stronger, the elementary particles would scatter on a wider space which would bar the possibility of formation of galaxies and of the earth as well as of the life on it. A relevant simile of a physicist points to the probability of a pencil thrown in the air falling back to stand on its sharp end. God has manifested the glory of His power by this big explosion, His well-planned ingenuity in devising the operation of everything within the scope of His original design, from the very moment of creation until today, has given, in the Quran, an account of all His formations, testifying thus that this message is contained in the Quran.
In a single verse, the Quran, proved to be the only book before the 1900s to state that the universe was expanding, corroborating further His miraculous revelation by declaring that matter had power in its origin.
The formula E=mc2 betokened that the immensity of the velocity of light stored in the atom proved the existence of the extraordinary energy. The new discoveries ranging from atomic power stations to the atom bomb were the results of the logic inherent in this formula.
Until the advent of Einstein, thinkers assumed the matter to be stationary, while describing motion as the consequence of a kind of initial thrust that had gathered momentum. Leibniz (1646-1716) came close to the idea of matter’s reducibility to energy saying that God had created movement inherent in matter (that movement originated from the internal structure of matter); but the exact scientific expression of this discovery owes its formulation to Einstein.
REASON FOR THE USE OF THE ROYAL PLURAL
We think it advisable to explain the reason for the use of ‘we’ in the verse analyzed in this chapter. Questions often crop up as we are not acquainted with the subtleties of the Arabic language. God uses both the royal plural ‘We’ and the first person singular ‘I’. This results from the fine distinctions in the Arabic. Be it in the Arabic or some other languages, a person may use the first person plural to express grandeur and exalted rank. But when addressing God in the second person, the pronoun used is ‘Thou’ and never ‘You’ or its plural ‘Ye’, and if reference is made to Him as a third person, the pronoun used is ‘He’ and never ‘They’. References in the Quran to God use always either the second or the third person, and none of them as a second or third person plural. This is due to the fine distinctions in the Arabic language
WE LIVE IN AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE
-
47- With power did We construct the heaven, verily, We are expanding it.
51-The Dispersing, 47
Is firmament an infinite space or a finite expanse? This has been the bone of contention between great minds from the very beginning. Hot debates and ratiocination of all kinds failed to clarify this dilemma. This had once been the subject matter of philosophical speculations before it yielded its place to the science of physics. Some of the great minds argued that the universe was not a confined space, while others contended that its boundaries were drawn. The Quran’s description of it was a continuously expanding and dynamic universe. According to this description, the universe had a new aspect every instant that deviated from the concept of a fixed infinite space; its perpetual expansion defied the concept of a confined and steady state universe. Thus, the Quran propounded a third alternative, leaving the heated controversy of thinkers in abeyance.
This may contribute to the formulation of a judgment for the inquiring minds, probing whether the Quran is God’s revelation or not. We have, on the one hand, Muhammad in the desert, neither a philosopher nor a physicist, and, on the other hand, the assumptions of great thinkers and philosophers of the past such as Aristotle, Ptolemeo, Giordano Bruno, Telesio Parrizzi, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, to name but a few. The greatest minds in history basing on observations and formulas they ingeniously devised, claimed that the universe had its confines, or, that it was an endless space, but it occurred to none of them to think of a dynamic expanding universe, until the 20th century, when Edwin Hubble, by means of a telescope – known today under the name of ‘Hubble Space Telescope’ – demonstrated that the distance of a galaxy is directly proportional to its observed velocity of recessing from us, a natural consequence of a uniformly expanding universe. The theory of expansion of the universe was first advanced in the 1900s. No other source had made such an assertion until the descent of the Quran!
MUHAMMAD’S TELESCOPE
The unbelievers contended that the Quran was Muhammad’s own invention and not the revelation of God. How then would these dissenters explain the fact that Muhammad had been the only person who was aware of the expanding universe long before the 1900s. Could it be that he had invented in the 600s a telescope similar to the one contrived in the 1900s? Could it be that he had been familiar with the handling of such a telescope and acquainted with the motion of stars and that he had concealed it from his fellow men? If those who accused the Prophet of lunacy and alleged that in his delusional states he imagined himself the messenger of God, are justified in their claims, how will they account for the fact that he knew facts not known to his contemporaries, facts that were to be discovered 1300 years after his revelation of them? If those who assert that the Prophet had devised a religion to serve his own ends how can they explain that his so-called delusions materialized after a lapse of 1300 years? His pronouncements at the time did not promote his interests in any way; quite the reverse was the case, since he unwittingly gave his enemies a hint they might take advantage of. Can a person whose own interests prevail over the interests of others declare something not to his own advantage that was sure to be bitterly censured and much derided by those whose naked eyes failed to observe the expansion of the universe. If despite this, a person came up with the contention that Muhammad was an intelligent man who might have perceived this truth, what sort of an intelligence this might have been? And, instead of boasting of having been the depository of such knowledge, why did he prefer to tell an untruth and claimed that this was not his own discovery but the revelation by God? While the inventor or discoverer of a pin is inclined to brag about his breakthrough, why on earth did Muhammad choose to be modest and categorically declared that the Quran was not his own production, but revelation of God? Was this due to humility? Would these people – who had denied his prophet hood and accused him of having been an impostor – have dared qualify him with the laudable attribute of ‘humility’?
DISCOVERY OF THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
In Newton’s physics there was a gap. Newton believed in an endlessly vast and static universe. His law of gravity encountered a difficulty. How was it that the physical bodies defying their mutual attractions, had failed, in the course of aeons, to collapse into a unity? The formula that Einstein devised had abandoned the notions of absolute notions of space and time as reference points for all objects in the universe.
Alexander Friedmann, Russian physicist, basing on Einstein’s formulas, discovered that the slightest effect would cause the universe to expand or to contract. Georges Lemaître, a Belgian cleric, astronomer and cosmologist, formulated that the universe had begun in a cataclysmic explosion of a small, primeval super-atom, like the growing of an oak tree from acorn. This theory explained the recession of galaxies within the framework of Alfred Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This was so incredible that even Einstein could not believe it, although all this had originated from his own formulas. He claimed that physics was not the forte of Lemaître, and the universe was an infinite expanse.
The initial theory posited that the universe was expanding. This was a statement that no philosopher had ever postulated. Kant had said in his Critique of Pure Reason that this was an antinomy insoluble by human intelligence. This theory fitted everything and explained the reason why the universe did not collapse despite gravity; he combined thus the formulas of Newton and Einstein. There was no alternative. The key had fitted the lock. It was the correct explanation of the enigma. However, this statement met with usual adverse reaction: “No, it is not the fact…”
Outside the sphere of theoretical squabble, about the same time, American astronomer Hubble was making observations with his sophisticated telescope in the Mount Wilson observatory. He had observed that galaxies were receding from each other, which proved that the universe was expanding. In answer to those who said they could not believe in things their eyes had not witnessed, Hubble’s discovery led to the following declaration: “Now that you see it, you’ve got to believe”. Hubble had showed this by the Doppler Effect, by the change in apparent frequency or wavelength because of relative motion of a source of radiation and an observer. Thus the wavelengths of receding bodies prolonged in the spectrum of light waves, shifting to red, while, if the bodies approached each other, the wavelengths would shorten shifting to blue. The light that came from galaxies shifted to red that showed that the galaxies receded. In line with this observation, Hubble found out a striking law; the speed of galaxies that receded was directly proportional to the distance between galaxies. The farther stood a galaxy, the more its speed of recession augmented. The result was tested again and again. In 1950, a high-magnification telescope was installed on Mount Palomar in USA, the largest instrument of its kind. The new tests and controls justified this observation. The measurements made pointed to the fact that the creation of the universe had taken place about 10-15 billions years ago.
Both Einstein and Lemaître took an interest in Hubble’s work, Einstein, who did not agree with Lemaître at first, eventually acknowledged during a conference that Lemaître was right after all. He confessed that his failure to endorse Lemaître’s findings had been the gravest error in his life. The fact that the universe was of a dynamic nature and expanding, confirmed by observations was also validated by the great physicist Einstein.
In the examples presented by Hubble and Lemaître, we see illustrated how a physicist arrived at a conclusion both in theory and through observation. Lemaître demonstrated how he had had recourse to Einstein’s formulas to substantiate his discovery theoretically achieved, while Hubble presented the data that his observations had supplied and the conclusion he had arrived basing on them. As we see, the result obtained by physicists is the consequence of a chain of researches. The Creator of physical laws provides answer in the Quran to the issue of towering importance on the agenda throughout history. The Quran’s communication makes a beeline for his addressees unlike the devious paths the scientist follows; the path it has followed and the manner in which he attained the truth are not important. The provider of this answer does not have to go through all the labyrinths a scientist has to go. The Quran’s method is perfectly straightforward, unswerving and explicit.
Had we had the possibility to look at the universe from above and somebody asked us to describe what we saw, our answer would be that it was expanding. To the Quran’s revelation of this fact 1400 years ago, we could have access only by the assistance of accumulated scientific data acquired throughout long years and sophisticated telescopes. Some ask:”Why people did not believe in Jesus who had performed miracles and healed the sick and the blind?” At a time when science confronted religion, the Quran had furnished answers to the most arduous scientific problems, in a way nothing could challenge them. Observations made by sophisticated telescopes confirm the statements of the Quran. Despite such miracles the Quran contains, unprecedented in history, the persons resolved not to take heed, prefer to remain adamant in their creeds. The Quran, perfectly aware of the human psyche with its prescience, states that the unbelievers will insist on their convictions. This example shows the way why the people did not believe in Christ and other prophets despite their miracles. Miracles change in fact as time goes by, but the type of human being resolved to remain a nihilist remains unchanged.
POWER LIES IN THE CORE OF MATTER
At the beginning of verses (51-47) it is said that power lies in the origin of creation. The word ‘power’ is the equivalent of the Arabic word ayd derived from yad, meaning ‘hand’, but it has the signification of “power” in many contexts of the Quran. See for instance (38-Sad, 17) (“and remember our servant David, the possessor of power”…). The word ‘power’ given emphasis may have its special significance. (Some of the scientific miracles in the Quran are explicit, like the expansion of the universe. Others, namely the scientific ones, are but symbolically expressed, so that one must have recourse to interpretation and exegesis. In our book we have tried to explain a great many miracles we have selected for their evidence. However, we submit to your consideration such miracles calling for interpretation without caption, under a subtitle.) The said ‘power’ translates the power or the strength contained in the nucleus of the atom, or, better put, the fact that the nucleus is based on this power or strength. Einstein’s equation (Energy = mass x square of velocity of light) may be the most important formula of physics. Stephen Hawking, in his best seller A short History of Time had recourse only to this formula of Einstein, avoiding to use all other mathematical equations. This formula revealed that mass or matter was a form of energy and that matter could be transformed into energy. This meant that matter could be defined as power; matter and power should be considered apart. The statement that matter in the universe was created from power, points to a physical reality of towering importance. Power then formed the bases of everything, from the sun to the infinite number of galaxies and supernovas.
The fact that such a multitude of particles of matter in the wake of the Big Bang began to recede from each other at an immense velocity in such a vast space thanks to power (energy) shows the stunning potential of the Big Bang before explosion. This unfolding power expanded the universe and the elementary particles were prevented from collision. This immense power is ingeniously devised to function. Had the power been weaker, the elementary particles would have attracted each other to their reciprocal detriment, rendering impossible the formation of planets, galaxies and the earth, and the life on its surface would be unimaginable. Had the said power been stronger, the elementary particles would scatter on a wider space which would bar the possibility of formation of galaxies and of the earth as well as of the life on it. A relevant simile of a physicist points to the probability of a pencil thrown in the air falling back to stand on its sharp end. God has manifested the glory of His power by this big explosion, His well-planned ingenuity in devising the operation of everything within the scope of His original design, from the very moment of creation until today, has given, in the Quran, an account of all His formations, testifying thus that this message is contained in the Quran.
In a single verse, the Quran, proved to be the only book before the 1900s to state that the universe was expanding, corroborating further His miraculous revelation by declaring that matter had power in its origin.
The formula E=mc2 betokened that the immensity of the velocity of light stored in the atom proved the existence of the extraordinary energy. The new discoveries ranging from atomic power stations to the atom bomb were the results of the logic inherent in this formula.
Until the advent of Einstein, thinkers assumed the matter to be stationary, while describing motion as the consequence of a kind of initial thrust that had gathered momentum. Leibniz (1646-1716) came close to the idea of matter’s reducibility to energy saying that God had created movement inherent in matter (that movement originated from the internal structure of matter); but the exact scientific expression of this discovery owes its formulation to Einstein.
REASON FOR THE USE OF THE ROYAL PLURAL
We think it advisable to explain the reason for the use of ‘we’ in the verse analyzed in this chapter. Questions often crop up as we are not acquainted with the subtleties of the Arabic language. God uses both the royal plural ‘We’ and the first person singular ‘I’. This results from the fine distinctions in the Arabic. Be it in the Arabic or some other languages, a person may use the first person plural to express grandeur and exalted rank. But when addressing God in the second person, the pronoun used is ‘Thou’ and never ‘You’ or its plural ‘Ye’, and if reference is made to Him as a third person, the pronoun used is ‘He’ and never ‘They’. References in the Quran to God use always either the second or the third person, and none of them as a second or third person plural. This is due to the fine distinctions in the Arabic language
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