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The Expansion of the Universe in the Quran In 1929, in the California Mount Wilson observatory, an American astronomer by the name of Edwin Hubble made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of astronomy. While he observed the stars with a giant telescope, he found out that the light from them was shifted to the red end of the spectrum and that this shift was more pronounced the further a star was from the earth. This discovery had an
electrifying effect in the world of science, because according to the recognized
rules of physics, the spectra of light beams traveling towards the point of
observation tend towards violet while the spectra of the light beams moving away
from the point of observation tend towards red. During Hubble's observations,
the light from stars was discovered to tend towards red. This meant that they
were constantly moving away from us. Long before, Hubble made another
very important discovery: Stars and galaxies moved away not only from us, but
also from one another. The only conclusion that could be derived from a universe
where everything moves away from everything else is that the universe constantly
'expands'. To better understand, the
universe can be thought of as the surface of a balloon being blown up. Just as
the points on the surface of a balloon move apart from each other as the balloon
is inflated, so do the objects in space move apart from each other as the
universe keeps expanding. In fact, this had been
theoretically discovered even earlier. Albert Einstein, who is considered the
greatest scientist of the century, had concluded after the calculations he made
in theoretical physics that the universe could not be static. However, he had laid his
discovery to rest simply not to conflict with the widely recognized static
universe model of his time. Later on, Einstein was to identify his act as 'the
greatest mistake of his career'. Subsequently, it became definite by Hubble's
observations that the universe expands. What importance, then, did the
fact that the universe expands have on the existence of the universe? The
expansion of the universe implied that if it could travel backwards in time, the
universe would prove to have originated from a single point. The calculations
showed that this 'single point' that harbored all the matter of the universe
should have 'zero volume' and 'infinite density'. The universe had come about by
the explosion of this single point with zero volume. This great explosion that
marked the beginning of the universe was named the 'Big Bang' and the theory
started to be so called. It has to be stated that 'zero
volume' is a theoretical expression used for descriptive purposes. Science can
define the concept of 'nothingness', which is beyond the limits of human
comprehension, only by expressing it as a point with zero volume'. In truth, 'a
point with no volume' means 'nothingness'. The universe has come into being from
nothingness. In other words, it was created. The Big Bang theory showed that
in the beginning all the objects in the universe were of one piece and then were
parted. This fact, which was revealed by the Big Bang theory was stated in the
Quran 14 centuries ago, when people had a very limited knowledge about the
universe; Allaah says (what means): "Have those
who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined
entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will
they not believe?" [Quran 21:30] As stated in the verse,
everything, even the 'heavens and the earth' that were not yet created, were
created with a Big Bang out of a single point, and shaped the present universe
by being parted from each other. When we compare the statements
in the verse with the Big Bang theory, we see that they fully agree with each
other. However, the Big Bang was introduced as a scientific theory only in the
20th century. The expansion of the universe is one of the most important pieces of evidence that the universe was created out of nothing. Although this fact was not discovered by science until the 20th century, Allaah has informed us of this reality in the Quran (revealed 1,400 years ago) saying (what means): " And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander." [Quran 51: 47] Source: www.islamweb.net [1/2/2009] |