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Quranic Viewpoint about the Expanding Universe
By: Mahdi La'li
Tehran, Iran
As previously discussed, the universe has been expanding since its creation. Hubble, an astronomer made this great discovery, in the early part of this century. In 1925, Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space telescope is named) provided the observational evidence for the expansion of the universe. Stephen Hawking (author of 'A Brief History of Time') states: "The universe is not static, as had previously been thought, it is expanding".
The galaxies other than our "Milky Way" are moving away from us at tremendous speeds. This can be ascertained, by analyzing the light given off by the galaxies, by an instrument called the spectroscope. The more distant a galaxy is, the greater is its speed of recession. This motion of the galaxies is due to the expansion of the universe. As previously discussed, the universe began about fifteen to twenty billion years ago with a tremendous explosion called "The Big Bang" and has been expanding ever since. The universe is not just a sphere of galaxies rushing away from each other into unending emptiness of space. It can be compared to a balloon with many dots on it, each representing a galaxy. However, the surface of this balloon, which is two dimensional, represents all three dimensions of our space, and is expanding into a higher dimension, that is beyond our imagination 1.
What did the Quran reveal 1400 years ago concerning this issue? Let us have a look. Astonishingly enough, the expansion of the universe is clearly mentioned in the verse 47 of chapter51:
-[And] We have built the heaven with might, and We it is who make the vast extent (thereof) 2.
Chapter51: verse47
To understand how the universe is expanding, some knowledge of cosmology is essential.
Scientific Viewpoint
So far we have learned that in the late 1920's the American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889_1953) analyzed starlight from distant galaxies. He discovered that the wavelengths of the light were longer than expected.
It was first suggested by the general theory of relativity and is backed up by physics in the examination of the galactic spectrum; the regular movement towards the red section of their spectrum may be explained by the distancing of one galaxy from another. Thus the size of the universe is probably constantly increasing and this increase will become bigger the further away the galaxies are from us. The speeds at which these celestial bodies are moving may, in the course of this perpetual expansion, go from fractions of the speed of light to speeds faster than this.
This effect called red shift indicated that these galaxies were moving away from the origin of the Big Bang at great speed. A similar effect can be observed in all directions from earth, leading astronomers to assert that the universe is getting perpetually larger, but to what end?
When astronomers look out into space far beyond our galaxy, they see many other galaxies all seem to be moving away from us and from each other and those furthest away are moving the fastest. So we seem to be in all expanding universe, but what happened to start this expansion?
As we stated before, astronomers think that about 15000 million years ago all the material in the universe was sent flying outwards in all directions. They cannot explain how or why this happened, but they compare it with a massive explosion: the big bang. At first the universe was very hot, but it cooled as it expanded and became the universe we know today. The distant galaxies are so far away that the light from them takes a long time to reach us.
The big bang model proposes that the universe started out unimaginably small, bright, hot, and dense, but has been expanding ever since (It now has a radius of about 15 billion light years). During the course of this expansion, some of the mass of the universe has condensed to form countless billions of galaxies of which there are about 10 billions in the known universe. These galaxies are grouped into clusters, which are themselves grouped into super clusters separated by vast distances in empty space. Astronomers can see faint galaxies 10000 million light years away. This means that the light from these galaxies has taken 10000 million years ago, and we do not know what these galaxies are really like today. As you look out into space, you are also looking back in time 4.
The expansion of the Universe is one of the most imposing discoveries of modern science. Today it is a firmly established concept and the only debate centers on the actual precipitating event that set our universe into being.
Quranic Viewpoint
The following verse of the Quran (sura 51, verse 47) where God is speaking may perhaps be compared with modern ideas:
-The heaven, We have built it with power. Verily, We are expanding it. Chapter51: verse47
‘Heaven’ is the translation of the word ‘sama’ and this is exactly the extraterrestrial world that is meant. 'We are expanding it' is the translation of the plural present participle “musi'una” of the verb “ausa'a” meaning “to make wider, more spacious, to extend, to expand”.
Some translators who were unable to grasp the meaning of the latter provide translations that appear to be mistaken, e.g. "we give generously" (R. Blachere). Others sense the meaning, but are afraid to commit themselves: Ramidullah in his translation of the Quran talks of the widening of the heavens and space, but he includes a question mark. Finally, there are those who arm themselves with authorized scientific opinion in their commentaries and give the meaning stated here. It refers to the expansion of the Universe in totally unambiguous terms 5.
This impressive statement in Holy Quran leads us to the scientific miracles of this supreme revelation.
References
1. Resurrection of Mankind through the Reversal of Time, by Dr. Muhammed Humayoun Khan, Illinois, USA.
2. Holy Quran translated by Marmaduke Pickthall, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, Fifth Edition, 1969.
3. Exploration of the Universe, by George Abell, Hot, Rinehart and Winston Inc., USA, 1969.
4. Space, Stars, Planets and Spacecraft, by Dorling Kindersley Publishers Limited, London, 1990.
5. The Bible, The Quran and Science (Le Bible, le Coran et la Science)," The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge, by Dr. Maurice Bucaille, French Physician, Seghers, Paris, 1987, English version published by North American Trust Publication, 1978.
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