ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
"He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth."(The Qur'an, 6:101)
The science of modern cosmology, observational and theoretical, clearly indicates that, at one point in time, the whole universe was nothing but a cloud of ‘smoke’ (i.e. an opaque highly dense and hot gaseous composition). This is one of the undisputed principles of standard modern cosmology. Scientists now can observe new stars forming out of the remnants of that ‘smoke’ (see figures 1 and 2).
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| Figure 1: A new star forming out of a cloud of gas and dust (nebula), which is one of the remnants of the ‘smoke’ that was the origin of the whole universe. (The Space Atlas, Heather and Henbest, p. 50.) |
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Figure 2: The Lagoon nebula is a cloud of gas and dust, about 60 light years in diameter. It is excited by the ultraviolet radiation of the hot stars that have recently formed within its bulk. (Horizons, Exploring the Universe, Seeds, plate 9, from Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.) |
Because the earth and the heavens above (the sun, the moon, stars, planets, galaxies, etc.) have been formed from this same ‘smoke,’ we conclude that the earth and the heavens were one connected entity. Then out of this homogeneous ‘smoke,’ they formed and separated from each other.The illuminating stars we see at night were, just as was the whole universe, in that ‘smoke’ material. God has said in the Quran:
“Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke... “ (Quran 41:11)
Because the earth and the heavens above (the sun, the moon, stars, planets, galaxies, etc.) have been formed from this same ‘smoke,’ we conclude that the earth and the heavens were one connected entity. Then out of this homogeneous ‘smoke,’ they formed and separated from each other.
The Big Bang:
100 years ago, the world’s best scientific minds thought that the universe had always existed. Since it always existed, it didn’t need a Creator.
Einstein changed all that.
His ‘field equations’ suggested that the universe was expanding like a balloon. The mathematician and Belgian Priest, George Lemaître, realised that this expansion had to have started from somewhere. It must have come from an initial, dense point. This idea became known as the Big Bang. Today, it is the basis for understanding the origin of the universe.
What few people know however is that the Holy Quran described the Big Bang perfectly, 1400 years earlier.
Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up mass (ratqan), then We opened them out? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (Quran 21:31)
The arabic word ratqan means a closed-up mass. It also means darkness. A dark, closed-up mass is a perfect description of what we know the universe looked like in its earliest moments. The heavens and the Earth were indeed opened out from this mass to produce the universe we see today.
The verse further says that water is the basis of life. This is now an accepted scientific fact. When NASA look for planets that can bear life, they look for water.
The shocking power of this verse is a grand sign for our disbelieving age.
“Thinking where Muhammad came from . . . I think it is almost impossible that he could have known about things like the common origin of the universe, because scientists have only found out within the last few years, with very complicated and advanced technological methods, that this is the case.”
Also he said:
“Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics fourteen hundred years ago could not, I think, be in a position to find out from his own mind, for instance, that the earth and the heavens had the same origin.”
