EVOLUTION OF THE HEAVENS

Having called modern concepts on the formation of the Universe to mind, reference was made to the evolution that took place, starting with primary nebula through to the formation of galaxies, stars and (for the solar system) the appearance of planets beginning with the Sun at a certain stage of its evolution. Modern data lead us to believe that in the solar system, and more generally in the Universe itself, this evolution is still continuing.

How can anybody who is aware of these ideas fail to make a comparison with certain statements found in the Qur"an in which the manifestations of divine Omnipotence are referred to.

The Qur"an reminds us several times that: "(God) subjected the sun and the moon: each one runs its course to an appointed term."

This sentence is to be found in sura 13, verse 2; sura 31, verse 29; sura 35, verse 13 and sura 39, verse 5.

In addition to this, the idea of a settled place is associate with the concept of a destination place in sura 36, verse 38: "The Sun runs its course to a settled place. This is the decree of the All Mighty, the Full of Knowledge."

"Settled place" is the translation of the word mustaqarr and there can be no doubt that the idea of an exact place is attached to it.

How do these statements fare when compared with data established by modern science?

The Qur"an gives an end to the Sun for its evolution and a destination place. It also provides the Moon with a settled place. To understand the possible meanings of these statements, we must remember what modern knowledge has to say about the evolution of the stars in general and the Sun in particular, and (by extension) the celestial bodies that automatically followed its movement through space, among them the Moon.

The Sun is a star that is roughly 4.5 billion years old, according to experts in astrophysics. It is possible to (distinguish a stage in its evolution, as one can for all the stars. At present, the Sun is at an early stage, characterized by the transformation of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Theoretically, this present stage should last another 5.5 billion years according to calculations that allow a total of 10 billion years for the duration of the primary stage in a star of this kind. It has already been shown, in the case of these other stars, that this stage gives way to a second period characterized by the completion of the transformation of hydrogen into helium, with the resulting expansion of its external layers and the cooling of the Sun. In the final stage, its light is greatly diminished and density considerably increased; this is to be observed in the type of star known as a "white dwarf".

The above dates are only of interest in as far as they give a rough estimate of the time factor involved, what is worth remembering and is really the main point of the above, is the notion of an evolution. Modern data allow us to predict that, in a few billion years, the conditions prevailing in the solar system will not be the same as they are today. Like other stars whose transformations have been recorded until they reached their final stage, it is possible to predict an end to the Sun.

The second verse quoted above (sura 36, verse 38) referred to the Sun running its course towards a place of its own.

Modern astronomy has been able to locate it exactly and has even given it a name, the Solar Apex: the solar system is indeed evolving in space towards a point situated in the Constellation of Hercules (alpha lyrae) whose exact location is firmly established; it is moving at a speed already ascertained at something in the region of 12 miles per second.

All these astronomical data deserve to be mentioned in relation to the two verses from the Qur"an. Since it is possible to state that they appear to agree perfectly with modern scientific data.

The Expansion of the Universe

The expansion of the Universe is the most imposing discovery of modern science. Today it is a firmly established concept and the only debate centers around the way this is taking place.

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.

The following verse of the Qur"an (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."

"Heaven" is the translation of the word "sama" and this is exactly the extra-terrestrial 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 me 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 Qur"an 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. This is true in the case of the Muntakab, a book of commentaries edited by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Cairo. It refers to the expansion of the Universe in totally unambiguous terms.

QUR’ANIC VERSES ABOUT GEOLOGY
AND THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH

 Professor Alfred Kroner: …and that many of the statements made at the time could be proven, but that modern scientific methods are now in a position to prove what Muhammad said 1400 years ago.

We present to you Professor Alfred Kroner who is one of the world’s most famous geologists. He is a Professor of Geology and the Chairman of the Department of Geology at the Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenburg University, Mainz, Germany. We met him and presented several Qur"aanic verses and Ahadeeth of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). He studied and commented on them. Then we had a discussion with him.

Professor Kroner said: "Thinking about many of these questions and thinking where Muhammad came from, he was after all a bedouin. 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."

Professor Kroner chose an example from the Qur"aan which proved to him why the Qur"aan could not have come from Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) himself. The example which Professor Kroner chose is a deion in the Qur"aan of the fact that this universe had its beginnings in one single entity. Allah, may He be Exalted and Glorified said: Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together [ratqan], before we clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing… [Qur"aan 21:30]

The meaning of ratqan in this verse, as Ibn Abbas, Mujaahid, and others said, may Allah be pleased with all of them, is that the heavens and the earth were stuck together or blended together, and that they were later separated from each other. Professor Kroner used this as an example to prove that no human being during the time of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), could have known this.

Professor Kroner: "Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics 1400 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, or many others of the questions that we have discussed here."

Professor Kroner, so it seemed to us, has a special talent of being evasive. For example, we asked him to describe the geological conditions of Arabia. ‘Was Arabia full of orchards and rivers?’ He said: "During the Snow Age." And it is further known that the North Polar icebergs are slowly moving southwards. When those polar icebergs become relatively close to the Arabian Peninsula, the weather will change and Arabia will become one of the greenest and wettest parts of the world. We asked him: ‘Will Arabia become the land of orchards and rivers?’ He said: "Yes, it is a scientific fact."

This astonished us, and we wondered how he could state this as a scientific fact while it was related to the future and we asked: ‘Why?’ He said: "Because the new Snow Age has actually started. And we can see the snow crawling once again from the North Pole southwards. In fact, the polar snow is now on the way to get closer to the Arabian Peninsula. We can see the signs of this in the snow blizzards striking the northern parts of Europe and America every winter. Scientists have other signs and information proving the actual beginning of another Snow Age. It is a scientific fact."

So we said to him: ‘What you have just mentioned has only been known to scientists after a long series of discoveries and with the help of specialized instruments. But we have already found this mentioned by the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) 1400 years ago. He said in a hadith transmitted in Saheeh Muslim:

The Last Hour will not come upon us until the lands of the Arabs are once again pasture lands and filled with rivers.

At this point we asked Professor Kroner: ‘Who told the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), that the lands of the Arabs were once filled with orchards and rivers?’ He immediately replied: "The Romans." This reminded me of Professor Kroner’s evasive ability. We asked him another question, we said to him: ‘But who informed the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), that the lands of the Arabs would once again become pasturelands and be filled with rivers?’. Professor Kroner becomes evasive if embarrassed. But whenever he was faced with the truth, he is courageous enough to state his opinion frankly and thus he replied: "This could have been known to him only through revelation from above."

Finally, after our discussions with him, he made the following comments: "If you combine all these and you combine all those statements that are being made in the Qur"aan in terms that relate to the earth and the formation of the earth and science in general, you can basically say that statements made there in many ways are true. They can now be confirmed by scientific methods, and in a way you can say that the Qur"aan is a simple science text book for the simple man, and that many of the statements made in there at that time could not be proven but that modern scientific methods are now in a position to prove what Muhammad said 1400 years ago."

Allah confirms in His Book that

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

THE HOLY QUR"AN, THE BIBLE.

The Muslims and non-Muslims consider the Qur"an and the Bible to be their respective books of guidance without realizing the vast differences between the two. Firstly, the Bible is a ure and many Muslims erroneously consider the Qur"an to be a ure. In the Qur"an, Allah describes the Qur"an as "Al-Kitab", meaning "the Book", which is the right name for it. The Bible is called a ure and if asked about the authorship, Christians tell you that there were forty-some persons, rarely a prophet or a messenger among them, who wrote the Bible under divine inspiration. The concept of divine inspiration is an assumption without verification. Whereas, the Qur"an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad Sall-Allahu "alaihi wa sallam (henceforth denoted as S) who dictated to his scribes, the most honorable companions. In the sense of authorship the Bible is a ure whereas the Qur"an is not a ure but a revealed book.

The Qur"an talks about the TAURAT, ZUBOOR and INJEEL which were the books revealed by Allah to the Prophets Musa, Dawood and "Isa "alaihumus-salaam, respectively, which are not the same books as the Bible. Due to the similarity of some contents of TAURAT, ZUBOOR and INJEEL, some people equate them with the Torah and Psalms of David and the Gospels respectively, which is an error. This has given an excuse to the Christian missionaries to present the Bible in the native languages of the Muslim countries as the TAURAT, ZUBOOR and INJEEL of the QUR"AN and confuse and confound naive Muslims. The revealed Taurat, Zuboor and Injeel were revealed books which are extinct, whereas, the Bible may contain some parts of Taurat, Zuboor and Injeel in modern-day language translation in corrupt form. A translation of a revealed book cannot be the word of God because in the process of translation the word of God is transformed into the word of man. In the language of revelation (Arabic or Aramaic or Hebrew) only one manu or codex could be the word of God, whereas, there can be an infinite number of translations by man. It is, therefore, agreed by Muslim scholars that any translation of the Qur"an is not the word of God and does not qualify to be called the Qur"an. Non-Arabic speaking people should be able to benefit from translations but no one should depend upon a single translation because no translation is free of errors. A translation represents the understanding or lack of it by the translator himself. If any one desires to become a scholar of the Qur"an there is no choice but to learn the Arabic language of the Qur"an and gain expertise in it.

One of the major sources of corruption of the Bible is translation and translations of translations. With regards to the Gospels of the Christians, there is no record of even writing down any document when Jesus received revelations. It is believed by the Christians that the first records of the teachings of Jesus (A) and his life were made decades after his disappearance and it was in the Greek language. The earliest manu available is from the fourth century after Jesus. In the case of the Old Testament, it was written in Hebrew and its dialects, but was destroyed at least twice by the enemies of Judaism in ancient times without leaving a single copy and was rewritten from memory, one of the sources of corruption. The Qur"an was recorded in writing as well as in the memory of many people in the life time of the Prophet Muhammad (S) and was compiled in book form according to his directions by his companions shortly after his death. It is, therefore, suggested that Muslims should not apply the term "ure" to the Qur"an. "Al-Kitab", when used in the Qur"an, should be translated simply as "the Book".