SCIENCE AND GOD-REALIZATION
Rational Explanation
IF on a trip away from the city, you chance to lift your head up and look at the sky, you will see thousands of stars; beautiful, magnificent and wonderful stars. If you observe them carefully for some time, you will see that they are slowly moving across the sky. This apparent movement of the stars across the sky is because of the earth’s rotation. In fact, some stars seem to move faster than others. This is because of the distance between the stars. This difference in apparent movement is called parallax. In the case of stars, this is very helpful, since it helps us measure the distance between us and the star in question.
Fourteen centuries ago however, little was known about the stars. The earth was thought to be flat and the heavens a kind of vault resting on the hilltops which provided a roof over the earth. Stars were considered as close to one another as they appeared to be. It was generally believed that the earth was stationary and that the sun revolved around it. People believed that the universe had existed since eternity. Even the greatest thinkers of the time believed in a static model of the universe. At such a time, the Quran said:
Do not those who deny the truth see that the heavens and the earth were joined together and that We then split them asunder? (21: 30)
Up to about a hundred years ago, it was generally accepted that the universe existed in infinite time. Only now, we find that modern studies in astronomy have confirmed the truth of this verse in the Quran.
According to the prevailing and current scientific view of cosmology, the universe had a distinct and singular beginning about 13.7 billion years ago in what is commonly referred to as the Big Bang. This model of the universe also describes how the universe expanded from a very high density and high temperature state. It offered a comprehensive explanation to various natural phenomena including the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, our earth and the elements required to sustain life.
The star nearest to us, apart from the sun, is called Proxima Centauri and is about four light-years away from us (meaning light from that star takes about four years to reach us) or about 40 million million kilometres. In comparison, light from the sun takes only about eight minutes to reach us. The stars seem to be spread across the entire sky but are actually concentrated in one particular band, which we call the Milky Way galaxy. We now know that the Milky Way—our galaxy is not the only galaxy. In 1924, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble found many others, with huge areas of empty space in between them. But these galaxies were so far away that they appeared not to move at all and their distance from us could not be directly measured.
Scientific developments have enabled us to study and observe these stars and galaxies which would not have been possible at the time when the Quran was revealed. Another way to measure the distance of a star or galaxy from us is by its brightness. The temperature of a star can also be calculated by focusing a telescope on a particular distant star and passing its light through a prism. This light splits up into different colours—called the star’s spectrum. Different stars have different spectra but a specific temperature shows a specific spectral pattern. If we know the temperature of a star, and therefore its luminosity, and its apparent brightness, its distance from us can be calculated.
As astronomers began to study these distant galaxies, they discovered that the light from each galaxy showed the same spectral pattern. To understand the implications of this, we must first understand that light travels in waves. The size of the wave, called wavelength, determines its colour. Visible light consists of seven colours: red—which has the longest wavelength and therefore the largest waves, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet—which has the shortest wavelength and therefore the smallest waves.
Here is evidence of the Quran having its source in an Omnipresent and Eternal Mind—One Which knows all in their true forms and Whose knowledge has not been conditioned by time and circumstance.
Now, the spectral pattern of the galaxies was all found to be slightly shifted to the red side. Different stars emit light at different wavelengths. If the stars were stationary, the light we receive would be in the same wavelength in which it was sent. But if the stars were moving away from us, the light would be being stretched as it was sent— which means its wavelength would keep increasing—becoming red. If all galaxies were being shifted to the red, it meant that they were all moving away from us. This meant that the universe was expanding— like how points marked on a balloon move further and further away from each other as the balloon grows in size.
Fourteen centuries ago, the following verse was revealed to Prophet Muhammed in the Quran:
And it is We who have built the universe, with Our creative power; and truly, it is We who are steadily expanding it. (51: 47)
With the advances made in the field of science and technology, the range of human observation and experiment have vastly increased, opening up great vistas of knowledge about the universe. In all spheres of existence and in all disciplines of science, previously established concepts were proved wrong by later research and were discarded.
This means no human work dating back 1500 years can claim total accuracy, because all ‘facts’ must now be re-evaluated in the light of recent information. But when one reads and understands the verses in the Quran related to the universe, one can observe that it is free of errors.
For a serious reader this can be an evidence of the Quran having had its source in an Omnipresent and Eternal Mind—One Which knows all facts in their true forms and Whose knowledge has not been conditioned by time and circumstances.
The human mind has great potential
but it can only work in a peaceful
atmosphere. In the absence of the
peaceful environment for work,
the mind's capabilities will remain
unutilized—the process that unfolds
the potential of the mind will be left
uninitiated.