THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
In 1925, American astronomer Edwin Hubble, provided observational evidence that all galaxies are moving away from one another, which implies
that the universe is expanding. The expansion of the universe is now an established scientific fact. This is
what the Qur’an says regarding the nature of the universe:
وَالسَّمَاء
بَنَيْنَاهَا بِأَيْدٍ وَإِنَّا لَمُوسِعُونَ
“With power and skill did We construct the Firmament: For it is We Who create the vastness of Space.”
[Al-Qur’an 51:47]
The Arabic word musioon is correctly translated as ‘expanding it’, and it refers to the creation of the expanding vastness of the universe.
One of the greatest astrophysicist StephenHawking, in his book, ‘A Brief History of Time’, says, “The discovery that the universe is expanding
was one of the great intellectual revolutions of the 20th century.” The Qur’an mentioned the expansion of the universe, before man even learnt
to build a telescope!
Some may say that the presence of astronomical
facts in the Qur’an is not surprising since the Arabs
were advanced in the field of astronomy. They are
correct in acknowledging the advancement of the
Arabs in the field of astronomy. However they fail
to realize that the Qur’an was revealed centuries
before the Arabs excelled in astronomy. Moreover
many of the scientific facts mentioned above, such
as the origin of the universe with a Big Bang, were
not known to the Arabs even at the peak of their
scientific advancement. The scientific facts
mentioned in the Qur’an are therefore not due to the
Arabs’ advancement in astronomy. Indeed, the
reverse is true: they advanced in astronomy,
because astronomy occupies a place in the Qur’an.
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