In
addition to explaining the universe, the Big Bang
model has another important implication. As the
quotation from Anthony Flew cited above points
out, science has proven an assertion hitherto
supported only by religious sources.
The
truth that is defended by religious sources is
the reality of creation from nothingness. This
has been declared in the holy books that have
served as guides for mankind for thousands of
years. In all holy books such as the Old Testament,
New Testament, and the Qur'an, it is declared
that the universe and everything in it were created
from nothingness by Allah.
In the only book
revealed by Allah that has survived completely
intact, the Qur'an, there are statements about
the creation of the universe from nothing as well
as how this came about that are parallel to 20th-century
knowledge and yet were revealed fourteen centuries
ago.
First of all,
the creation of this universe from nothingness
is revealed in the Qur'an as follows:
He(Allah)
is the Originator of the heavens and the earth…(Surat
al-Anam: 101)
Another important
aspect revealed in the Qur'an fourteen centuries
before the modern discovery of the Big Bang and
findings related to it is that when it was created,
the universe occupied a very tiny volume:
Do
those who are disbelievers not see that the
heavens and the earth were sewn together and
then We unstitched them and that We made from
water every living thing? So will they
not have faith? (Surat al-Anbiya': 30)
There is a very
important choice of words in the original Arabic
whose translation is given above. The word ratk
translated as "sewn to" means
"mixed in each, blended" in Arabic dictionaries.
It is used to refer to two different substances
that make up a whole. The phrase "we unstitched"
is the verb fatk in Arabic and implies that something
comes into being by tearing apart or destroying
the structure of ratk. The sprouting
of a seed from the soil is one of the actions
to which this verb is applied.
Let us take a
look at the verse again with this knowledge in
mind. In the verse, sky and earth are at first
subject to the status of ratk. They are
separated (fatk) with one coming out
of the other. Intriguingly, cosmologists speak
of a "cosmic egg" that consisted of all the matter
in the universe prior to the Big Bang. In other
words, all the heavens and earth were included
in this egg in a condition of ratk. This
cosmic egg exploded violently causing its matter
to fatk and in the process created the
structure of the whole universe.
Another truth
revealed in the Qur'an is the expansion of the
universe that was discovered in the late 1920s.
Hubble's discovery of the red shift in the spectrum
of starlight is revealed in the Qur'an as :
It
is We Who have built the universe with (Our
creative) power, and, verily, it is We Who are
steadily expanding it. (Surat adh-Dhariyat:
47)
In short, the
findings of modern science support the truth that
is revealed in the Qur'an and not materialist
dogma. Materialists may claim this all to be "coincidence"
but the plain fact is that the universe came into
being as a result of an act of creation on the
part of Allah and the only true knowledge about
the origin of universe is to be found in the word
of Allah as revealed.
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