In the Qur'an, which was
revealed 14 centuries ago at a time when the science
of astronomy was still primitive, the expansion
of the universe was described like this:
"And it is We
who have constructed the heaven with might, and
verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it."
(The Qur'an, 51:47)
The word "heaven", as stated
in this verse, is used in various places in the
Qur'an with the meaning of space and universe.
Here again, the word is used with this meaning.
In other words, in the Qur'an it is revealed that
the universe "expands". And this is the very conclusion
that science has reached today.
From the moment of the big bang, the universe
has been constantly expanding at a great
speed. Scientists compare the expanding
universe to the surface of a balloon that
is inflated.
Until the dawn of
the 20th century, the only view prevailing in the
world of science was that "the universe has a constant
nature and it has existed since infinite time".
The research, observations, and calculations carried
out by means of modern technology, however, have
revealed that the universe in fact had a beginning,
and that it constantly "expands".
At
the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian
physicist Alexander Friedmann and the Belgian
cosmologist Georges Lemaitre theoretically calculated
that the universe is in constant motion and that
it is expanding.
This fact was proved also by
observational data in 1929. While observing the
sky with a telescope, Edwin Hubble, the American
astronomer, discovered that the stars and galaxies
were constantly moving away from each other. A
universe where everything constantly moves away
from everything else implied a constantly expanding
universe. The observations carried out in the
following years verified that the universe is
constantly expanding. This fact was explained
in the Qur'an when that was still unknown to anyone.
This is because the Qur'an is the word of God,
the Creator, and the Ruler of the entire universe.
