Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? – William Shakespeare: Sonnet 18

ancient-astronomyThe Sun, one of the most curious of creations, a mass of fire floating up in space, one we have grown so accustomed too. It greets us at the crack of dawn and bids us good night a number of hours later. In ancient times, people looked up to the sun and moon, called upon them as their gods and prayed and worshiped these two entities because they believed them to be so daunting and beautiful two aspects which we still hold today. We wax poetic literature comparing a beautiful woman to the moon. Maya Angelou described the “Phenomenal Woman”‘s smile to the sun. Another attribute that made them worthy of this title was their immortally. Without fail we can calculate the exact time the sun rises any time of the year because it abides by a clock that can be studied and synced to science. However, is the sun really as immortal as our fathers thought it to be or will it, like everything else,  come to an end? “And the sun runs unto a resting place, for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-knowing. (Al-Qur’an 36:38)

The sun’s light is a result of a chemical process that has been occurring persistently for five billion years. However, in sync with the rest of creations it too will cease to exist marking the end of life on earth. As seen in the above English interpretation there is mention of the sun running unto a resting place, suggesting that it runs to a determined place and on a prescribed day it will terminate.

It was earlier believed that space was but a vacuum, later this notion was rectified as it was discovered that there are in fact bridges of matter referred to as plasma. Plasma is at times considered the fourth state of matter and consists of ionized gas containing corresponding numbers of free positive ions and electrons. The Quranic verse that mentions this is “He who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between” (25:59).

Edwin Hubble (1925) was the first, to be able to provide observational evidence for the receding of the galaxies from one another, thus suggesting the expansion of the universe. This is now regarded as irrefutable scientific fact. The Qur’an recited “And raw heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander” (51:47). Stephen Hawking once stated in his book A Brief History of Time (1988) “The discovery that the universe is expanding was one of the greatest intellectual revolutions of the 20th century.” The Qur’an said it before 1409 years before Stephen Hawking!

There are those that attempt to refute the knowledge of the Qur’an as they claim that Arabs were advanced in astronomy anyway. However, what they fail to realize is that the Arabs were advanced in astronomy due tot he knowledge the Qur’an provided not the other way around.

How could anyone, but the Creator possibly know such intricate detail?
S

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Sarah Gavoci

I am a citizen of the world, a slave, a psychologist, a daughter, a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend. I have an undergrad psychology degree, a psychiatry master's degree. I am a reading fanatic always have been and a writing enthusiast. So, here's my opportunity to give writing to a wider audience a chance.

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