The Creation of the Universe
Everyone
agrees that the modern and highly developed city in the
picture could not have come into existence by accident
and that it was designed and constructed by expert architects,
engineers and builders. No one would claim otherwise.
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We have so far explained Allah's creation of
living things. Now, it is time to examine the universe at
large. Allah also created the universe in which you, the earth,
the sun, the solar system, planets, stars, galaxies and everything
else exists.
However, as well as those who oppose the fact
of the creation of living things, there are also some people
who deny the fact that the universe was created. These people
assert that the universe came into existence spontaneously.
Moreover, they suggest that it has always existed. Yet, they
never offer an explanation for this irrational claim. Their
claim is similar to the following example: Imagine that you
set sail one day and reached the shores of an island. What
would you think if you came across a highly developed city
with skyscrapers, surrounded by beautiful parks and greenery?
Furthermore, this city was full of theatres, restaurants and
railroad lines.
The
universe in which we live is incomparably bigger than
the city we saw on the previous page. It also has more
glorious structures than this city.
In this case, could we say that a flawless universe was
not created and that it came into existence spontaneously?
Such a claim would doubtless sound very odd. It is our
Lord Who created the flawless order in the design of the
universe. |
You would certainly think that this city had
been planned and constructed by intelligent people, would
you not? What would you think about someone who says, "Nobody
built this city. It has always existed, and at some time in
the past we came and inhabited it. Here, we have all our necessities,
and they all come into existence spontaneously"?
You would doubtless think him insane, or else
you would think that he has no idea what he is talking about.
But never forget that the universe in which we live is incomparably
larger than that city. The universe contains an almost uncountable
number of planets, stars, comets and satellites of various
sorts. That being the case, the claims of a person who says
that this flawless universe was not created but has always
existed must not remain unanswered. Do you not agree?
After reading the section below, you yourself
will be able to provide the best answer. Now, let's expand
on the subject of the universe and save the answer to the
end.
Everything Started to Form In a Big Explosion
Just
as the small spots drawn on a balloon move away from one
another as the balloon expands, so celestial bodies move
away from one another with the effect of the Big Bang.
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If
you think of the expansion of the universe as a film,
if you rewound the images back to the beginning you would
see that initially there was a single point. |
During the times when people did not have telescopes
to make observations of the heavens, they had very little,
and very unreliable, information about the remote universe,
and they had very different ideas about it. With advances
in technology, they attained accurate information about outer
space. In the mid-twentieth century, they discovered something
very important. The universe has a date of birth, which means
that the universe has not always existed. The universe-in
other words, the stars, planets and galaxies-started to form
at a specific date. Scientists calculated the age of the universe
to be 15 billion years.
They named the moment the universe was born
the "Big Bang," because 15 billion years ago, when nothing
existed, everything suddenly emerged with an explosion from
a single point. In brief, matter and the universe, which people
assumed to have always existed, had a beginning. At this point,
the question arises, "How did they come to understand that
it had a beginning?" That was quite easy; The matter that
scattered and sped away from other particles of matter with
the big explosion is still moving away. Think for a moment!
The universe is continuing to expand even at this moment.
Imagine the universe as a balloon. If we draw two small spots
on this balloon, what happens when you blow it up? The spots
on the balloon move away from one another as the balloon expands
and its volume increases. As in the case of the balloon, the
volume of the universe is also increasing, and everything
within it is racing away from everything else. In other words,
the distance between the stars, galaxies, stars and meteors
is continually increasing.
Imagine that you are watching the expansion
of the universe in a cartoon film. How would the universe
look if we rewound the film back to the beginning? It would
reduce down to a single point, would it not? That is exactly
what scientists did. They returned to the beginning of the
Big Bang and realised that the ever-expanding universe had
initially been a single point.
This explosion, called the Big Bang, became
the initial point of the existence Allah had predetermined
for the "universe." With this explosion, Allah created the
particles that made up the universe, and thus matter emerged.
It scattered around at tremendous speed. During the initial
moments of the explosion, this environment was almost like
a soup of matter made up of different particles. But in time
this great chaos started to transform into an ordered structure.
Allah created atoms from the particles, and eventually stars
from the atoms. Allah created the entire universe and everything
in it.
Let's give an example to clarify all this:
The
paints in a bowl scatter around as the result of an explosion.
Could the paint droplets randomly scattered around spontaneously
come together and form the picture we see in outer space?
The spontaneous formation of this picture is definitely
impossible. Advocating the theory that the universe came
into existence by accident is more irrational than suggesting
the spontaneous formation of the picture. |
Think of a huge space. It is utterly unlimited.
There is only a bowl full of paint in it. Nothing else exists.
In the bowl, all sorts of paints are mixed up, forming unusual
colours. Imagine that a bomb explodes in this bowl, under
the effect of which the paints scatter everywhere in the form
of tiny specks. Imagine that millions of paint specks move
in all directions in this space. Meanwhile, during this voyage
of the small specks, unusual things start to happen. Instead
of forming a chaotic mess and ultimately disappearing, they
start interacting as if they were intelligent beings. The
droplets that initially formed a coloured mixture start to
sort themselves into their individual colours. Blues, yellows,
reds, and all droplets of the same colour groups collect together
and continue to move away. Yet even more unusual things continue
to happen: Five hundred blue droplets join together and, in
the form of a bigger drop, continue their journey. Meanwhile,
three hundred red droplets in one corner and two hundred yellow
droplets in another merge and keep scattering around together.
These separate groups of colours move away from one another
and form beautiful images, as if acting upon someone's orders.
Some droplets come together and form images
of stars, others become the picture of a sun, and some others
form the planets around this sun. Another group of drops form
the image of the Earth, while another forms the moon. If you
ever saw such a picture, would you think that an explosion
in a bowl of paint had accidentally formed this picture? Nobody
would think that possible.
The
perfect order in our bodies is a product of Allah's flawless
creation. |
As the story of the paint drops shows, matter
came together and formed the perfect picture we see when we
look up in the sky, in other words, stars, the sun and planets.
But could all these things have happened by themselves?
How could the stars in the sky, the planets,
the sun, moon, and earth ever have come into existence as
a result of atoms falling together by chance after an explosion?
How about your mother, father, friends or birds, cats, bananas
or strawberries…? Of course, this is most unlikely to have
happened. Such an idea is as nonsensical as claiming that
a house was not built by workers, but came into being by the
free will of tiles and bricks, and by pure chance. We all
know that bricks scattered around by a bomb explosion do not
form little huts. They are reduced into stone and soil and,
in time, mix back into the earth.
But one point deserves particular attention.
As you know, paint drops are unconscious and inanimate matter.
It is impossible that drops of paint could spontaneously come
together and form pictures. Here, however, we are talking
about the formation of conscious and living things. It is
certainly highly improbable that living things such as human
beings, plants and animals could have come into existence
from inanimate matter purely through random chance.
To understand this better, we should consider
our own bodies: They are composed of tiny molecules invisible
to the eye, such as proteins, fats and water…These make up
the cells, and the cells make up our bodies. The perfect order
in our bodies is a product of a special design. Allah created
our eyes that see, our hands that hold this book and our legs
that enable us to walk. Allah predetermined how we would develop
in our mothers' wombs, how tall we would be and the colours
of our eyes.
It Is Allah Who Created Everything
If
you recall, at the beginning of the book we sought the correct
answer to give to a disbelieving person. Now you have the
answer. Explosions do not form an orderly picture, but only
disrupt an existing one. The order that emerged after the
explosion of the universe is even more perfect than the examples
we mentioned-a big city or the bowl of paint. All these cannot
be the product of coincidence.
This perfect system could have only been brought
into being by the will of Almighty Allah. Allah is able to
create anything. He just says to it, "Be!" and it is.
Everything
a person experiences from his birth to his death is determined
by destiny. You can think of this like a film strip. If
we take a film strip and look at it from a distance, we
can see the beginning, middle and end of events at the
same time. |
Allah created a beautiful world in a flawless
universe for us, and He created animals and plants in it.
He created the sun to emit energy and to make us warm. So
finely adjusted is the distance of the sun from the earth
that were it a little closer our world would be very hot,
but if it were any farther away, then we would all freeze.
As scientists uncover more of these facts, we
come to know the might of Allah better. That is because matter
can neither make decisions nor carry them out. This means
there is a Creator Who designs and creates this universe.
Matter, the underlying substance of the stars, human beings,
animals, plants and of everything, whether animate or inanimate,
is all under Allah's control. That is why everything on earth
is orderly. Because everything is created by Allah, the Maker
and the Giver of Form.
Allah Created Everyone With A Destiny
At the beginning of the book, we referred to
how Allah created Adam, peace be upon him. All human beings
are descended from him. Allah has granted people life in this
world to test them, and sent them messengers to communicate
their responsibilities.
Everyone is put to the test in this world by
the events he experiences. In other words, we are put to the
test in our reactions to the incidents we encounter, the way
we speak and our steadfastness in the face of difficulties:
In brief, whether we conduct ourselves correctly.
This test will serve to determine our lot in
the afterlife.
But the test in this world has a very important
secret. As a great mercy and comfort granted to mankind, Allah
created destiny. Destiny, that is, all the incidents one experiences
throughout life, is predetermined by Allah even before one's
birth. For each person, Allah creates his or her unique destiny.
To better understand this, we can liken it to
a movie recorded on a videotape cassette. Both the beginning
and the end of this movie are already known, but we can only
know them after watching the film. This also holds true for
destiny. Everything a person will do throughout his life,
all the incidents he encounters, the schools he will attend,
the houses in which he will live, and the moment of his death
are all predetermined.
All incidents that happen to a person, whether
good or evil, are predetermined in Allah's knowledge. Each
person is put to the test in compliance with this scenario
specifically written for him. To sum up, in accordance with
this scenario, man goes through a series of incidents, and
his faith, and then his actions as well as his reactions to
these incidents, determine his lot in the afterlife.
Knowledge of destiny is a great source of comfort
for man. It is a blessing from Allah. For this reason, there
is no need for man to feel sorry for incidents whose outcomes
are already preordained or to worry over events that do not
go well. To those who show patience in the face of ordeals,
aware that nothing happens without Allah's will, Allah gives
the glad tidings of the Garden (Paradise). The messengers
of Allah set the best examples in this respect. Allah gives
such people the glad tidings of the Garden due to their exemplary
faith and correct behaviour.
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