CHAPTER 1: CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
Have
you ever wondered how the endless universe we live in came
into existence? How did the enormous Earth, Sun, Moon and
stars come into being? Did you know that the universe is full
of many interesting things as well as the Earth, Moon and
the Sun? Did you know that a very delicate balance exists
in the universe that provide exactly the right conditions
for life?
Now let's start learning the answers to
these questions, and how Allah created the universe.
Once Upon a Time There Was No Universe!
In ancient times, man's knowledge of space
was quite limited. The equipment needed to explore the sky
was not as advanced as it is today. Therefore, people sometimes
had strange ideas about how the universe originated. The idea
that the universe had always existed was the funniest. That
is to say, before man had telescopes and instruments to examine
the heavens with, some ignorant people suggested that the
universe did not have a beginning but had existed for ever
and would continue to exist for ever.
The
fact hat there is a sculptor who designed and made this
statue reminds us that there must also be a designer
who made us, and that nothing can occur spontaneously.
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However, that was illogical! Your house
and school building were built on particular dates. Even the
lines you are reading were written at a certain time. Similarly,
you, your mother and father have birthdays. That means everything,
whether living or non-living, comes into existence at a certain
time. Saying, "The universe has no date of origin, because
it has always existed" is ridiculous. No one believes that
now.
Let us give you an example: on your morning
journey to school, imagine that you took a different route
and found a statue. What would you think? You would certainly
think, "A sculptor made this statue and placed it here," wouldn't
you? Well, what would you say if one of your friends said,
"No, this statue has always been here; nobody carved it"?
You would probably tell him, "Don't be ridiculous! Every work
of art has a maker!" Wouldn't you?
Those who claim that the universe has
always existed have a more ridiculous way of thinking than
your friend who argues that the statue has always been there.
A statue is only a piece of sculpted rock, but the universe
consists of many heavenly bodies and systems much more delicate
and intricate than a piece of rock.
Thanks
to astronomical discoveries, the mistaken nature of this assertion
that the universe has always existed became obvious. These
studies revealed that, like everything else, the universe
also had a beginning.
The first man who proved that the universe
had a beginning was the astronomer Edwin Hubble. (Let us remind
you that an astronomer is a person who studies space, the
stars and galaxies.) Hubble worked with a giant telescope.
One day in 1929, he realised that the stars were moving.
These are not ordinary random movements.
Stars are continually moving away from us. Furthermore, they
are also moving away from each another. A universe in which
everything moves away from everything else means a universe
that is constantly growing larger.
Not until a hundred years ago did people
understand this. Today, all scientists agree that stars are
moving away from each other as well as away from Earth.
This
movement of the stars is a very important piece of information
about the creation of the universe. The fact that the stars
are steadily moving away from each other indicates that they
were at one time closer together. Scientists computed that
15 billion years ago all the matter in the universe was gathered
together in a single point as small as the tip of a needle.
Our universe came into being when that tiny point exploded.
Now let us note down one by one what we
have seen so far:
- Stars move continually;
-. Stars are moving away from us;
-. If time could be turned back, we would
see stars coming closer together.
This would continue until the entire universe
was gathered together at one point.
If we went a little further, this point
would also disappear. This means that the universe came into
existence from nothing: Allah created it.
You might get a better idea of what "nothing"
means by answering these three simple questions:
1. How old were you one year ago?
You might answer "A year younger."
2. If you counted your age back year by
year, what age would be the last one you would get to?
Your answer would be "one". A year after
your birth, you were one year old. At birth, however, you
were not old enough to have an age. This could be expressed
as "zero age".
3. Think about the year before your first
birthday! How old were you then? Where were you?
If
we could travel back in time, these pictures of you
would continue in the opposite direction until the time
you did not exist yet.
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You should have answered that by saying,
"I wasn't around then."
You didn't exist at all before your mother
became pregnant.
If we also turned time back for your body,
you would see that your body would also disappear at the end
of this operation. For every year we went back, your body
would become smaller and smaller, until finally you would
become a baby in your mother's womb. If this operation were
carried still further, you would reach the time when your
mother was not yet pregnant.
There was no universe before Allah created
it. When we rewind time, the universe also becomes younger.
It gets smaller until it becomes an insignificant point and
finally disappears. All these indicate that the universe has
been "created".
Meanwhile, let's remind ourselves that
we use the word "creation" when we want to explain that something
is brought into being from nothing. Only Allah can cause something
to exist from nothing. In other words, only Allah can "create"
something. People can also make things that did not exist
before. For instance, they can paint pictures. They can build
ships. However, the truth is that people can cause something
to exist using the materials available in this world and by
imitating things already existing in this world. Therefore,
we cannot call this "creation". Creation is bringing something
into being from nothing without prior examples. Allah has
created everything in the universe, including Earth, from
nothing.
Can you draw something you
have never seen before? This is unlikely because only
Allah can create something without a prior example.
Even the things artists make up out of their heads are
made up of things they have already seen.
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Man imitates what Allah has already created,
even if painting a picture. If we asked you to draw a picture
of a landscape on a sheet of paper, what would you draw? Most
possibly you would paint the Sun, a mountain, a few green
trees, a rainbow and the sea. However, have you ever thought
that it would be impossible for you to draw a tree if you
had never seen one? Think of a person who is blind from birth.
He can only know that the Sun is round and bright, if somebody
describes it to him. He can only have an idea about something
if he sees it.
Dear Children! As these examples show,
only Allah has the power to create something without a prior
example. The Qur'an, the Book Allah sent to all humanity as
a guide, informs us:
He is the Originator of the heavens
and the earth.... (Surat al-An'am: 101)
Now, it is time to learn how Allah created
the universe. You should be curious to hear how such a great
event took place.
THE
BIG BANG AND
THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
You know that billions of years ago the
universe was only a tiny speck. It is now time to learn how
all of a sudden this tiny speck started expanding.
You probably watch cartoon films on TV.
Generally, an enemy chases the hero in these films and the
hero does anything he can to escape. One of the things he
frequently does is to use dynamite. For example, Bugs Bunny's
enemies place dynamite in his home, or Road Runner's enemies
lay dynamite in his path. In each case, these heroes manage
to escape the dynamite with great skill.
Now,
try and visualise one of these explosions. For instance, the
hunter chasing Bugs Bunny puts explosives in his underground
home. What happens when they explode? The soil is scattered
around and the pieces move away from one another, right? Before
the explosion, the pieces of soil remain together. However,
after the explosion, the tiny pieces of soil scatter around
and move away from one another.
Billions of years ago, the universe came
into being after an explosion. Many pieces came into existence
with this explosion. These pieces moved away and scattered
around, just like the bits of soil scattering around. Then
they started to form the universe and the planets etc.
This explosion, which was the beginning
of the creation of the universe by Allah, has come to be called
the Big Bang. The moment this great explosion took place,
the universe started constantly growing and expanding, and
is still expanding today.
Before continuing with the next section,
let's recap a few points we made earlier:
1. A long time ago, there was no universe;
2. The universe came into being with the
explosion of one tiny speck;
3. After the explosion, incredible numbers
of particles came into existence which came to make up our
universe, and these particles started moving away from one
another;
4. The universe expands as the objects
in it move away from each other.
These are all evidence of Allah's infinite
might. Even if all the people in the world came together,
they could never make even a bad imitation of the universe.
Even if all the materials available on earth were gathered
together, man would still fail to imitate an explosion as
big as the Big Bang. All power belongs to Allah, the One Who
creates everything. Reading the next passage, you will better
understand the infinite nature of Allah's power and wisdom.
ORDER EMERGES OUT OF AN EXPLOSION
A
bomb explosion devastates everything close to it. After
an explosion, no orderly structure comes into existence
by accident.
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Dear children, as you can also imagine,
no explosion brings about an orderly structure. On the contrary,
an explosion destroys existing order. It damages everything
around it. A high-explosive bomb can reduce huge buildings
to nothing. The most powerful bomb in the world is the atom
bomb. When dropped, this bomb devastates everything in its
target, in some cases entire cities.
The Big Bang created a more powerful explosion
than billions of atom bombs. The big bang, however, mysteriously
produced the opposite effect and established a perfectly orderly
world. The world we know, carefully designed to suit our needs,
came into existence after this explosion.
How do you think the Big Bang produced
such perfect order?
The sandcastle in the picture
could not have formed by accident after an explosion.
Similarly, after the Big Bang, our planet Earth with
all the living things on it could not have come into
existence by itself, without Allah's intervention.
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Allah created the universe from nothing
by means of that big explosion. Obviously, our Lord also makes
the perfect order in the universe.
Any answer other than the one above is
wrong. For instance, saying that this order came into existence
by chance after the explosion is irrational. Let's make an
analogy to better explain why:
What would happen to the sand if a bomb
were dropped on the beach? The sand particles would be scattered
randomly this way and that, wouldn't they? What would you
think if someone said that a castle came into existence because
of an explosion on the beach? You would probably think him
insane or think that he was telling a lie. Similarly, a person
who claims that the order in the universe came into being
by itself is mad. There are countless details, examples of
balance and perfect order in this giant universe, which are
incomparably more complex than a sandcastle.
In conclusion, the perfect order in the
universe proves that the universe did not come into being
by itself. Every order and balance existing in the universe
is a sign of Allah's infinite wisdom.
INFORMATION THE QUR'AN PROVIDES ABOUT THE
UNIVERSE
The Qur'an is the Noble Book Allah sent
to people. It provides the most accurate information on every
issue. That is because every line of the Qur'an is the Speech
of Allah, the Exalted in Power. However, during the period
the Qur'an was revealed, science and technology were not as
advanced as in our day. Therefore, until recently, no one
could conduct research on the information the Qur'an provided.
Today, however, there has been great progress in science and
technology. Almost all developments in science are in agreement
with the information the Qur'an gives. For instance, the Qur'an
informs us that the heavens and the earth - i.e. the universe
- were initially sewn together, but then Allah unstitched
them. In the Qur'an, this scientific fact is described as
follows:
Do those who are disbelievers not
see that the heavens and the earth were sewn together and
then We unstitched them… (Surat al-Anbiya': 30)
Let's
examine the verse together:
- The word "heavens" stands for all the
"skies" i.e. outer space.
- The statement "The heavens and the earth
were sewn together," describes everything in the universe
being initially all together.
Finally, the statement "We unstitched
them" makes clear that the universe broke into pieces with
the explosion.
This example proves two important facts:
- The Qur'an is a revealed Book definitely
sent by Allah,
- The information provided by the Qur'an
is always the most accurate information. Since Allah, the
Creator of the entire universe, sent the Qur'an, surely He
is the One Who knows what He has created.
In this chapter, we saw that Allah created
the entire universe from nothing. Now let's set out on a journey
through the universe, which is the demonstration of Allah's
infinite power and knowledge.
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