162 Contemplating the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth

8/10/2019 162 Contemplating the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth

1/10

1


2/10

2

162 Understanding the creation of the Universe.

Dear Friends,

Assalamu Alaikum,

The topic that I spoke on last week was Objectives for Creating the Universe

In that talk I was trying to discuss two rather interesting questions. It was from considering the

Aayaths in the Quran that describe the creation of the (

) along with the now

compelling scientific evidence and the resulting theory which is popularly known as the Big

Bang that I tried to deal with these two questions.

The first of these questionswas If this Universe was created 13.7 Billion years ago, then what

was there before the Big Bang?

This is a quote from the BBC VDO Documentary titled How the earth was formed

The Universe came out of nothing. It was nowhere because before it there was no time, there

was also no space, there was truly truly truly nothing, that is to say not even a place where ithappened, not even a time at which it happened.

Somehow out of this nothing, came everything!

By definition God has neither beginning nor an end.

So obviously God has to have been present even before the Big Bang

So, if this Universe was just not present before the Big Bang thenwhere was God?

Was He in another Universe?

Then, are there many other Universes?

This is really interesting because science is now exploring many new theories and hypothesesunder the subjects of quantum physics and the string theory, and the idea of Multiple Universes or

the Multiverse is very much in the focus of these discussions.

So if we consider the presence of many other Universes and then the subsequent creation of this

Universe, it is natural that we ask the question whathappened or what were the events and the

underlying reasons for the creation if this Universe?

So that is the first of the two questions that I have asked and then tried to answer.

The second of those two questionswas what are the objectives of creating this Universe?

Now that question was in fact the title of the talk.

Actually the objectives as outlined in many Aayaths of the Quran that I read or rather quoted in

last weekstalk provide insights or pointers to the answers to both these questions.

For todaystalk I hope to go in to another two areas, namely;

1. The nature of this universe, and

2. The nature of man.

Both these creations are interconnected in many ways.

So sometimes you would find that when discussing the nature of the creation of the Universe I

would also have to discuss the nature of the creation of man and vice versaInsha Allah!


3/10

3

So let us study the creation of the (

) or for ease let me use the word the universe

and how do we do that?

Obviously through observing this Universe!

However, I do this from two aspects.

The first would be through modern scientific findings, and the next would be through some of the

related Aayaths from the Quran. The observations from the Aayaths of the Quran are the moresignificant and also the more intellectually stimulating.

From reading the Aayaths that describes the objectives of the creation of the Universe I find that

the phrase (

) appears 129 times in the Quran. From reading these Aayaths it

appears that we had been present even before this Universe was created or we can say we had

been present even before the Big Bang

This statement or this deduction would automatically bring up many questions, such as;

Where were we?

What were we doing?What form were we in?

Why cant we remember this past existence?

Maybe, Insha Allah, as we keep on delving into and contemplating on the pointers as shown in the

Aayaths of the Quran we may begin to unearth the answers to many of these questions.

As I have mentioned earlier this phrase (

.) appears 129 times in the Quran

Now what could this mean?

Last week I discussed the objectives of the creation of the (

) through some of

theseAayaths, so this week let us try to find out what this Samaawaathi ( ) really

means.

In Arabic all words are derived from root words which usually consist of three and rarely of four

or five letters. The common 3 letter root is referred to as the triliteral root.

The word As Samaawaathi() is derived from the triliteral root consisting of sn mm

ww( ).

It is interesting to note that this triliteral rootsn mm ww( ) occurs 381 times in the Quran,

in six derived forms.

The other words derived from this root are:

Ismwhich is translated as name, but it also means a noun.

In Arabic the nominal sentence is usually referred to as the Jumla Ismiyya

The plural of Ism is Asmaand to most of us this word Asmaconnotes the phrase Asma Ul

Husna which means the most beautiful names of Allah or more correctly the most beautiful

attributes of Allah.

So already we have come up with 3 broad meanings for this word Ism.

It means Name, Noun and also Attribute.


4/10

4

It is from this same triliteral root that we get the words As Samaa-i and As Samaawaathi.

As Samaa-i is usually translated as sky and the word As Samaawaathi is usually translated as

the skies or the heavens.

As Samaawaathi is the plural of As Samaa-i

Now I ask a question that actually puzzles me.

The words As Samaa-i and As Samaawaathi are derived from the triliteral root sn mm

ww( ) and the most basic form of the root is Ism and in the plural Asma. Now Ism and Asma

refer to the words Nameor Names, Nounor Nounsand also Attributeor Attributes,

especially when referring to the Attributes of Allah.

So if As Samaa-i and As Samaawaathi are built on the Arabic words Ism and Asma how could

it mean sky or heavens?

As Samaa-i and As Samaawaathi has to be connected with or has to have a meaning directly

connected to Names or Nouns or Attributes.

So could it be that As Samaa-i and As Samaawaathi really expresses the space or thereceptacle that contains or showcases the Names or the Nouns or the Attributes?

So could it be that As Samaa-i and As Samaawaathi are actually containers or showcases for

the Asmaa?

The Earth or the Ardhl which is contained within this As Samaawaathi also holds many of these

Asmaa too!

Well now things begin to make sense because these names or these nouns or (if we were to use

the Arabic word) these Asma in the (

) is pointed out to us through the Aayaths

of the Quran which itself had been sent down to Earth.

Aayath Nos 190 &191 of Surah AalE Imraan draws our attention to these signs or these

Aayaths is a beautiful manner, as follows;

[003:190] Certainly! in the creation of the

heavens and the earth, and in the alternation

of night and day,- there are indeed Aayaath

(Signs) for the Oolul Albaab (men of

understanding),-

And how do those Oolul Albaab respond to these Aayaath or these signs?

[003:191]Part b - Men who celebrate the

praises of God, standing, sitting, and lying

down on their sides, and contemplate the

(wonders of) creation in the heavens and the

earth,

When they do Zikr of all these signs or these Aayaths it becomes obvious to them that thisUniverse is coming to an end and they also realize that many out of Mankind would be doomed to

Hell for ever.


5/10

5

So when these Oolul Albaabdo Zikr of all these Aayaths or signs in the (

,(

they also pray as follows;

[003:191]Part b - "Our Rabb! not for

Baathil (falsehood) Hast Thou created (all)

this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from

the penalty of the Fire.

So then we do realize that this (

) is actually a huge show that Allah has so

magnificently and meticulously prepared for us so that we could observe His signs or His

Aayaths, read His Aayaths, contemplate His Aayaths and then obey the message proclaimed by

His signs or His Aayaths. Amazing isnt it?

The best way I can explain this is by the example a concert.

At a concert we have a stage, and it is on the stage that actors or musicians perform. Of course

this performance has many factors all of whichhas to work together synchronized to give the

desired effects to the audience.

The stage is fixed, and has limited space and in front of the stage sits the audience who watch the

concert from their seats.

Now in this (

), the concert is actually playing all around us, in all three

dimensions and as far as we can see. The whole Universe is the stage and we the audience is

watching from our seats which is the Ardhla.

Now the amazing thing is not only is the concert being performed in the almost endless sky

above, in the Samaa-I or the Samaawaathi, but the concert is also being performed on the Earth

itself.

The Earth or the Ardhl from which we are observing this concert is actually in meticulously

regularized motion, and at the same time the sky above us or the Samaawaathi is also in

meticulously designed dynamic motion. There are so many celestial bodies all in motion and all

balancing the motion of the others.

Imagine a concert where there are so many wonders that the stage is always revolving so that we

see new and changing scenes all the time and not only is the stage revolving but our seats

themselves are moving so that we see many views of what is taking place in this revolving stage.

So in this (

) the wonders are just so amazing that it is really difficult to explain.

Whilst on Earth itself we regularly see two very contrasting views of Earth.

There is the night view and the day view.

Both of these are contrasting in so many ways.

The night sky is so different to the day sky.

The animals, birds and insects that move around in the day time are very different to those that

move around in the night time.

On Earth itself we see such a variety of very diverse landscapes.

The desert landscape, the river valley landscape, the arctic landscape and even the landscapes of

the vast oceans are so contrasting but they contribute towards keeping life on earth alive andkicking.


6/10

6

Another amazing wonder is that by just observing the (

) we realize that we are

within a massive clock.

By observing the movements of the sun we can read the time of day.

By observing the inclination of the sun we can point out directions such as North South East and

West.

By observing the moon we can point out the phase or the day of the Lunar month.By observing the zodiac signs we can point out the month.

So Alhamdulillah, we are in this massive universe proportioned clock, in which we can point out

from almost anywhere on this Earth, time of day, day of the Lunar month, the month as well as

seasons and even predict regular weather patterns and even changes in weather!

Amazing isnt it?

Now let me describe another aspect of the wonders of this the (

.(

I hope that I could describe it in a way that will paint the description clearly in your minds and

also stimulate your intellect or your AQL to inquire more through the Zikr of the Aayaths of the

Quran in to these wonders.

It is a well-researched scientific theory that the Universe began around 13.7 billion years ago with

an event that is described as the Big Bang and this began with an infinitesimally small nothing

that is described as a singularity.

Science does confirm that before this Big Bang this Universe was just not present so there was

no space nor was there any time, as we understand these two concepts. So this universe began

through nothing or through nothing-ness

The Quran describes this even in Aayath No 30 of Surah Anbiya

(21:30) Did the disbelievers not observe that

the heavens and the earth were closed,

then We opened them?

The main phrases from that Aayath in this case would be: (

)means the

heavens and the earth were closed

(

) Kaanathaa RathQan - means a closed entity, and

(

) FafathaQnaa Humaa - means, we opened them.

This scientific theory also informs us that ever since the Big Bang this Universe is expanding

and also that one day the Universe would reach its limits of expansion and would then roll back to

its original state and this event is described as the Big Crunch

The Quran too describes these two phenomena viz. the ever expanding Universe as well as the

finality of the Universe through the Big Crunch.


7/10

7

After this Big Bang there is continuous expansionwe could call this the present state;

S Adh Dhaariyaath

(51:47) And the sky was built by Us with

might; and indeed We are the expanders.

(

) Was Samaaa banaiynaaHa bi aiydhin

and the sky we constructed it with might

)

) wa innaa lamoosighoon

and definitely (or surely) we (are) surely (its) expanders

This expansion would reach its limits and in the future there would be this Big Crunch or the

rolling back

S Al Anbiya

(21:104) - the Day when We roll up the

sky like a scroll rolls up the writings.

)

) Yauwma naTHwis Samaaa

the day we fold up the skies

(

) KaTHaiyyis sijilli lil kuthubi

like (the) folding (of) the scrolls for records

Is that not how the Big Bang theory describes what would happen when the limits of this

expansion is reached?

Alhamdulillah, I was able to read these Aayaths that describe the expansion off the Universe and

the final Big Crunch as it were, in the talk last week under the title The Objectives for Creating

this Universe

This magnificent Universe has been functioning with so many millions of systems and processesbeing released and then falling in to place over these 13.7 billion odd years.

It is also interesting to briefly look in some very fundamental or taken for granted concepts of this

Universe. There is more in these than we see.

Concept No 1 is that of Space.

With the Big Bang and the continuing expansion of the Universe, obviously one huge factor that

is continuously being unraveled is this vast vast space.

Now all of us know that this space has three dimensions and we can move forward in space,

backward in space and even upwards and downwards.


8/10

8

Then since there is a beginning of this Universe and an end to it obviously there is this concept of

time. However to all of us time has only one dimension or we could say one direction.

Where time is concerned we can only move forward or only in the direction of the future. It would

actually be more accurate to say that time moves only in the direction of the future.

We have no control or management tools or even some handles to manage the motion or the

direction of time.

If I may elaborate on the concept, time moves only in one direction that is towards the future and

we cannot move faster or slower towards the future nor can we move backwards towards the past.

This is our experience of this concept of time.

However Einsteins theory that shook the world and has been proven on a number of occasions

and eventhrough a number of different experiments does inform us that time too is a dimension

and we should be able to move forward in time to the future as well as back in time to the past.

His theory instructs us that time and spaces are actually closely connected.

His theory has opened up a plethora of questions and two of them are;

1. Why cant we moveback and forth in time just as we move back and forth in space?

2. Why does that time only move forward?

Let us see how some of the Aayaths of the Quran point out these two concepts to us.

I must mention here that there are many Aayaths and many concepts being described and pointed

out to us with regard to the (

) as wellas the concepts of space and time but I am

describing only the limited points that I perceive.

With regard to space, I discussed the objective that this universe or the (

) can be

viewed as a container of the Signs or the Aayaths of Allah and it is through this space that we

view them as they move in majestic and meticulous motion proclaiming the greatness and the

magnificence of Allah Taaalah.

Now let us consider this concept of time.

Imagine the period after the Big Bang

The whole Universe is hurtling outwards.

To us everything would be utter chaos.

But over a few billion years we would see order we could say meticulous synchronized order

falling in to place. Scientists tell us that it took around 9 billion years for Planet Earth to fall into

place and to begin forming as the Planet to sustain life.

So we know that after over 9 billion years only did our solar system begin to start ticking.

Why do I use the word ticking?

It is because the elements necessary for us humans to understand the concept of time began to fall

in to place only after the solar system was formed.

Before this event there was no way we could understand time as a dimension.To our untrained eyes and intelligence everything, every movement would have been so random

that we would not have been able to discern time.


9/10

9

For time to be discernible it is necessary that there should be movement, not just movement but

regular movement, and this regular movement should be recordable or register-able to our senses.

I would like to quote a few lines from the VDO documentary titled The illusion of time

The first clock was one that you could say ticks just once a day: That was the rotating

Earth. From the repetition of our planet's daily rotation on its axis to its yearly orbit around the

sun, we have always used the predictable, consistent motion of the Earth to measure time.

We're always looking for things that repeat over and over again, and that repetition, that cycle of

things, forms a clock. Time is after all some regular observable repetitive process.

Measuring the Earth's motion with a sundial, we divided the day into hours.

The Earth rotates once a day and we tick off the days by looking at the rising and the setting of

the sun.

With the swing of a pendulum, we divided hours into minutes and seconds.

With the vibration of a quartz crystal, we improved accuracy to the thousandths of a second.

But the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Colorado is the place to go if you really

want to know what time it is.

It doesn't get any more accurate than this.

Here, they measure time with mind-boggling accuracy using one of the smallest objects in the

universe: an atom of a rare metal called cesium.

Atoms have a natural frequency. And anything that vibrates, that is giving you repetitive motion,

can be a clock. The frequency at which the cesium atom ticks is the official timekeeper for theworld.

When a cesium atom is bombarded with energy, it vibrates, or ticks, giving off pulses of light over

nine billion times a second.

We count the ticks of the cesium atom. And the cesium atom ticks at this 9,192,631,770 ticks in a

second. And so every time you count up to that number, one second has gone by. And you get

one second after one second, after one second after one second.

This is just astounding. My watch gains or loses a second every couple of months. We're talking

about clocks that would only gain or lose a second in 100 million years.

This is just astounding. My watch gains or loses a second every couple of months. We're talking

about clocks that would only gain or lose a second in 100 million years.

But no matter how accurate our clocks have become, time remains a mystery.

Clocks can tell us what time it is, but they haven't been able to tell us what time itself is.

What is it we're actually measuring?

We may not know what time is, but the experience of the passage of time is a fundamental part of

our lives

That was a few lines that I quoted from the BBC VDO documentary titled The Illusion of time


10/10

10

Interesting isnt it?

So let me now recapitulate.

We have this continuously expanding Universe which Allah draws our attention to with the

phrase (

) which is repeated at least 129 times in the Quran.

This Universe or this (

) will self-destruct one day and the Quran warns us about

this day in many ways.

Allah displays His Aayaths in this Universe or (

) and these Aayaths even

describe the objectives of the creation of this Universe or the (

. (

The dimension of time as experienced in this Universe points out with certainty that there is no

turning back from some inevitability that we are all hurling towards.

Should we not through Zikr or contemplative research of the Aayaths of Allah try to work out the

message and the lessons that all these Aayath in the (

) is proclaiming?

I sincerely hope and hope that all of you benefit from these talks as much as I benefit from

preparing and then presenting these talks to you.

May Allah Taaalah guide us all and accept us all.

Jazza Kalla Khairan.

Assalamu Alaikum

Imtiaz Muhsin

Colombo Sri Lanka

[email protected]

You Tube Channel - HaneefanMusliman
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

162 Contemplating the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth