"INFINITESIMAL" TO  "INFINITE" 

         The universe came into existence about 12 to 15 billion years ago from an infinitesimal point of action, is a commonly accepted scientific theory. Since that period of time, astronomical number of galaxies have spread further and further, away from the point of that action. The numbers of these galaxies have gone so high, that no one can imagine that figure even in approximate terms. It is even more difficult to imagine the total area covered by these expanding galaxies. They are still speeding away at their own  receding speeds, alike the wood splinters flying away from the woodcutter's block. Briefly, the unobservable universe has now expanded beyond any one's imagination and it continues to spread further. 

        Below are a couple of excerpts from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Deluxe, 1998 edition that give us the scientific evidences for this expanding universe:

According to the Doppler effect, a general relationship seems to exist throughout the universe: the greater the speed of a galaxy, the greater its distance. This relationship suggests that the system of galaxies is expanding. Suppose the galaxies were at one time in a rather small volume of space. After a time, the fast galaxies would have sped far from the original position, while the slow galaxies would still be nearby. The result would be a velocity-distance relationship exactly like the one observed. 

Since the universe appears to be expanding, it seems that it must have been smaller in the past. This is the basis for evolutionary theories of the universe. If one could trace the galaxies back in time, one would find a time at which they were all close together. Observations of the expansion rate indicate that this was between 10 and 20 billion years ago. Thus we have a picture of an evolving universe that started in some kind of explosion -- the big bang. 

Just as the pitch, or frequency, of a train whistle lowers as the train moves away from a listener, the frequency of light from a receding galaxy should appear lower to an observer than if the galaxy and observer were motionless relative to each other. This kind of change is called a "red shift" because visible light is shifted downward in frequency toward the long-wavelength, red end of the electromagnetic spectrum. The theory of an expanding universe was confirmed in 1929 by the astronomer Edwin Hubble of the United States, who showed from an analysis of the red shifts of distant galaxies that they are indeed receding from our galaxy and with velocity of recession that is proportional to distance. Hence, the universe is expanding.

THEOLOGICAL NOTES

          On one clear night, nearly 4000 years ago, the Almighty God asked a nomad named Abraham to come outside of his tent and look at the heavens. He asked the traveling tradesman to count the stars, if he was capable of doing that. Obviously, that was and is no easy task even today. However, God wanted to convey him a futuristic Message. He said to prophet Abraham; "that many shall be your descendants" (Genesis 15:5). 

       Who could have known at that time what the Almighty had really promised to this old and aged nomad. Four millenniums later, we know that there are nearly 3 billion Jews, Christians and Muslims together, who proudly claim that prophet Abraham is their patriarch and they are the "Children of Abraham". No one today knows what that number could be in Y3K or later. God has indeed mystical allegorical ways of communicating the futuristic events. 

    A theologian once proposed an interesting analogy to explain how vast was the unobservable universe. He said; Let us imagine that every star (planets included) of our universe was like a tiny grain of sand that you find on the beach. If you were to collect all the stars that your naked eye could see on a clear night, they would probably fill your grandmother's thimble. If you were to collect all the stars that your country's biggest electronic telescope could observe, they would probably fill an industrial wheel barrow. If you were to collect all the stars of the unobservable universe that your space scientists could theoretically count on their computers, they would probably fill-up a railway freight train. A train so long that if it was to pass a point of observation, at the speed of one car a second, it would take three years to pass. The last comparison may not be perfect but it is indisputable since the universe has not yet stopped expanding.

       Nearly, two and half millenniums after God asked prophet Abraham to look at the heavens and count the stars, He revealed to prophet Muhammad that He was the One that has been spreading these stars. Just as the people around Abraham could not understand what was that futuristic Divine Message, the people around Muhammad could not fully understood as we do today, what God really meant when he revealed the following verse: 

And the Heaven - with our hands have we built it up, and given it its expanse; 
                          Translation by  Reverend J. M. Rodwell

And heaven - We built it with might, and We extend it wide.   Translation by Arthur J. Arberry

With the power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of Space, 
                      Translation by Abdulla Yusuf Ali

Transliteration:   wa- as- samaa' banaynaa -haa bi- 
aydi(n) wa- 'in(na) -naa la- mosicon        (Qur'an 51: 47)

       No doubt our universe is expanding but that expansion is not eternal as once thought. The scientists of our era are now telling us that after reaching its peak of the expansion, this Universe will slowly retreat and contract. Surprisingly, the Qur'an tells us that this universe has been pulsating (expanding and contracting). He is the one who has determined the periods of pulsation. Please read the next chapter to learn the details. 

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 INDEX