FORMATION OF THE UNIVERSE

Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them asunder and We got every living thing out of the water. Will they not then believe? (21:30)

Out of a number of different theories about the origin of the universe many people in the scientific community regard the “Big Bang” as the best estimate of how the universe began. The theory starts out by stating that the universe as it is today is only one phase, which started with a giant explosion. The universe began with one singular point, which is known as a singularity. All the matter and energy, which is now present in the universe, was squeezed into this singularity of infinitely small volume. From the singularity the Universe exploded and released an incredible amount of matter and energy. What happened in the time before the explosion? Scientists say that there was no universe before the Big Bang and that from the singularity came not only matter and energy but also space and time. So there is no use in questioning about before because then time did not exist.

Immediately after the explosion a massive fireball formed called the primordial fireball which is thought to have been as hot as one million billion billion billion (10 with 32 zeros) degrees Kelvin. This fireball moved away from the singularity in all directions and from it came elementary particles like neutrons, protons, and electrons. For a long period of time these particles spread out across the universe at an incredible rate. This period in history is known as the radiation era, which was very influential in the way the use universe, is composed today. Quantum theory also holds that a vacuum, like atoms, is subject to quantum uncertainties. This means that things can materialize out of the vacuum, although they tend to vanish back into it quickly. These particles began to cool down and soon started to form elements like hydrogen and helium. These would serve as the building blocks for the stars and the planets. The universe continued to cool down and eventually galaxies formed and planets materialized. The proof that clinched the Big Bang theory for scientists came in 1992. COBE, the first ever cosmological satellite took a picture of the radiation from the Big Bang that showed evidence for how the first galaxies formed. In this century, science has come to understand how the universe began from a tiny point, fifteen billion years ago.

Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth: ‘Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly.’ They said: ‘We do come (together), in willing obedience’…(41:11)

The important points to remember as pointed out by are: a) the statement of the existence of a gaseous mass with fine particles, for this is how the word ‘smoke’ (dukan in Arabic) is to be interpreted. Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous substratum, plus, in more or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even liquid states of matter at high or low temperature; b) The reference to a separation process (fatq) of an primary single mass whose elements were initially fused together (rat). It is to be noted that in Arabic ‘fat’ is the action of breaking, diffusing, separating, and that ‘rat’ is the action of fusing or binding together elements to make a homogeneous whole. This concept of the separation of a whole into several parts is noted in other passages of the Book with reference to multiple worlds.