Quran and Big Bang!

Quran and Origin of Universe!

Mankind has always wondered about the Heavens, what is it, where did it come from.  But only when science started to develop, humans started to find answers to these questions. One of the most important question humanity has always thought of, is the Origin of universe. Many different views came to surface over centuries but it really was in the early 20th century when advancement in optics and development of large telescopes led to the discovery that our universe is expanding, in fact accelerating more and more. This eventually led to the formation of the Big Bang theory, the scientific theory of origin of universe which now is accepted without any doubt as more and more proofs of it have been discovered over the years such as abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), large-scale structure, etc. (InshaAllah we will look into all these in detail in coming articles).
Big Bang theory says, about 13.8 billion years ago our universe was an extremely small entity, a singularity, that for some reason started to expand with unbelievable speed. This expansion was soo fast that the tiny point expanded into the size of milky way (100000 light years across) within a billionth of a billionth of a second! The universe is expanding ever since and the speed of expansion is increasing with time even after 13.8 billion years.

Scientists and Cosmologists discovered all this in the last century. And really, all these things were impossible to know even in the 19th century! But amazingly, Quran mentioned the Big Bang: The origin of Universe, and its accelerating expansion, almost 1400 years ago!

Verse 30 of Quran’s Chapter 21 says:

“اَوَ لَمۡ  یَرَ الَّذِیۡنَ  کَفَرُوۡۤا  اَنَّ  السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضَ کَانَتَا رَتۡقًا فَفَتَقۡنٰہُمَا ؕ وَ جَعَلۡنَا مِنَ الۡمَآءِ کُلَّ  شَیۡءٍ حَیٍّ ؕ اَفَلَا یُؤۡمِنُوۡنَ ﴿۳۰﴾

“And have the disbelievers not seen that the whole heavenly universe and the earth were (all) joined together as one unit (singularity), and then We split them apart? And We originated (the life of) living organism (on earth) from water. So do they not accept faith (even after learning these facts brought forth by the Qur’an)?
al-Ambiya 21:30

The Verse not only talks about the origin of universe, the Big Bang, rapid expansion of everything that we see today in the universe,  but it also talks about the origin of life that life on earth began from water in water. Amoeba is known to be the first living organism to have lived on earth and it was in water.

Some scholars have also translated the first verse of Sulah Falak, chapter 113, as:
[113:1] Al-Falaq-الْفَلَق
“قُلۡ اَعُوۡذُ  بِرَبِّ الۡفَلَقِ ۙ﴿۱﴾
“Beseech: ‘I seek refuge with the Lord of FALAQ (i.e., Who brought the universe into existence with an explosion extremely fast).”

And Verse 47 of Chapter 51  mentions the “Accelerating Universe”
“وَ السَّمَآءَ  بَنَیۡنٰہَا بِاَیۡىدٍ وَّ اِنَّا لَمُوۡسِعُوۡنَ ﴿۴۷﴾
“And We built the heavenly universe with great might. And surely, We are expanding (this universe) more and more.”
Ad-Dhariyat 51:47

SubhanAllah, how a Book that is more than 1400 years old can have such incredible information which humanity was only able to know on its own just last century! Surely this Book has to have Divine origin and was Revealed to Prophet Muhammad [Blessings and Peace be upon Him & His Family], otherwise even the word ‘science’ didn’t exist 1400 years ago!
Another amazing thing, the Verse of Big Bang is talking to non-muslims, asking them have they not seen the evidence of big bang which We have mentioned in Quran centuries ago!
Meaning non-muslims will discover the evidence of an incredible event of beginning of universe known as big bang, and this is what happened!
Edwin Hubble discovered that distant galaxies are moving farther and farther from earth. Based on this info Georges Lemaître proposed the idea of a compact past of universe, this became the Big Bang theory as many other scientists worked and contributed to this over many decades.

Evidence of Big Bang can also be found in Hadith. The famous Hadith in Musannaf of Abdur Razzaq in which Prophet Muhammad [Blessings & Peace be Upon Him & His Family] said to His companion Jabir: “You Lord first created the Noor (Light) of your Prophet” and Hadith goes on to explain how everything was created from this Noor. Noor here can be considered as single entity.

InshaAllah, we will look into the amazing wonders of universe and the nature and development of universe itself, and what Quran said about all this 1400 years ago. This will certainly increase our Faith in Almighty Allah and if we become serious about Knowledge, hopefully our lost “Golden Age” will come back again.