THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSEIN LIGHT OF QURAN AND SCIENCE

Dr. Hussein Mhanna

In this presentation…

• We will learn about the biggest astrologic discovery of the 21st century: The Cosmic Web.

• We will also examine the Quranic text related to this discovery.

• But before we do that, lets get an idea on how people used to think of the universe 14 centuries ago… when the Quran was revealed!

The old concept about the universe

What medieval Europeans thought of Universe

• From the early through the late Middle Ages, Europeans moved from a disorganized, almost mystical way of thinking about the universe to an acceptance of a well-ordered, geocentric universe based upon the ideas of Greek philosophers such as Ptolemy and Aristotle.  

• In this universe, the Earth was at the center and other heavenly bodies rotated around it in a series of concentric spheres.  The entire system was powered by the primum mobile, or "Prime Mover," which was the outermost sphere set in motion directly by God. 

• Since medieval Europeans had no conception of a vacuum, it was believed that the heavens were filled with a celestial fluid that flowed as the spheres of the universe rotated, thus sustaining the motion of the planets.  Furthermore, all of this motion created a beautiful "music of the spheres" which could not be detected by humans (at least not until after they died and went to heaven), but which provided pleasure for angels and other supernatural beings.  

Fast forward to the 20th century…

• In the early 20th century, scientists discovered that almost all the stars and objects visible from Earth with the naked eye are only part of our “small” galaxy: The Milky way!

• Our galaxy contains a 100 billion stars. (100,000,000,000)

• Our Sun is one of these stars.

The Milky Way Galaxy

How many galaxies are there in the entire Universe?

• This is a difficult number to know for certain, since we can only see a fraction of the Universe, even with our most powerful instruments.

• The most current estimates guess that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the Universe.

• A recent German supercomputer simulation put that number even higher: 500 billion!

• Each of these galaxies has hundreds of billions of stars!

It’s hard to comprehend how many galaxies there are in the universe!

Recent Estimates: 500,000,000,000 galaxies!

Different shapes of galaxies next door to our galaxy

How does the universe look like?!

• Scientists always thought the galaxies are randomly scattered around the universe.

• A question came up: How does the universe look like if we were to look at it “from outside”?!

• If we were able to look at the universe from outside, we would get an idea on how the galaxies are positioned around the universe.

• But how can you take a picture of the universe from outside when it is impossible for anyone or anything to be outside the universe?!!

In order to answer this question…

• Scientists needed to design a “Supercomputer” that weighed more than 100,000 kg!

• This Supercomputer can perform calculations in 1 second that would normally take a regular computer 10,000,000 years to perform!!!

• So it was the duty of this computer to put together, from tons of data and information, a picture of our universe, as if it was taken from outside.

Columbia Supercomputer - NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility

So how did they do it?

• 10 million pieces of information were fed into this supercomputer

• This included information about the expansion of the universe, the behavior of galaxies and stars, cosmic dust, dark matter, and details about 20,000,000 galaxies.

• They took a small section of the Hubble Deep Field and accrued tons of data on the most distant galaxies and objects. They determined size, mass, speed, and distance using the most advanced methods available. Then, they fed that info into a computer and produced a 3D model that was our first glimpse into it’s overall structure.

Hubble eXtreme Deep Field "XDF" (2012) view – Every speck of light is an entire galaxy - some of these are as old as 13.2 billion years - the observable universe is estimated to contain 200 billion galaxies

A closer look…

How long did the Supercomputer need to process all the data?

Despite the unimaginable speed of the Supercomputer, it took a whole month to process all the information fed into it, and eventually draw a picture of the observable part of the universe.

So how did look like?!

It looked like a “web”!!!

Lets explain…

• The picture represents millions of galaxies in the Cosmic Web.

• Each of the yellow dots is an ENTIRE GALAXY. • That’s @ 200,000,000,000 stars each (200 billion). • The largest portions of the structure (@ 84%)  are

in purple, representing Dark Matter and Dark Energy. You can get lost in it.

• Despite the fact that this map equals only 0.000001% of the Known Universe,  that’s 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars you’re looking at! That’s countless planets with countless moons, untold comets, asteroids, black holes, and nebulae. Soak it up!

What did the scientists think after that?

• After the saw they amazing picture, they figured that the old concept of the galaxies being randomly located around the universe is wrong!

• They concluded that galaxies, filled with billions of stars, seem enormous, but they only make up a small percentage of the material in the universe. They serve as nodes where gravity draws matter together. Computer simulations suggest that long filaments connect the distant galaxies. These web lines contain hydrogen gas left over from the start of the universe.

Lets take a sample of the big picture…

This insert (in green) is a 10-million-light-year segment of the universe, that includes both gas and dark matter.It represents 2 clusters of galaxies connected together by filament-like matter.Computer simulations suggest that matter in the universe exists in a "cosmic web" that stretches between the nodes made up of galaxies.

The structure of the universe

• In simple words:• The universe is like a

“web”• Galaxies are like the

“nodes” in the “web”• Long “filaments”

connect the distant galaxies together.

• Take a look again…A slice, 70 million light-years thick, taken from the Millennium Run. The overlaid panels zoom in each time by a factor of four.

Now what does the Quran say about this?

In verse of 7 of sura Thariyat (51:7), Allah uses the arabic work “hubuk” when swearing with the sky. So what does this word mean?According to1.  Lisan Al-Arab dictionary [1] , Book 6, Page 21.2.  Al-Muheet dictionary [2], Page 862.3.  Al-Muajam Al-Waseet dictionary [3], Page 153.4.  Al-Mawrid dictionary Arabic-English section [4], Page 450.5.  Al-Mawrid dictionary English-Arabic section [5], Page 1053.6.  Arabic-English dictionary the Hans Wehr dictionary [6], Page 154.

Some of the meanings of “hubuk” are the following:          .to pull or to attract (al-shad) الشد  :(alhubuk)  الحبك  :(alhubuk) الحبك النجوم the paths (araa'eq al-nujoom)  طرائقof the celestial bodies. :(al-mah'book) المحبوك   :(alhubuk) الحبك   عمله  أجيد ma)  ماujeeda aamaluh) what has been perfected or done successfully.  :(mah'book) محبوك شديد strong and (Qawiy Shadeed)  قويmighty.      نسجه  :(alhubuk) الحبك weaved it with (ajaada nasjoh)  اجادmastery.Weave: يحبك  (yahbuk), ينسج  (yansij).

• By the heaven containing pathwaysSahih International

• By the heaven full of paths,Muhsin Khan

• By the heaven full of paths,Pickthall

• By the Sky with (its) numerous PathsYusuf Ali

• I swear by the heaven full of waysShakir

• And (by) the heaven comprising interwoven tracksDr. Ghali

Quranic words are not chosen by chance

• Allah Almighty's choice of the Holy Words was for a Divine Purpose and not just by chance. 

• There were many other choices of words that Allah Almighty could've chosen, but He Chose the word “hubuk” because it carried far deeper meanings in it that only Science today was able to unveil and confirm.  

• This Holy Word was used by Allah Almighty to describe how He, the Almighty, Created the Universe and many of the creations in it. 

• The Holy Words are in perfect harmony with Science and with the way the Universe was truly created by Allah Almighty.

What else did scientists say?

• “Such structures look like highways converging onto a large city, but with the important difference that clusters feeding filaments are organized in three-dimensional space.”

• (Gemini, Subaru & Keck, Discover large-scale funneling of matter onto

a massive distant galaxy cluster, www.gemini.edu, 30 June 2004.)

• Highways in the sky?! Where did I hear that before?!

Another miracle comes from the “walking Quran”…

• gاُسiلنjا ا jَهlيj عن أمير المؤمنين (ع): أpا ِبjن

j jَأَل jي َفpونgد pِق wْفjَت wْنjأ jَلwب jي قpونgل jَس pِق gرgُطpاِء jم iلسjاpِض wْر

j wَأْلjا pِق gرgُطpن�ي ِب pم gُمjلwعjأ • Imam Ali (pbuh) used to say:O people! Ask me before you lose me, because certainly I am acquainted with the passages of the sky more than the passages of the earth

What a doctor would see…• As a doctor, I can’t help it but notice the stunning

resemblance between that image of the cosmic web and the web of neurons in the brain.

• Another evidence of the One Creator!

And in your selves; do you then not behold?

[51:21]

The creation of the heavens and earth is greater than the creation of mankind, but most of the people do not know.

40:57

Sources:• http://quran.com/• http://faculty.knox.edu/fmcandre/cosmology.html• http://www.universetoday.com/30305/how-many-galaxies-in-the-univers

e/

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_Supercomputer_-_NASA_Advanced_Supercomputing_Facility.jpg

• http://cyberpunkswebsite.com/the-cosmic-web-illuminated/• http://www.space.com/24431-dark-matter-cosmic-web-first-image.html• http://www.space.com/1236-code-heavens.html• www.gemini.edu/node/15• http://

www.al-islam.org/nahjul-balagha-part-1-sermons/sermon-189-one-belief-which-firm-and-steadfast-hearts%E2%80%A6#knowledge-successor-wasi-his-challenge-ask-me-you-miss-me-and-prophecy-about-umayyads

• http://www.answering-christianity.com/detailed_meanings_of_scientific_words_in_verses.htm

• http://www.kaheel7.com/ar/index.php/2010-02-02-20-06-04/945-2013-02-17-06-59-38

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-gCFurNf682OwzNzi6iu8DcyE1pGyQ63