Scientific Facts in the Holy Quran
The Seven Heavens
"He created Seven heavens ,one above the other, do you see any fault in the work of the Merciful ? " (Chap Al Mulk :3)
used to believe that the seven. heavens is something that cannot be conceived
or reached. Ancient people used to imagine it as if it was something resembling
the sea of darkness that is haunted with ghosts.
But I told my friend that we acquire our knowledge by way of two means:
The science that tells us about what is around us in this world or the other world; and the second means is the faith.But my friend inquired: How could heavens be the place of ghosts. and the house of the spirits and the shelter of the dead since the days of Adam, while Allah commands us to monitor and study them; as in His saying:
"Say: Behold what the heavens and the earth contain!" [Younis :103].
I told him in reponse that the earth and the heaven were one body which was later divided into many bodies. And this is a known astronomical fact, regardless of the differences concerning how this was done... Allah provides this fact as a proof that ought to convince the unbelievers since they know it to be true:
"Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were one solid mass which We tore asunder, and that We made every living thing of water?" (AI-Anbia :30)
But what are these seven heavens? In my opinion they are probably and Allah knows best an indication Of the quality and not the quantity. The seven heavens above us are:
1- The Atmosphere.
2- The Shooting Stars.
3- The Meteoriods.
4- The Moon.
5- The Planets.
6- The Comets.
7- The Sun.
But my friend was amazed and he could not understand how could our atmosphere be a heaven. I told him that it was mentioned in the Quran in lot of Ayats:
is Allah who drives the winds that raise the clouds. He spreads them as He will
in heaven and breaks them up" (Al-Rum :48)
"We send the fertility winds and send water from the sky from which We make you drink and which you cannot store' (Al-Hair :22).
The heaven here is clearly our atmosphere, for in it the clouds are induced and the rainfalls.But most importantly is the fact that we on earth are much like the riders of a spaceship whose space is the atmosphere, which the earth is holding it with its powerful gravity preventing it from drifting into the outerspace. Rather it stays in its orbit perforrning the various roles and providing an infinite number of benefits. Allah the All-Mighty says:
"We made the heaven like a canopy and provided it with strong support; yet from its signs they turn away" (Al-Anbia :32).
And those who study our atmosphere would discover that its benefits are truly numerous.And when I say that the term heaven (sky) is a means of indicating quality and not quantity, I am only describing the open book of God, that is the universe. This is not a theory, but rather a scientific fact. For who could not say that based on the meaning of the word sky in the dictionary as anything that is above our heads, that the air is a sky and the shooting stars are a sky.
Yes, the meteoriod we see is a planet, that has deviated from its orbit, and burnt when it entered our atmosphere turning into ashes when it reached an altitude of 1000 kms. The truth of the matter is that the term planet includes all bodies; and even the sun is called a planet. The Holy Quran did not talk about what is in the first sky or the second sky as we sometimes hear. The Quran talked only about the lower sky, the one that is near us saying that it is decorated with planets.
not able to understand the meaning of this statement, because we were not able,
and we still are not able, to see the planets of the other suns, being so far
As for the planets revolving around our sun, we could see almost all of its planets including Venus, the planet our forefathers used to call the "Morning Star"or the "Evening Star".
The Blue Dome
used to think, for quite a long period that the Blue Dome is a solid and
compact structure, like a ceiling that covers the earth which they considered
the centre of the universe. Certain beliefs used to have it that those who run
the affairs of the earth and what is on it sit above this sky. This view did
not really undergo any change before as the people were so much impressed by
the Greek philosophy and Aristotle's theories that nobody thought of
challenging their views. But then the new scientific discoveries proved that
the earth is not the center of the universe, and not even the center of the
Feeling rather frustrated and somehow degraded by this discovery, the people on earth sought to compensate by claiming that man is the only thinking being in the universe. But the mathemetical science of probability has shown that our galaxy alone (The Milky Way) contains at least 2 million planets. And this is but one galaxy in an infinite number of similar galaxies in the vast universe, that contain a number of planets the mind cannot even imagine. This meaning is indicated in the Quran in many Ayats:
"Little cares my Lord for you if you do not invoke Him". (Furqan :77)
"All those in heaven and earth beseech Him. Every day He exercises His power"
"The seven heavens the earth, and all who dwell in them praise Him" (Al-Israa :44).
The word praise here means either by unvioliating the law or by obeyance.. While the phrase "in them" refers to a certain region in the earth and heavens where life can exist, having been provided by the proper environment, abandance of water, as it is the case on earth. and probably in many other places as well.
Therefore, those who tried to interpret Allah's saying in Surah AI-Raad ; Ayat 7
"It was Allah, Who raised the heavens without visible pillars"
occur to them in the beginning that it refers to the following:
1- The earth's atmosphere that extends or rises to about 1000 kms above the surface of the earth. This is due to the fact that gases including air, have the capacity of diffusion to fill the vacum. In this manner the air spreads above the earth trying to leak to the outerspace but the earth's gravity prevents it of doing so, and holds 'to the earth.
"We wade the heaven like a conopy and provided it with strong support: Yet from its signs they turn away" [Al-Anbia :32].
But the Blue Dome, as we have seen is merely a light phenomenon that occurs in the earth's atmosphere, and one that does not exist as a solid mass, as they used to think.
other bodies that orbit around the sun whose gravity counterbalance that of the
sun aided by the centrifugal force caused by the rotation or curvil in near
motion. When the earth gets near some of the orbits of these celestial bodies,
they will fall down on earth as meteoriods or asteroids as a result of the
force of its gravity.
But God's Mercy has saw to it that we have our atmospheric envelope to protect us and burn before it reaches the earth except in a few rare cases,.
This meaning is stated in a magnificent way in the Holy Quran:
"He held the sky from falling down (that it shall not do) except by His own will. Compassionate is Allah and Mercifu is he to man" (AI-Hajj :65)
evident from this sacred verse that the sky will fall on earth, when Allah's
Will so decrees; as with the case of meteoriods, which vary tremendously in
size.On the other hand the sun rays that are formed of the colors of the
spectrum (Red, Orange. Yellow, green, blue, brown and Violet) diffuse when they
reach our atmosphere. Moreover the sun does not send the various colors in
equal quantities, but rather sends a very large quantity of the blue color and
that is how the atmosphere acquires this colour and attains the form of a blue
dome of scattered light.
Muhammad Jamal Eddeen el-Findi
Source: Noor Al-Islam