Scientists are competing to discover the Dark Matter and they assure the existence of this matter surrounding the universe …
Scientists are competing to discover the Dark Matter and they assure the existence of this matter surrounding the universe. Can this Dark matter be considered as the “Heaven” which was stated in the Quran? And is this consideration allowed in terms of Islamic legislation?
This question was asked to me by one of the honored brothers and I’d like through it to clarify the reality of the Dark Matter which is one of the discoveries of the twenty one century.
The scientists have studied the Universe with its stars, dusts, galaxies and smoke, but they have found out that the motion of these galaxies does not commensurate with its mass and attractiveness. Therefore, they have assumed the existence of a dark or obscure material that is referred to as the Dark Matter. Researches concerning that Dark Matter had started since quarter a century and it still going on.
Scientists discover everyday new facts about the Dark Matter and its nature. The most important among these discoveries is that it is distributed in the universe by more than 96%, which is very high percentage.
This leads us to understand that what we do not realize by sight is much more than what we realize by sight, this was stated in the Holy Quran as a divine sword: “But nay! I swear by all that ye see* And all that ye see not * That it is indeed the speech of an illustrious messenger”. (38-40 Al Haaqqa).
This verse of the Quran is a hidden signal for the presence of matters which we can not realize by sight and the discovery of the Dark Matter is an evidence for the honesty of the Divine swears.
But what we are focusing on here is our suggestion in previous article that this Dark Matter can be considered as the “Heaven” stated in the Holy Quran. This consideration had confused some of our readers as how can this Heaven be invisible while Allah the Almighty is saying in the Holy Quran: “Have they not then observed the sky above them, how We have constructed it and beautified it, and how there are no rifts therein?” (6 Qaf).
This is an obvious divine order to look into the sky, but how we could look into something invisible?
In reply to this, I can say that if we scrutinize the verses that talks about Heaven, we will find out that they are either talking about structure as ” how We have constructed it” or what do these Heavens have in it as: “Say: Behold what is in the heavens and the earth! But revelations and warnings avail not folk who will not believe.” (101 Yunus). So, this is invitation to watch the Heaven which includes stars, planets, etc.
If we looked into the sky or Heaven at night, we will see the stars and will not see the matter of Heaven, and if we looked into it during the day we will see the reflected rays by the atmosphere. Therefore, we do not see the real matter of Heaven but we do see the contents of the Heaven.
Accordingly, the idea of assuming the Heaven as the Dark Matter is a logical idea and is not prohibited in terms of Islamic legislation because diligence is imposed upon Muslim, if his diligence was correct he will be twice rewarded and if his diligence was wrong, he will have one reward.
Moreover, we can not close the door of diligence for understanding the Quran verses in order not to fall into error because the miracles of the Quran have no end and the Muslim is ordered to continue searching, speculating and contemplating the Quran verses.
Regarding the Dark Matter, if the science proved a fact that counteracts the Dark matter, it will not be a trouble because we make diligence and speculation of the Quran verses in terms of the scientific facts and any error will be referred to our limited abilities whereas the Holy Quran is superior above all kinds of errors or imperfections.
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By: Abduldaem Al-Kaheel
References:
1- NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter, NASA RELEASE 06-297, August 21, 2006.
2- Yannick Mellier, First Glimpse of Dark Matter Distribution, Hawaii, March 7, 2000.
3- Jonathan Amos, Dark matter comes out of the cold, , www.bbc.co.uk, 5 February 2006.
4- Finding Dark Matter, www.nasa.gov, December 19, 2001.
5- Mystery of Galaxies Full of Dark Matter Solved, Scientific American, February 16, 2007.
6- Mapping the Cosmic Web of Dark Matterwww.nasa.gov.
7 Strange Galaxy and Dark Matter, www.nasa.gov, June 25, 1998.
8- Robert Sanders, “Dark matter” forms dense clumps in ghost universe, www.berkeley.edu, 05 November 2003.
9- New Mystery of Invisible Matter Generated by Cosmic Collision, www.space.com, 17 August 2007.
10- Greatest Mysteries: Where is the Rest of the Universe? www.space.com, 20 August 2007.
11- Team finds ‘proof’ of dark matter, www.bbc.co.uk, 21 August 2006.
12- West, Michael J. “Clusters of Galaxies.” The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.
13- Griest, Kim. “The Search for the Dark Matter: WIMPs and MACHOs.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. vol 688. 15 June 1993.
14- Dark Matter, www.nasa.gov.
15- Kim Nilsson,Falling Onto the Dark, ESO 23,Science release, 3 july 2006.
17- http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/17/full/
