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THE PHYSICS OF THE DAY
OF JUDGMENT PART ONE Authored by Dr. Mohammad
Humayoun Khan Slightly Modified Version Courtesy to: http://dev.islamici
ty.com/Science/ dayjudge. shtml
¨
Is Resurrection a Physical Process? ¨
An Introduction to Cosmology The belief in life after death is universal; it is reflected in the
teachings of all the major religions of the world, permeating culture and time.
Despite tremendous scientific and technological advancement of the twentieth
century, we have no answers to many questions that have plagued the minds of
people from time immemorial. What happens to us on dying? What is soul? Does it
leave the body to enter the spiritual world, which is beyond human perception
in some other dimension? Are the souls reincarnated entering some other body to
be recycled again as in the beliefs of some eastern religions? Is the soul
captured and kept somewhere until the Day of Judgment to be reunited with the
body that rises from the grave? How can a body that had decayed and disappeared
into dust, regain its original shape and form? We can believe what we wish;
however the modern world is based on truthful pursuit of science and
technology. Truth cannot be decided on wishful thinking or majority vote, if
that was the case then Columbus would have surely fallen off the earth in 1492
[refers to the myth of the ‘Flat Earth’]. When Ibraham [i.e. the Prophet Abraham) said: "Show me, Lord, how You will raise the dead" … God said, "Take four birds, draw them to you, cut their bodies to
pieces. Scatter them over the mountaintops, and then call them back. They will come swiftly to you. Know that Allah is Mighty, Wise." (Quran; 2 : 260) We live in a
world that demands proof and is not just content with belief. The belief or
even the proof however, is only for the believer, and belief comes from within
our hearts. The greatest of proofs will not satisfy the non-believer, while the
slightest evidence can be a great source of satisfaction for the believer. In
this context let us look at the story of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be on him)
given in the Quran in Chapter 2, Verse 260. Prophet Abraham
(peace be on him) wanted to know how God gives
life to the dead. He had the faith of a man who was willing to sacrifice his
own son for the sake of God, yet he wanted reassurance; which then was
given to him in the form of a great miracle. Ordinary people like us are also
in need of reassurance in a world where science and technology have assumed
greater importance than religion. There is only one version
of the Quran. It is the only religious book that even the critics of Islam
admit was never altered since its revelation to Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon
him: Pbuh) fourteen hundred years ago. Scientific advancements have provided better understanding of many
Quranic verses that appeared obscure in the
past. The
Quran accurately describes a variety of scientific facts that were discovered
in the last one hundred years. This is one
of the reasons that the Quran stands far above
other religious books in its authority as a truly revealed book. The Quran in many verses
describes the future of the universe and The Day of Judgment. The verses appear
to depict some great final catastrophe that will affect the whole universe.
Many chapters mention the final earthquake, the opening of gates in the sky and
"a time" in which mankind will see what they had done before so that
they will become witnesses against their own selves. In this article I explore the
similarities between the Quranic description of The Day of Judgment and some
theories of cosmology that predict reversal of time in the future with the
beginning of the contraction phase of the universe. You will be surprised to
learn that the religious contention that man will rise from the grave is not a
myth or wishful thinking but is based on real scientific principles. I would
like to however caution the reader that scientific ideas keep on changing, and
my presentation here does not in any way mean that this is the only way for
mankind to come back alive. God has absolute power and when He wishes something
to happen IT IS. IS
RESURRECTION A PHYSICAL PROCESS? It is God, Who sends the winds and they raise a cloud Then leads it to a dead land And revives the earth after its death, Such is the Resurrection. (Quran; 35: 9) The raising of clouds and the
growth of plants following rain had appeared miraculous in the past. Now we
understand these as due to various natural laws. In the Quran the resurrection is compared to the physical
processes such
as the growth of plants after rain; this suggest that revival after death is also based on
some physical laws created by God. Following are
the main themes of the Day of Judgment described in the Quran: (1) The final earthquake and
the transformation of the earth into a hollow sphere. (2) Rising
from the grave. (3) A time
when our hands feet and tongue will become witnesses against us. (4) Opening
of gates in the sky. (5) Through
which every one will be removed to some other higher dimensions beyond the
dying universe. All of the
above events can be explained on the basis of reversal of time and the
accompanying reversal of gravity which
the physicists believe, has to happen if the time is going to reverse.
Sometimes in the future the knowledge of the Day of Judgment that is given in
the Quran might become widely known and accepted as the truth. We (i.e. God) shall show them Our Signs on the horizons and within themselves Until it will become apparent to them, That it is the Truth. Is it not sufficient as regards your Sustainer Lord that He is Witness over all matters? (Quran; 41: 53) To understand how the future of
the universe is linked to the Day of Judgment, some knowledge of cosmology is
essential. In the next few sections we will learn, how the universe began, what
it is like now and what are the possibilities in the future. Our solar system
consists of earth and eight other planets that are orbiting around a star that
we call the sun. The sun, along with two hundred billion other stars, comprises
our galaxy "The Milky Way." The galaxies are shaped roughly
like a disc, with the stars orbiting at various distances around a large
central mass. The universe is so vast that
the distances between stars and galaxies have to be measured in "light
years." A light year is the distance traveled by light in a year, at
the speed of three hundred thousand kilometers per second. The distance between
the earth and the sun is only eight minutes at the speed of light. Compared to
this, the nearest star from the earth other than our sun, is four light years
away. The galaxy we live in, "The Milky Way," is one hundred and
fifty thousand light years across. This means that traveling at the speed of
light, it would take one hundred and fifty thousand years to go from one side
of Milky Way to the other. The galaxies on the average are separated from each
other by ten million light years. Many hundred billion such galaxies
are part of the truly gigantic universe. Certainly the creation of
the heavens and the earth is A greater thing than
creation of mankind, but, Most men understand not. (Quran; 40: 57) The galaxies other than our
"Milky Way" are moving away from us at tremendous speeds. This can be ascertained, by analyzing the light given
off by the galaxies, by an instrument called the spectroscope. The more distant
a galaxy is the greater is its speed of recession. This motion of the galaxies
is due to the expansion of the universe. The universe began about fifteen to
twenty billion years ago with a tremendous explosion called "The big bang"
and has been expanding ever since. The
universe is not just a sphere of galaxies rushing away from each other into
unending emptiness of space. It can be compared to a balloon with many dots on it,
each representing a galaxy. However, the surface of this balloon, which is
two-dimensional, represents all three dimensions of our space, and is expanding
into a higher dimension, that is beyond our imagination. “And it is We (i.e. God) Who have constructed the heavens with might -- Verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it.” (Quran; 51: 47) (TO BE CONTINUED) LIGHT-OF-ISLAM URL: http://Light-of-Islam.net/ subscribe: subscribe@ Light-of-Islam.net send your feedback: Administrator |
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