In the Qur'an, which was revealed 14 centuries ago at a
time when the science of astronomy was still primitive, the expansion of the
universe was described like this:
"And it is We who have
constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We who are steadily
expanding it." (The Qur'an, 51:47)
The word "heaven", as stated in this verse, is
used in various places in the Qur'an with the meaning of space and universe.
Here again, the word is used with this meaning. In other words, in the Qur'an
it is revealed that the universe "expands". And this is the very
conclusion that science has reached today.
Until the dawn of the 20th century, the only view
prevailing in the world of science was that "the universe has a constant
nature and it has existed since infinite time". The research,
observations, and calculations carried out by means of modern technology,
however, have revealed that the universe in fact had a beginning, and that it
constantly "expands".
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian physicist
Alexander Friedmann and the Belgian cosmologist Georges Lemaitre
theoretically calculated that the universe is in constant motion and that it is expanding.
Georges Lemaitre
This fact was proved also by observational data in 1929.
While observing the sky with a telescope, Edwin Hubble, the American
astronomer, discovered that the stars and galaxies were constantly moving
away from each other. A universe where everything constantly moves away from
everything else implied a constantly expanding universe. The observations carried out in the
following years verified that the universe is constantly expanding. This fact
was explained in the Qur'an when that was still unknown to anyone. This is
because the Qur'an is the word of God, the Creator, and the Ruler of the
entire universe.
From the moment of the big bang, the universe has been
constantly expanding at a great speed. Scientists compare the expanding
universe to the surface of a balloon that is inflated.
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