Al-Risala (English), May 1984

Many present-day scientists are of the opinion that this antiworld is an entity apart from us, having a parallel existence of its own. This world is made up of matter; according to the law of opposites there should be another world made up of anti-matter. It is estimated that 20 million years ago, when the Big Bang explosion occurred, photon-matter and anti-matter came together in two separate forms. The two then started to form the world and the anti-world. The first people to work on this theory were a Swedish pair, physicist Osker Klein and astrophysicist Hannes Alven. The results of their research were published in 1963. The Soviet mathematician, Dr. Gustav Naan, further consolidated the theory. According to him, the anti-world cannot be fully explained by known theories and laws of physics, yet he is convinced that the anti-world exists, even now. It is, however, independent of us, existing on its own, parallel to this world. In the present world all anti-particles are in an unstable condition; but in the anti-world they will all be stable, for the nuclei of atoms have a negative electric charge, while electrons are positively charge. Since this world is ephemeral, it follows that the anti-world, or to use its religious term, the hereafter, must be an eternal world. The discoveries of modern science, then, have given us a picture of the next world which accords with that of the Quran. □ Fulfilling a Muslim’s need: a great act of worship The Prophet’s cousin, Abdullah Ibn Abbas, was in retreat in the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah, when a person came to him greeted him and sat down. “You seem to be upset about something.” Ibn Abbas said to him. “Yes, cousin of the Prophet. I owe someone a debt and, by the Prophet’s honour, I am unable to pay it.” “Can I speak to this person on your behalf,” Ibn Abbas asked him. “Certainly, if you so wish,” the man replied. Abdullah Ibn Abbas put on his shoes and set out. “Perhaps you have forgotten that you are in retreat,” the man said to him. “No. I have not forgotten, but I remember the Prophet saying,” and tears came into Ibn Abbas’ eyes as he recalled the Prophet’s words, “that it is better for one to leave a mosque where one is in retreat to do a favour to one’s fellow-man, and help him in whatever way one can, than to stay in retreat for ten years.”