SCIENCE AND GOD-REALIZATION

Milky Way galaxy. We now know that the Milky Way—our galaxy is not the only galaxy. In 1924, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble found many others, with huge areas of empty space in between them. But these galaxies were so far away that they appeared not to move at all and their distance from us could not be directly measured. Scientific developments have enabled us to study and observe these stars and galaxies which would not have been possible at the time when the Quran was revealed. Another way to measure the distance of a star or galaxy from us is by its brightness. The temperature of a star can also be calculated by focusing a telescope on a particular distant star and passing its light through a prism. This light splits up into different colours—called the star’s spectrum. Different stars have different spectra but a specific temperature shows a specific spectral pattern. If we know the temperature of a star, and therefore its luminosity, and its apparent brightness, its distance from us can be calculated. As astronomers began to study these distant galaxies, they discovered that the light from each galaxy showed the same spectral pattern. To understand the implications of this, we must first understand that light travels in waves. The size of the wave, called wavelength, determines its colour. Visible light consists of seven colours: red—which has the longest wavelength and therefore the largest waves, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet—which has the shortest wavelength and therefore the smallest waves. Now, the spectral pattern of the galaxies was all found to be slightly shifted to the red side. Different stars emit light at different wavelengths. If the stars were stationary, the light we receive would be in the same wavelength in which it was sent. But if the stars were moving away from us, the light would be being stretched as it was sent— which means its wavelength would keep increasing—becoming red. If all galaxies were being shifted to the red, it meant that they were all moving away from us. This meant that the universe was expanding— like how points marked on a balloon move further and further away from each other as the balloon grows in size. Fourteen centuries ago, the following verse was revealed to Prophet Muhammed in the Quran: Here is evidence of the Quran having its source in an Omnipresent and Eternal Mind—One Which knows all in their true forms and Whose knowledge has not been conditioned by time and circumstance.