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THE BASIC PROCESS OF THE FORMATION OF THE UNIVERSE
AND
THE RESULTING COMPOSITION OF THE WORLDS
By Dr. Maurice Bucaille
The Qur'an presents in two verses a brief synthesis of the phenomena that constituted
the basic
process of the formation of the Universe.
---sura 21, verse 30:
"Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then
We clove them
asunder and We got every living thing out of the water. Will they not then believe?"
---sura 41, verse 11: God orders the Prophet to speak after inviting him to reflect on the
subject of the
earth's creation:
"Moreover (God) turned to the Heaven when it was smoke and said to it and to the
earth..."
There then follow the orders to submit.
The important things to remember at present are the following:
a) The statement of the existence of a gaseous mass with fine particles, for this is how
the word 'smoke'
(dukan in Arabic) is to be interpreted. Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous
substratum, plus, in more
or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even liquid states
of matter at high
or low temperature;
b) The reference to a separation process (fatq) of an primary single mass whose elements
were initially
fused together (ratq). It must be noted that in Arabic 'fatq' is the action of breaking,
diffusing, separating,
and that 'ratq' is the action of fusing or binding together elements to make a homogenous
whole.
This concept of the separation of a whole into several parts is noted in other passages of
the Book
with reference to multiple worlds. The first verse of the first sura in the Qur'an
proclaims, after the
opening invocation, the following: "In the name of God, the Beneficent, the
Merciful", "Praise be to God,
Lord of the Worlds."
The terms 'worlds' reappears dozens of times in the Qur'an. The Heavens are referred to as
multiple as well, not only on account of their plural form, but also because of their
symbolic
numerical quantity: 7.
This number is used 24 times throughout the Qur'an for various numerical quantities. It
often
carries the meaning of 'many' although we do not know exactly why this meaning of the
figure was used.
The Greeks and Romans also seem to have used the number 7 to mean an undefined idea of
plurality. In
the Qur'an, the number 7 refers to the Heavens themselves (samawat). It alone is
understood to mean
'Heavens'. The 7 roads of the Heavens are mentioned once:
--sura 2, verse 29:
"(God) is the One Who created for you all that is on the earth. Moreover He turned to
the heaven and
fashioned seven heavens with harmony. He is Full of Knowledge of all things."
--sura 23, verse 17:
"And We have created above you seven paths: We have never been unmindful of the
Creation."
--sura 67, verse 3:
"(God) is the One -who created seven heavens one above another. Thou canst see no
fault in the creation
of the Beneficent. Turn the vision again! Canst thou see any rift?"
--sura 71, verse 15-16:
"Did you see how God created seven heavens one above another and made the moon a
light therein and
made the sun a lamp?"
--sura 78, verse 12:
"We have built above you seven strong (heavens) and placed a blazing lamp."
Here the blazing lamp is the Sun.
The commentators on the Qur'an are in agreement on all these verses: the number 7 means no
more than plurality.
There are therefore many Heavens and Earths, and it comes as no small surprise to the
reader of
the Qur'an to find that earths such as our own may be found in the Universe, a fact that
has not
yet been verified by man in our time.
Verse 12 of sura 65 does however predict the following:
"God is the One Who created seven heavens and of the earth (ard) a similar number.
The
Command descends among them so that you know that God has power over all things and
comprehends
all things in His knowledge."
Since 7 indicates an indefinite plurality (as we have seen), it is possible to conclude
that the
Qur'anic text clearly indicates the existence of more than one single Earth, our own Earth
(ard) ; there are
others like it in the Universe.
Another observation which may surprise the Twentieth century reader of the Qur'an is the
fact
that verses refer to three groups of things created, i.e.
--things in the Heavens
--things on the Earth
--things between the Heavens and the Earth
Here are several of these verses:
--sura 20, verse 6;
"To Him (God) belongs what is in the heavens, on earth, between them and beneath the
soil."
--sura 25, verse 59:
"...the One Who created the heavens, the earth and what is between them in six
periods."
--sura 32, verse 4:
"God is the One Who created the heavens, the earth and what is between them in six
periods."
--sura 50, verse 38:
"We created the heavens, the earth and what is between them in six periods, and no
weariness touched
Us."
The reference in the Qur'an to 'what is between the Heavens and the Earth' is again to be
found in
the following verses: sura 21, verse 16; sura 44, verses 7 and 38; sura 78, verse 37; sura
15,
verse 85; sura 46, verse 3; sura 43, verse 85.
1) Existence of six periods for the Creation in general.
2) Interlocking of stages in the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth.
3) Creation of the Universe out of an initially unique mass forming a block that
subsequently split up.
4) Plurality of the Heavens and of the Earths
5) Existence of an intermediary creation 'between the Heavens and the Earth'.
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