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Prof. Faheem Ashraf
The picture of universe provided by the Big Bang Theory is
fairly accurate. According to this theory our universe came into existence
about 15 billion years ago in a violent explosion. Quantum effects like
quantum fluctuation caused the generation of energy from almost nothing. The
energy was spread uniformly. Due to quantum uncertainty and other effects
the uniformity was broken and there emerged the anisotropies. These
anisotropies during inflation period expanded into galactic sizes. While the
universe was expanding it was cooling as well. This cooling has caused the
formation of different particles—matter formation. When the energy got
sufficiently low, the particles like neutron and protons combined to make
primordial gases. These gases due to anisotropies started to concentrate in
some regions of universe giving rise to formation of galaxies and stars.
This description of creation of universe is supported both by experimental
discoveries and mathematical formulations. But there are some very
interesting questions like what happened before the Big Bang and what
determine the properties of universe or the initial conditions? These
questions are partly answered by quantum gravity, to be more precise, the
Hawking—Hartley’s ‘No Boundary Proposal’, which says that universe has no
initial or final boundaries and the universe is self generated.
There is another key question. It has been evident since long
that if our physical constants have been slightly different then the life on
the Earth would not have been possible. Why the physical constants have the
value they have, or what made it that physical constants have such values to
make life possible in this universe. Moreover, the overall chemical
composition of the universe was determined by the physical conditions during
the first few seconds of the Big Bang. For example, the elements on which
life depends such as Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and Iron are the products of
nuclear fusion reactions within the stars if the initial condition would
have been different from formation of stars; nuclear fusion and supernova
which distributed these would not have been possible. Also the processes by
which the chemical elements are formed are governed very precisely by the
strengths of four fundamental physical interactions: gravitation,
electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear interactions. If the relative
strengths of these forces were different, the resultant universe would have
been different. For example, increasing the strong nuclear interaction by 3
% relative to electromagnetic interaction gives a cosmological model in
which none of the known chemical elements could have been formed.
Conversely, decreasing it by just 1 % gives a model in which Carbon atoms
would be highly unstable. Both scenarios would preclude carbon-based life.
Other tiny variation in these forces might have given rise to a universe
which contained 100 % helium or one in which supernova explosion could not
occur (since these explosions are though to be chief way in which the
chemicals necessary for life are ejected from stars), these scenario too
preclude the evolution of life. These ‘precisions’ in the various
parameters, such as to give rise to life, are known as the ‘Anthropic
coincidences’.
Last but not least what caused these physical laws to be
applied in the universe or in other words wherefrom these laws came?
There is no obvious physical reason, in the Big Bang theory,
to the questions just raised. But one thing is quite certain that according
to laws of nature we know today that very small changes in any of these key
parameters would have resulted in a grossly different universe. So the
chance of life permitting universe would be vanishingly small as compared to
all theoretically possible universes.
Such enigmas can be responded either by appealing to God that
the almighty God has set the values of the physical constants such that the
life should be possible or by invoking the ‘Anthropic Principle’. The first
option is referred to as Divine Action at Quantum Level. The other option
though avoid direct appeal to God, maintains that according to quantum
Gravity—No Boundary Proposal, they are millions of different quantum
mechanically possible universes, each with different values of physical
constants. Only those universes with suitable physical constants will
contain intelligent life.
It is obvious from the above discussion that the cosmology,
like all other sciences, has deep religious implications since it
specifically deals with creation of universe and emergence of life which are
central questions of every religion. Scientific discoveries always
challenged beliefs of all religions. Let see what is the Islamic concept of
creation of universe, and how have the challenges and implications, that
have been posed by Big Bang Theory and modern science, been responded by
Muslims and Christians scholars?
Let see, first of all, what is Islamic concept of creation of
universe and how Modern Muslims thinkers and scholars tackle the question of
Science—Religion interaction.
ISLAMIC CONCEPT OF CREATION OF UNIVERSE
One thing must be understood that The Quran is not a text
book of Astronomy or Physics. As Dr Absar Ahmed has said in his paper on
“Creation and Evolution in Quranic Perspective’ that the primary function
and intent of the Quran is the detailed discussion of practical matters
related to Guidance and the Straight Path. These matters are of immediate
and common concern for every single human being so that he or she may attain
salvation on the Day of Judgment. Consequently, the Quran keeps the needs of
masses in focus and takes into account their intellectual capacities; as a
result, the Quran relies upon only general Pointers to address issues
related to specialized philosophical or academic interest, higher gnosis,
and subtle spiritual realities. For those with sharpened intellects and
heightened spiritual sensibilities theses general pointers should be more
than enough to shed light on such matters”.
Now let’s see what picture emerges from the Quranic
verses—pointers – referring to the creation of universe.
According to The Quran, the life containing universe is
solely created by the Almighty God—Allah—and He is the Supreme Ruler of the
universe. To this effect let me refer to few Quranic verses;
God
is the Creator of everything; is the One, the Omnipotent. (13: 16)
God
is the Creator of everything and He is incharge of everything. (39: 62)
Originator of Heaven and Earth, and whenever He decrees something, He says
to it: ‘Be’ and it is. (2: 117)
Do
they not see how God initiates the creation, and then reproduces it? Surely
that is easy for God. Say: ‘travel in the earth and see how God initiated
the creation’. Then God will create another creation; surely God has power
over all things. (29:19-20)
Your guardian-Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six
days and is firmly established on the throne (of authority): He draweth the
night as a veil o’er the day each seeking the other in rapid succession: He
created the sun the moon and the stars (all) governed by laws under His
command. Is it not His to create and to govern? Blessed be Allah the
cherisher and sustainer of the worlds! (7:54)
There are many other ayahs (verses) which refer to the
fact that all that is on the Earth and in the Heavens is created by Almighty
God.
Second important fact according to The Quran is that this
universe—Earth and Heavens—has definite life period and has some definite
objectives like other creations.
Sura No 46, Ayah No 3 says:
“We
created not the heavens and the earth and all between them but for just ends
and for a term appointed: but those who reject faith turn away from that
whereof they are warned”.
This Ayah clearly rejects any notion of eternal universe
which other theories like steady state theory holds.
Next important question is creation of universe from out of
nothing or creatio-ex-nihilo. To this effect we do see few direct references
in The Quran, from which scholars have derived the creation ex-nihilo.
Sura 19 Ayah No 9 says: He said: "So (it will be): thy Lord saith `that is
easy for Me: I did indeed create thee before when thou hadst been nothing!'
".
Also scholars quote ayah No 47 of Sura 3, which says: She
said:
"O
my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?" He said:
"Even so: Allah createth what He willeth; when He hath decreed a plan He but
saith to it `Be' and it is! And many others used by scholars to infer the
concept of creation ex-nihilo.
These Ayahs refer to the creation of human being and
the birth of Christ but scholars that these creations show that God has
power to create things out of nothingness. He faces no difficulty and does
not need any material or resources in fulfilling this task.
Next thing is the concept of emergence of universe from a
very dense state called singularity. To this effect we see in Sura 21 ayah
No 30 that:
Do
not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together
(as one unit of Creation) before We clove them asunder? We made from water
every living thing. Will they not then believe?
In Sura 21 two words ‘Rataq’ and ‘Fataq’ have
been used. According to Maulana Maudoodi the words ‘Rataq’ and ‘Fataq’ means
that the universe was in a fused matter and God decreed it to separate to
form the heavens and the earth. These words according to Maulana had
different meaning for people of past, now, Physics and Astronomy has changed
the meaning of these words. Similarly Tahir ul Qadri maintains that these
words point to creation of universe from the initial singularity.
The Creation of universe started, Allama Tahir- ul -Qadri
says, from initial state which is Falaq lets see Translation of Sura
Falaq by Tahir Ul Qadri;
“Take the refuge in My Omnipotence from all created things, which have been
formed by an explosion and ordered by My Lordship attribute. I am your lord,
the ruler of the Galaxies, which I have scattered into the infinite reaches
of the space through a magnificent explosion that started from initial
singularity, and, through this explosion a lot of forces, energies
radiations and reactions came into existence, which may be damaging for
life, so take refuge from those evils. Because whoever takes refuge in Me is
protected from all evils”.
Now as Anthropic principle and quantum gravity suggest that
there could have been many more quantum universes in addition to our
universe, these universes may have their own values of physical constants
and nature of the physical laws. To this fact we refer to Sura 65 Ayah No 12
which says:
Allah is He Who created seven Firmaments (heavens) and of the earth a
similar number. Through the midst of them (Allah) descends His Command: that
ye may know that Allah has power over all things and that Allah comprehends
all things in (His) Knowledge.
It should be noted that if the word ‘Samawat’ is taken
equivalent to universe then there are at least 7 other universe (one above
other like onion) each with its own sets of physical laws. And it is
apparent from this Ayah that God created other worlds system and God’s
commands descend (Keep in mind the use of present tense) in those systems.
Use of present tense means that these systems exist today contrary to what
Quantum Gravity theories suggest.
As to the formation of Galaxies and stars, The Quran hints at
the formation of the heavens and the earth from the gaseous matter in Sura
No 41 Ayah 11-12:
Moreover He Comprehended in His design the sky and it had been (as) smoke:
He said to it and to the earth: "Come ye together willingly or unwillingly."
They said: "We do come (together) in willing obedience. So He completed them
as seven firmaments in two Days and He assigned to each heaven its duty and
command. And We adorned the lower heaven with lights and (provided it) with
guard. Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might Full of knowledge."
These ayahs show that the lowest heaven or our universe is
decorated or provided with visible objects like stars and galaxies, other
heavens which lie above our system or universe may not contain the type of
visible objects like we have in our universe. These universes may contain
different types of objects and even laws if we consider the words ‘assigned
to each heaven its duty and command’ means natural laws.
Referring to the uniformity of the universe on large scale
Sura 67 Ayah No 3 says:
He
Who created the seven heavens one above another; no want of proportion wilt
thou see in the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious so turn thy vision again:
Seest thou any flaw?
Taken collectively, these ayahs—pointers—clearly demonstrate
that the universe is created by Allah the Almighty, who did not encounter
any resistance or needed any resources to carryout His plan. He only said Be
and there started the process of creation of universe.
SCIENCE – RELIGION DEBATE: GLIMPSE OF MUSLIMS’ RESPONSE
Many Muslims believe that the historical conflict between
religion and science was a conflict between a particular
religion—Christianity—and science, and that while it is too bad that
Christianity emerged from the engagement badly bruised, Islam has no fears
of such a clash. The conclusion drawn about Islam needs to be further
elaborated. Science can not cause problem for Islam but it has definitely
influence the outlook and thinking of many Muslims scholars, theologians and
even simple minded people. For example as we have just shown that Islam has
its own concept of creation of universe so the scientific concept of
creation of universe like Big bang theory has deep implications for Muslims.
Thus this influence of science has given rise to, without coming into
limelight, a kind of science-religion debate since sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Let
us take only a few examples from our region and see how some leading
scholars have taken science-religion relationship.
Let’s start with Allama Iqbal. He says in The
Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam;
“The Quran recognizing that the empirical attitude is an indispensable stage
in the spiritual life of humanity, attaches equal importance to all the
regions of human experience as yielding knowledge of ‘Ultimate Reality’
which reveals its symbols both within and without….the naturalism of the
Quran is only recognition of the fact that the man is related to nature, and
this relation, in the view of its possibility as a means of controlling her
forces, must be exploited not in the interest of the unrighteous desire for
domination, but in the nobler interested of a free upward movement of
spiritual life. In the interest of securing a complete vision of Reality,
therefore, sense—perception must be supplemented by the perception of what
the Quran Describes as Qalb.”
In another place Allama making his case for Ijtihad says;
“The teaching, of the Quran that life is a process of progressive creation
necessitates that each generation, guided but unhampered by the work of its
predecessors, should be permitted to solve its own problems”.
Thus we can see Iqbal strongly advocates synthesis of Science
and Religion such that this synthesis should be useful for spiritual
development of man.
Strictly following Iqbal’s view came forward Ghulam Ahmed
Pervaiz. He tried to inculcate a spirit of rationality so that Muslim should
take maximum advantage of science but in doing this he went too far,
according to Theologian, he tried to explain the Quran in modernistic terms
using present scientific knowledge instead of traditional approach. In this
attempt, he in fact, adopted a line which is purely a kind integration of
Islam with modern values.
There is another track in the field of science – religion
interaction. It is a form according to which science and scientific
knowledge can be employed to understand the Quran and Ahadith but Science,
as principle, occupies a lower place than the Sources of Islamic Traditions.
This line can be seen in the work of Maulana Maudoodi. We can see, in the
work of Maulana Maudoodi, especially in Tarjuman Ul Quran, that he
uses scientific data extensively to explain matter related to universe and
to clarify and elaborate the Quranic message that had been difficult to
understand hitherto. But whenever there is a conflict between the science
and religion, like birth control issue, Maulana quickly adopts orthodox line
against the Science.
There is yet another line, according to which, the relation
between science and religion is not question of only theology or science but
it is a question of philosophy as well. Let me quote famous Iranian scholar
and physicist Dr. Mehdi Golshani, he says;
“In
my opinion, there are lots of confusion and fallacies concerning the problem
of creation, especially among modern cosmologists. This, in my humble view,
is the result of their lack of philosophical understanding. The problem of
creation is not a matter of physics alone. It needs theological and
philosophical reflection as well”.
He further recommends the following strategy:
“We
should explore our universe, by science, as much as we can, but we must
avoid making claims about the absolute origination of the universe on
physical grounds. Philosophy and theology can save us from making unsound
exaggerated scientific claims, and can give us a proper metaphysical
framework for our science and a ground for our being. In this framework, the
description of the physical aspects of the universe is left for scientific
investigation, but the ultimate explanation of the universe is provided by
God.”
There is yet another line advocated by Dr. Bilal Masood. He
opines:
“A
complete natural view of the world is not compatible with the Islamic
beliefs as it is not compatible with beliefs of any other religion. So, here
we have some concerns against materialism that we have to share with other
religions of the world. The importance of balance in Islam is very relevant
here: we have to avoid both extreme views of too much supernatural and of no
supernatural. He also asserts that (in the preaching Islam) in spite of
importance of (scientific) examples, it is important to keep in mind that
there is an approach to the Islamic beliefs that does not rely on
(scientific) example-as –arguments.
Despite different lines followed by Muslim Scholars the
general pattern of thought is such that Muslims usually uses science as a
means of knowledge like other branches of knowledge and at the same time
Muslims uphold Revealed knowledge as well.
RESPONSE FROM CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS
Muslims, despite their present clash and mistrust with the
west, share many common themes and Beliefs with Christians. For example the
belief of Omnipresent and Omnipotent God Who constantly act in this
universe. So the experiences of Christian theologians will be a good guide,
to some extent, to appreciate and understand the challenges of modern
sciences to religion. Let see how the question of science-religion
relationship has been taken by Christians.
The science and religion are entangled with each other since
16th century. This entanglement had bruised both science and
religion. Realizing the importance of both fields, it has now been felt that
there should be some meaningful relationship/interaction between both fields
of knowledge and aspiration. This has initiated the field of study known as
science- religion interaction. The field has explored the influences which
science exerts on the religion and vice versa. Ian Barbour, one the most
respected scholar of science-religion debate, has proposed that there are
four types of relations or ways of relating science and religion. These are
conflict, independence, dialogue and integration. Similarly John F Haught,
Professor at Georgetown University, also proposed Ian Barbour typology. Let
me quote his own words he says;
“I
see four principal ways in which those who thought about the problem express
their understanding of the relationship of religion to science. (1) Some
hold that religion is utterly opposed to science or that science invalidates
religion. I shall call this Conflict position. (2) Others insist that
science and religion are so clearly different from each other that conflict
between them is logically impossible. Religion and science both are valid,
but we should rigorously separate one from other. This is contrast position.
(3) A third type argues that although science and religion are distinct,
science always has implications for religion and vice versa. Science and
religion inevitably interact, and so religion and theology must not ignore
new developments in science. For the sake of simplicity I shall call this
contact approach. (4) Finally, a fourth way of looking at the
relationship—akin to but logically distinct from third—emphasizes the subtle
but significant ways in which religion positively supports the scientific
adventure of discovery. It looks for those ways in which religion, without
any way interfering with science, paves the way for some ideas, and even
gives a special kind of blessing, or what I shall call confirmation, to the
scientific quest of truth.’
It is not necessary to enter into more detail regarding the
‘Typology’ of the relationships between science and religion. My aim is to
present a general map of the ways of relating science and religion in
Christian and Muslim world. Keeping this in mind let see how some eminent
Western scholars deal with Big Bang and question of creation in religion.
One prominent reaction to Big Bang has been by those who saw
Big Bang as a support for theism. As Paul Davies put it:
A singularity is the nearest thing that science has found to
a supernatural agent.
He also says that ‘The possibility that given the laws of
physics, a universe can appear spontaneously rests on the “prior” existence
of these laws of physics. Given, the laws, the universe can take care of
itself. But where do the laws come from?
There is another view held by agnostics like S. Hawking their
view point in S. Hawking’s words is;
“There would be no singularities at which the laws of science broke down,
and no edge of space-time at which one has to appeal to God or some new law
to set the boundary conditions for space-time.”
And:
“But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary
or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end. What place, then, for a
Creator?”
There are some who are looking for a dialogue between the
Science and Religion like Ian G. Barbour. Let me now quote Ian G. Barbour,
he says:
“It
is equally impossible to imagine a beginning of time or an infinite span of
time. Both are unlike anything we have experienced. Both start with an
unexplained universe. I will agree that the choice of theories could be made
on scientific grounds alone, and that the difference between them is only of
secondary importance religiously.”
Similarly R. J. Russell holds that:
“Whether the origin of the universe as we know it involves
a previous quantum super space, or whether the universe had an absolute
beginning 15 billion years ago, the universe is contingent: it does not seem
to include the grounds for its own existence, it does not offer an ultimate
explanation of why anything at all exists in the first place, and therefore
it points to that on which all beings necessarily exist – God.
In brief there are three types of people in the west: the one
who have ‘developed the system of idealism by compromising reason with
faith’, the other group has ‘developed the system of materialism by clear
separation from religious faith’ and third group hopes to integrate both
through a dialogue between them.
Now if we compare the Islamic concept of creation of universe
appears in The Quran and Current Big Bang theory, we can see that there are
some features of Big Bang theory that are closely similar to the Islamic
concept of Creation of Universe, for example, creation out of nothingness,
initial singularity, concept of formation of galaxies from primordial gases,
and uniformity of universe on large scale. Also there are a few features of
creation where there is no uniformity of ideas between Islamic concept and
Big Bang Theory, for example, notion of multi-universe/worlds. Second, if we
compare the science religion relationship/interaction in Christian
perspective and in Islamic perspective we see that there is a great deal of
similarity in the type of ways of interaction/relationship and responses in
both monotheistic religions. Third, that as we have seen that the Islamic
concept of creation of universe is not contrary to the present scientific
theories; in fact the theories have enhanced our understanding of the
universe. This enhanced knowledge of the universe has improved our
understanding of the Quran and Ahadith. So science, though it has
provisional theories has become a key requirement in understanding Religion,
as it explained several things like existence of other universes/worlds and
fused status of heaven and earth, etc which our old exegetes were unable to
explain. Thus science is not only a requirement of material comfort but also
a key requisite for appreciation of religion. Fourth,
science has provided us a universal language with which we
can interact with the people of other religions and cultures.
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