The Quran, Supernovae and Iron

In 1954, Fred Hoyle showed that the multiplicity of elements we see all around us, from Hydrogen in water to Oxygen-the life sustaining elixir, from carbon of which our bodies are made from to Iron with which civilizations are built, Gold and Silver for which wars were fought- are all manufactured in Stars. As the popular physicist Carl Sagan said," We are all made from stardust". We and whatever we see around us are all made from stars in the early universe that have been long dead since. So the question is how do these Cosmic factories produce the elements and how did they form a life sustaining planet like ours with flora and fauna and eventually Man?

Production of Elements:

 

In the core of stars the temperature is so high that Nuclear Fusion takes place. Just to give you an idea, the two bombs that were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were powered by Nuclear Fission- the breaking of a nucleus (147 Tera Joule of energy was released). On the other hand, Nuclear Fusion is the 'making' of a nucleus, fusing nuclei together to form a bigger nucleus. To make is way more difficult and powerful than to break. Lighter elements like Hydrogen and Helium are unstable and at extremely high temperatures (like in a star-core) they fuse together to form heavier elements and this reaction releases an awful load of energy. (Our Sun produces 5x10^23 Horsepower per second, that is enough to melt a bridge of ice 2 miles wide, 1 mile thick and extending the entire way from the earth to the Sun in 1 second). This energy not only gives a star like our Sun, its light and heat, but also keeps the star alive. I like to think of stars like human beings, in a sense that a star through out lives a life of inward-outward struggle for survival. The inward pull of gravity constantly trying to pull it down and the outward being these nuclear reactions that keep it standing against all odds. And this constant struggle makes it shine in the dark night, showing the way to generations of travelers throughout history. So from Hydrogen to Helium, from Helium to Neon and Oxygen, Then Carbon, Magnesium, Silicon, Sulphur, Argon and Calcium.

Quranic arabic is fascinating and sometimes eerie. The word for a Star is Najm (plural:Nujoom) and it linguistically means "parts or something that is in a step by step process". And this is what a star functionally is, it produces elements in parts and step by step they are pushed to the outer layers and eventually released. The entire Stellar lifecycle is a distinct step by step process. This process of fusing lighter elements together to form heavier elements and the release of huge amounts of energy of which some is used to further fuse lighter elements to heavier elements continues till the most stable element in the Universe is produced. An element without which Human Civilization would not be possible, progress, developments, revolutions, upheavals would not be possible. This element that runs in our blood, requires the maximum energy and temperature to fuse is IRON. An element so enigmatic that it lies in the middle of the periodic table and all the elements before it mimic its stability by fusing together and all the elements after it mimic its stability by decaying. The moment Iron is produced in a star, it literally "stops" the Nuclear Fusion that has been going on for millions or even billions of years. I emphasize on the point, that it STOPS the process.

Now the fascinating part

This is exactly what Iron is called in Arabic-Hadeed-The thing that stops or contains. Hadeed comes from the root word "HADDA" which quite literally means" to stop" or "to contain". And that's what it does, first it stops the billion year old nuclear reaction in the star that produced half of the elements in the universe. And because gravity was all along pulling the star down, it finally catches up as there is no outward force after the nuclear reaction stops. Hence, the most catastrophic, cataclysmic event since the Big Bang occurs. In a matter of a few seconds, a million mile across star collapses to a few miles compressing all of the Iron and Nickel particles together. Through a process called Neutron capture, in a few seconds all of the remaining heavier elements in the universe are made.

So Iron first stops the nuclear reaction and when the star implodes under gravity, it contains the core for a few seconds, just enough to form all the heavy elements. So, its baffling how the Quran, a 7th century literature mentions this entire process within a single term "Hadeed". This word holistically defines Iron's most crucial property in the universe. Hadeed- The one that stops (Nuclear fusion in stars) and contains (the star core for multiple neutron capture to form heavy elements).

If this wasn't mind boggling enough, there is a chapter of the Quran named Iron that mentions the peculiar strength this element has. This is Chapter Hadeed. Iron has stable isotopes called Fe-56 and Fe-57, meaning the total umber of protons + nuetrons are either 56 or 57.  Guess what is the number of this chapter in the Quran? "57". And if Fatihah is taken as an Opening and we start counting from Baqarah, then this chapter will be 56. It doesn't stop there, what is the double of 57? 114 right. How many chapters does the Quran have? 114 How many elements does the universe have ? 114

[Some may say 118, but those 4 are not real elements, they are just extra neutrons fired to existing elements, so they stick around for some time and then decay. The consensus is 114 elements]

For centuries Muslim scholars regarded the entire universe as a 'spread out' Quran and now with advancements in astrophysics we can get a grasp of that. The universe with all of it's elements and it's most powerful and stable elements Iron at its midst is like the Quran with all of it's chapters and the Chapter of Iron (hadeed) at its middle. No other chapter is named after an element except for the 57th. In my opinion it is God's way of drawing our attention to the open manifest Quran that lies wide before our eyes (the Universe) and all we as modern muslims have done is just to concentrate and expend all our efforts in understanding the Book Quran, and left the Universe to be understood by Western Science . That was our domain as well and it was just as sacred and sacrosanct as the Mushaf. The book Quran and the universe spread out are both self disclosures of God. And was the underlying motivation behind all of Islamic Philosophy and Science. meaning whichever path you take- scripture and theology or science and observation you will necessarily find God. All roads in the multiverse lead to God!

Supernova in the Quran

Now let's open the Pandora's box of astrophysics in a 7th Century book like Quran. SUPERNOVAE- The most cataclysmic explosions in the universe since the big bang. The amount of energy released is of the order of (10^44 joules or the total output of our Sun in its 10 Billion year lifetime). They seem destructive and violent, but were it not for Supernovae, life wouldn't be possible, in the sense, that stars produce all the elements that the universe is made of including the elements from which our bodies and food are made of. But what will transport and distribute these elements? It takes these crazy cataclysmic events called Supernovae to scatter the elements across the vast universe. Billions of years back, a star exploded and threw out a piece of these elements, which cooled down and then became hospitable for life. This was our Planet-Earth. Now the Quran as fascinating as it is, mentions these stellar explosions in the most dramatic manner. Right before the Chapter of Iron, which mentions how God 'sent down' Iron from the sky (imagine saying that something as heavy as iron was imported from outer space in 622 CE !) there is a chapter called "The Event" (Waqiah). What is the event that happens just before Iron is scattered throughout space? We now know the only event (with a capital E) that happens to a star in it's lifecycle is a SUPERNOVA- The violent death of a star. Look what the verse in Surah Waqiah (The Chapter of the Event) reads:

"No! I take an oath by the time and place of the "Event of a STAR" and Behold! This is a Mighty Oath, if you only had knowledge." (56:75)

This is the only place in the entire Quran when God takes an oath and then reiterates the magnificence and gravity of the oath being taken. For millennia the reason for this peculiar emphasis wasn't understood. This verse was mistakenly understood as meaning the "setting of stars". This is time before telescopes, when the setting and rising of celestial objects were the only phenomena that could be observed. The first Supernova was observed and studied in 1866, while before this they were just regarded as very bright objects in the sky.

Chinese astronomers are the first to record the presence of a bright object in the sky that stayed luminous for eight months in 185 AD, but it wasn't until the Quran was revealed that it could be known that stars also die. That makes the Quran the first valid source on stellar lifecycle in human history. It would take another 1000 years for Fritz Zwicky and Walter Baade to start research on Supernovae.

" (I take an oath) By the star as it collapses (dies)" (53:1)

This verse clearly refers to the collapse of stars under it's own gravity into a Black Hole. This is again significant, because this is the chapter that contains the narrative of the famous Interstellar Travel (ascension) of the Prophet Muhammad to the Parallel Universes.

To place the chapter mentioning a Supernova just before the chapter that mentions the scattering of Iron is no coincidence. The one who has revealed the Quran, knows an awful lot of Astrophysics to do this. If at all one still has a doubt about it being a mere fluke, lets do some math. Lets calculate the probability of the Supernova (Event) Chapter preceding the Iron chapter. There are 114 chapters in the Quran. It has the probability of being in any place among any one of these 114 chapter. Exclude the iron chapter, so its 113. The probability is 1/113= 0.00884 or 0.8%. Almost ZERO probability of randomly being in any place except for this. Keep in mind the entire Quran was revealed over a period of 23 years and was orally transmitted for 25 years. That would just decrease the chances further, proving that it is NO RANDOM COINCIDENCE.

And God knows all things!

How Quantum Mechanics proves God's Existence?

What makes Quantum Theory so special?

Being one of the most groundbreaking achievements of the 20th Century, so much so that 1/3rd of our economy runs on it, Quantum Mechanics has such counter intuitive and controversial ramifications about the nature of the universe, that even after 100 years of its inception, this theory still remains an enigma for science. For the present discussion, we will just concentrate on only one of its many mind boggling results.

Quantum theory brought something so immaterial as "consciousness" into the realm of physics. Consciousness has remained for centuries a topic of discussion in philosophy, spirituality and theology. Modern science has come a long way, gallantly fighting its many battles, freeing itself from the shackles of religious dogma, to find itself back to square one- Consciousness- the domain of spirituality. Interesting it would be to note, that this enigma of consciousness didn't pop out of neuroscience or any other branch of life sciences. No!

Rather from the foundation of all sciences- Physics. So all of the study of the natural world is summed up in Biology, which in turn rests on Chemistry, as all biological processes are reduced to chemical reactions and then the study of chemical reactions neccessitates the study of atoms, electrons and so on. This is Quantum Physics- the science of the basic building blocks of the universe. So you see 'consciousness' has appeared as an inexplicable enigma from the foundation of the universe and its study. Something so immaterial, subjective, human and life-like like 'consciousness' somehow affects the quantum world- the lifeless, material building blocks of the entire universe. 

Even though Quantum Theory is an extensive branch in itself, I want to concentrate on just one experiment and its startling results-The Double Slit Experiment.

It was first carried out by Thomas Young in 1801 by passing light through two adjacent slits, an interference pattern was observed- which is a property of waves. Previously it was understood that light is made up of small particles.But now the wave theory was put forward.This was until 1905 when Einstein published his paper on the Photoelectric Effect that showed that light behaved as particles experimentally. So what is light? Wave or particle. It was shown that it is both. It has a dual nature of behaving as wave and particle. Notice here that a particle is the opposite of a wave. A wave is spread out, where as a particle occupies a specific place.We cannot measure the extent of a wave, but a particle can be measured, its size, mass etc. So one phenomenon like 'light' has two opposing characteristics. But now the question arises, "when" does it behave as a particle and when as a wave?

Light is weird, but what about Matter?

Before this question could be answered, the same experiment "Double Slit" was done, but this time with matter, the stuff from which the universe including us, is made. Electrons, the basic building blocks of matter were shot through two slits and guess what?!? The same interference pattern was observed .What does that mean? Electrons are also waves ! This was shocking. Come to think of it, you and I and everything else in the world doesn't look anythink like spread out waves. Everything seems to occupy some specific space, has mass and is everything BUT a 'wave'. Our intuition tells us when we look at any object, this must be made of very tiny particles clubbed together to give it this shape and size. The last thing that we can imagine is that the fundamental particles of the universe are not particles for the most time at all, rather they are spooky spread out waves ! Then the million Dollar question is what gives it this feel/touch/look of solid matter when it is a wave at its elementary quantum level? Hold on, the experiment is'nt over yet!

The scientists then put a measuring device or simply decided to make an observation of the electron being shot at the double slit screen. And guess what? The electron went back to behaving as a particle. It didn't create the interference pattern that waves produce, on passing through the slits. So what can we infer?

The simple act of conscious observation made the electron which was acting as a wave to behave as a particle. The enigmatic CONSCIOUSNESS affects the material world at its deep fundamental level. It's strange how can my conscious observation of something change it from being an ethereal wave of possibilities (where an electron can be at any location, all at the same time) to appering as a particle that occupies a particular place. So basically, when I am not looking at it, it's weird, but the moment I look at it, it goes back to being normal. So now we need to deal with two things:

1. The Quantum world, the world of the very small that makes up everything, including us IS VERY WEIRD.

2. What has my Consciousness got to do with the universe at its fundamental level?

This experiment has been repeated countless times and each time it brings about the same results . It has baffled the greatest minds in science. Einstein was really bothered by it and said, " I would like to think the moon is still there, even when I am not looking."

Quantum Mechanics postulates that the universe at the quantum level is "probabilistic" in nature. Meaning an electron can be here, and there and everywhere, having a probability of being at different locations all at the same time. It is only by means of conscious observation that it occupies a definite place and it appears the way it is. This probabilistic nature of Reality also bothered the greatest minds. Einstein remarked on this, "God does not play dice". To which Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of Quantum Theory replied, "Einstein should stop telling God what to do".

So how does this all prove the existance of God?

By God, I do not mean an anthropomorphic conception of God like an old bearded man sitting on a throne and running the universe. Quantum Mechanics posits the existance of a Conscious Being who by conscious observation sustains the entire cosmos and all its dynamic processes. When we say that the quantum world and all its phenomena are somehow wired to "consciousness", then we need to know that there are quantum processes going on in the universe at each and every moment. Even if we for simplicity sake say, that the collective human consciousness accounts for the "collapse of the wave function" with regards to all the quantum phenomena on earth. This collective consciousness transforms the world from waves of probability to solid reality that makes sense. What about the deep recesses of the planet- ocean beds, uninhabited forest, islands? Ok what about the solar system? what about the Milky way? What about the entire Universe? We occupy a very insignificant portion of a vast expanding universe. Quantum phenomena are taking place everywhere in the universe, in the cores of stars nuclear fusion fuses lighter elements into heavier elements. Quantum processes occur all around Black Holes, Nuetron stars etc. Infact, Black holes are the special places where both Quantum mechanics and Gravity play a combined role- a much sought after reconciliation. What 'consciousness' is at play at these remote corners of the universe. Places where the most violent explosions ever since the Big Bang are taking place- Supernovae- stars exploding when Iron atoms start being produced. This is again a Quantum phenomena and the question is what 'consciousness' is ever observant of these dangerous events in the far reaches of our Universe? An important point to understand is that none of these quantum, nuclear, chemical, even biological processes can occur when matter is just a 'wave of possibilities'. All these phenomena occur when the wave function collapses- meaning wave turn into particle. And this occurs on conscious observation. So who or what is this perpetual consciousness that is sustaining these cosmic phenomena?

Talk about the beginning of the Universe- the Big Bang- when the entire universe is smaller than an atom. Quantum phenomena of high energy photons colliding to form a pair of particle and anti-particle that annihilate each other. What is this Cosmic Consciousness that is present at the beginning of time itself? Or rather who is this Cosmic Consciousness? Because just like in our own case, we are conscious beings collapsing wave functions everywhere around us, but the very first thing that we are conscious of is our own selves. Hence this Cosmic Consciousness is self conscious to start with- a Conscious Being. So similarly this conscious Being present at the beginning of time is also observing the present expansion of the universe where quantum phenomena occur at the Horizon of the universe. According to a new theory, 'space is in itself emerging from quantum phenomena called Quantum Entanglement. So there you have it, a Conscious Being at the beginning of the universe, observing the accelerated expansion of the universe and all the processes in between, formation of nebulae, stars, black holes, galaxies, planets, life, uptil the universe reaches thermal equilibrium-meaning it's death. And then the whole process repeats itself, the universe again shrinks to a point smaller than an atom. All these quantum phenomena, who is the Conscious Being observing these?

So we see that this Cosmic Consciousness or Absolute Consciousness is present and observing all things, everything, everywhere, everytime. Because of the necessity of using language to put forward my point, this Cosmic Consciousness who is self aware is called God in English, Allah in Arabic. This qualitative definition clearly throws out of the window every type of anthropomorphic picture of God in our minds, so Jesus-the man doesn't fit this description, the old man with a white beard in Michelangelo's artwork doesn't fit this, Hindu Dieties don't fit. Because consciousness cannot be represented in a picture. Whatever conception of God we all may have, God is unlike that. As the Islamic axiom in this regards goes, "The inability to comprehend God is in fact true comprehension.".

Two of the names of God in the Quran are Shaheed- The Ever Observing One and Baseer- The All Seeing One. Only language can be used to represent consciousness. God says repeatedly in the Quran

"And He is of all things observant" (Surah Buruj 85:10)

Conclusion: Quantum Mechanics necessitates the existance of a Cosmic Consciousness who is:

1. Self Aware

2. Existed before the Big Bang

3. Will exist after the death of the universe

4. All the cosmic, geological, biological phenomena occur because there is 'someone' constantly observing them.

The universe wouldn't exist had it not been for this Absolute Consciousness- The Shaheed, The Baseer.

Now since we have proved the existance of a Conscious Being behind the whole of existence, then 'purpose' can never be dissociated from conscious beings. Hence the Universe has a purpose. The conscious beings who evolved after billions of years just to figure out this basic mechanism of the Universe necessarily will have the biggest share in this 'purpose' because they share this big similarity with the Absolute Consciousness. How do conscious beings communicate their 'purpose' to others for its fulfillment? Through language, art carried by other conscious beings from generation to generation. Hence, Divine scriptures, Messengers are a requirement for the Cosmic Consciousness to fulfill His cosmic purpose.

　

Hikam of Ibn Ataillah (rh)

                           Hikam of Ibn Ataillah (RH)

These are beautiful Aphorisms and wise statements penned by one of the most brilliant scholars of our glorious past Ibn Ataillah Al Iskandari (rh).

You can download the whole booklet which is translated by Aisha bewley from this link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BznAYoz34Kd7aks0bl8xaWZtUjQ/view?usp=sharing


Watch Dr Umar AbdAllah's class on the Hikam:


Watch Shaheed Shaykh Al bouti's class on the Hikam: