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!