The Holy Revelation and the Ramadhan

Dr M R Sheikh (Shamu) *

Meitei Pangals at a prayer service at Changamdhabi under Andro Kendra Majid Manipur in November 2011 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

Sunni Muslims believe that around the time he was staying in the Caves of Hira during Ramadhan, the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad (SWA) in several parts. One of Muhammad's wives Aisha bint Abu Bakr, later gave the following narration of the event -

Forerunners of the Revelation assumed the form of true visions that would strikingly come true all the time. After that, solitude became dear to him and he would go to the cave, Hira, to engage in devotion there for a certain number of nights before returning to his family, and then he would return for provisions for a similar stay. Unexpectedly, the angel Jibra'il came to Muhammad and asked him to read. The Prophet replied, "I do not know how to read". The Prophet added, "The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, "I do not know how to read." Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, "I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?" Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said:

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful Read: In the name of your Lord Who created (96:1)
Created man from a clot of blood (96:2)
Read: And your Lord is the Most generous (96:3)
Who taught [man the use of] the pen (96:4)
and taught man that which he did not know.(96:5)
[Quran: 96: 1-5]

The literal meaning of the word "Qur'an" is "to be read or recited". This article is presented in the name Allah the most merciful, the most beneficial in appreciation to His greatest revelation to the humankind – the Holy Qur'an. To begin with, let us just pick up the following verse of the Holy Qur'an–

"By heaven furnished with paths;" (Surat Adh- Dhariyaat, verse 7)

The Arabic word "alhubuki," translated as "furnished with paths" in the verse comes from the verb "hubeke," meaning "to weave closely, to knit, and to bind together." The use of this word in the verse represents the current state of scientific knowledge in two aspects.

First aspect is that -

The orbits and paths in the universe are so dense and intertwined that they constitute intersecting paths, just like the threads in a piece of fabric. The Solar System we live in is made up of the Sun, the planets and their satellites and heavenly objects in constant motion such as meteors and comets. The Solar System moves through the galaxy known as the Milky Way, which contains 400 billion stars. It is estimated that there are billions of galaxies. Celestial bodies and systems are revolving at speeds of thousands of kilometers an hour move through space without colliding with one another.

The science of astronomy was developed with the aim of mapping the positions and courses of stars, while astro-mechanics was developed in order to determine these complex motions. Astronomers used to assume that orbits were perfectly spherical. The fact is, however, that heavenly bodies are known to follow mathematical shapes, such as spherical, elliptical, parabolic or hyperbolic orbits.

Dr. Carlo Rovelli of the University of Pittsburgh says, "Our space in which we live is just this enormously complicated spin network.

Right: approximate annual movements of the seven stars in the Milky Way

The second aspect is that-

The description in the Qur'an of the sky using a word meaning "woven" may be a reference to the String Theory of physics. According to this theory, the basic elements that comprise the universe are not point-like particles, but strings resembling miniature violin strings.

These tiny, identical and one dimensional strings oscillating in the form of filaments are regarded as being like loops in appearance. It is assumed that the origin of all the diversity in the universe lies in the way these strings vibrate at different vibrations, in the same way that violin strings produce different sounds with different vibrations.

Although it is not possible to see the size of the threads in the String Theory, the only theory to bring theories such as Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics together in a coherent way, it can still be calculated mathematically. These strings, which scientists regard as the material from which space and time are woven, are just 1.6x10-35 m in size.

This, known as Plank's length, is the smallest known, being just 10-20 of the protons that make up the nucleus of that atom.

If an atom were to be magnified to the size of the Solar System, each one of these strings would be no bigger than a tree. Bearing in mind that an atom is 100,000 times smaller than the smallest thing that can be seen with the naked eye, the minute scale of these strings can be more easily grasped.

Professor of Physics Abhay Ashtekar from the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Physics Jerzy Lewandowski from the University of Warsaw interpret the woven appearance of space as follows in an article titled "Space and Time beyond Einstein":

Einstein wove the gravitational field into the very fabric of space and time. The continuum we are all used to is only an approximation. Perhaps the simplest way to visualize these ideas is to look at a piece of fabric. For all practical purposes, it represents a 2-dimensional continuum; yet it is really woven by 1-dimensional threads. The same is true of the fabric of space-time. It is only because the "quantum threads" which weave this fabric are tightly woven in the region of the universe we inhabit that we perceive a continuum. Upon intersection with a surface, each thread, or polymer excitation, endows it with a tiny "Plank quantum" of area of about 10-66 cm2. So an area of 100 cm2 has about 1068 such intersections; because the number is so huge, the intersections are very closely spaced and we have the illusion of a continuum.

An Article in the New York Times seeking an answer to the question "How Was the Universe Built?" contained the following lines:

Even the tiny quarks that make up protons, neutrons and other particles are too big to feel the bumps that may exist on the Planck scale. More recently, though, physicists have suggested that quarks and everything else are made of far tinier objects: superstrings vibrating in 10 dimensions. At the Planck level, the weave of space-time would be as apparent as when the finest Egyptian cotton is viewed under a magnifying glass, exposing the warp and woof.

In his book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, the theoretical quantum physicist Lee Smolin devotes one chapter to "How to Weave a String" and says, "... space may be 'woven' from a network of loops... just like a piece of cloth is 'woven' from a network of threads".

In his book Our Cosmic Habitat the cosmologist and astrophysicist Prof. Martin Rees says, "According to our present concepts, empty space is anything but simple... and on an even tinier scale, it may be a seething tangle of strings". The way that Allah describes the universe as being woven paths and orbits in verse 7 of Surat adh-Dhariyat shows that the Qur'an is in extraordinary agreement with science. As can be seen in a great many other instances, the way that all the information revealed in the Qur'an 1400 years ago is confirmed by modern scientific data is highly thought provoking. This perfect harmony between the Qur'an and scientific developments clearly reveals that the Qur'an is the word of our Allah (SWT), the creator who knows best about all things.

Source: IRDC, Babupara, Imphal