Page 23 - The Miracle in the Atom

In the only book revealed by Allah that has survived completely intact,
the Qur'an, there are statements about the creation of the universe from not-
hing as well as how this came about that are suggestive of 20th-century ide-

as and yet were revealed fourteen centuries ago.
First of all, the creation of this universe from nothingness is revealed in
the Qur'an as follows:
He (Allah) is the Originator of the heavens and the earth… (Surat al-
An'am: 101)
Another important point revealed in the Qur'an fourteen centuries be-
fore the modern discovery of the Big Bang and findings related to it is that
when it was created, the universe occupied a very tiny volume:

Do those who are disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth
were sewn together and then We unstitched them and that We made
from water every living thing? So will they not have faith? (Surat al-
Anbiya': 30)
There is a very important choice of words in the original Arabic whose
translation is given above. The word ratq translated as "sewn to" means "mi-
xed in each, blended" in Arabic dictionaries. It is used to refer to two diffe-
rent substances that make up a whole. The phrase "We unstitched" is the
verb fataqa in Arabic and implies that something comes into being by tearing

apart or destroying the structure of ratq. The sprouting of a seed from the so-
il is one of the actions to which this verb is applied.
Let us take a look at the verse again with this knowledge in mind. In
the verse, sky and earth are at first subject in the condition of ratq. They are
separated (fataqa) with one coming out of the other. Intriguingly, cosmolo-
gists speak of a "cosmic egg" that consisted of all the matter in the universe

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