Page 21 - Magnificence Everywhere

For example, everybody knows that the uni-
verse is quite vast. However, when we begin to
think of what kind of vastness this is in a real
sense, we come across concepts that are a breed
apart from what we can normally comprehend.
The diameter of the sun is 103 times greater than
that of the Earth. Let's explain this with a compar-
ison. If we compare the Earth to a marble, then
the sun is a sphere that is two times larger then a
football. The interesting thing here is the distance
between them. In order to set up a model that
mirrors the actual scale, we need to put a distance
spanning approximately 280 meters (920 feet) be-
tween the marble-sized Earth and the football-
sized sun. And as for the stars existing beyond
our own solar system, they need to be placed en-
tire kilometers away.
With this comparison, you might imagine that
the solar system is a quite large place. However,
when we compare it to the Milky Way Galaxy
where it is situated, it is dwarfed in comparison.
For, in the Milky Way Galaxy, there are about 250
billion stars like our own sun, and most of them
are much more massive.
Our sun is located on one of the arms of this
spiral-shaped galaxy. The interesting thing, how-
ever, is that the Milky Way Galaxy is a very
"small" place too, when we consider the overall
context of outer space. For there are other galaxies
in space too-according to some estimates, as many as 300 billion altogether…
Even these few examples we have supplied about the dimensions and vast dis-
tances between the universe's celestial bodies will suffice to show the incomparabil-
ity of Allah's artistry in creation, the fact that He has no partner in creation, and that
He is All-Powerful. Allah calls on people to think over these facts as follows:

Are you stronger in structure or is heaven? He built it. He raised its
vault high and made it level. (Surat an-Nazi'at: 27-28)