Page 60 - Miracles of The Qur'an Vol. 3

Miracles of the Qur’an

If a star is immedi-
ately behind the
black hole, as in
the illustration, the
star will appear to
be both to the right
and to the left of
the black hole.

be a reference to the "gravitational lens effect" in astronomy. (Allah
knows the truth.) Many astronomers investigating sources of light in the
universe will easily understand this description. It seems to be a reference
to the way light from a source behind a body with a very dense mass,
such as a black hole, departs under the effect of that dense body. Thus, it
reaches us from different angles. It appears that there is therefore more
than one source of light for the images that we see. Due to this "gravita-
tional lens effect," an object appears to be somewhere different to where
it actually is, and in greater numbers.

The term "a niche in which is a lamp" –known as “the light verse” -
may allude to the area of gravitational lens effect of a black hole. (Allah
knows the truth.) It is significant that in describing the effect that arises,
NASA scientists use the analogy of the effect of a drinking glass:
The gravitational effect of the galaxy on the distant quasar was sim-
ilar to the lens effect of a drinking glass on a distant street light–it
created multiple images. 38
In his book The Whole Shebang, regarded as one of the leading books
of the 20 century by the New York Times, the science writer Timothy
th
Ferris clarifies the subject as follows:
As light from a quasar travels towards us… it may pass

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