THE QURAN AND THE PULSARS:PULSATING STARS

وَٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلطَّارِقِ

ٱلنَّجْمُ ٱلثَّاقِبُ

[I swear] by Heaven and the Tariq! And what will convey to you what the Tariq is? The Star Piercing [the darkness]! (Qur’an, 86:1-3)

The word “Tariq,” name of the Sura 86, comes from the root “tarq,” whose basic meaning is that of striking hard enough to produce a sound, or hitting. Bearing in mind the word’s possible meaning as “beating,” “striking hard,” our attention may be being drawn in this sura to an important scientific fact. Before analysing this information, let us look at the other words employed in the verse to describe these stars.

The term “al-taariqi” in the above verse means a star that pierces the night, that pierces the darkness, born at night, piercing and moving on, beating, striking, or sharp star. Furthermore, the term “wa” draws attention to the things being sworn on-the heaven and the Tariq.
Through research carried out by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, at Cambridge University in 1967, a regular radio signal was identified. Until that time, however, it was not known that that there was a heavenly body that could be the source of regular pulse or beating rather like that of the heart.

In 1967, however, astronomers stated that, as matter grows denser in the core as it revolves around its own axis, the star’s magnetic field also grows stronger, and thus gives rise to a magnetic field at its poles 1 trillion times stronger than that of Earth. They realised that a body revolving so fast and with such a powerful magnetic field emits rays consisting of very powerful radio waves in a conic form at every revolution. Shortly afterwards, it was also realised that the source of these signals is the rapid revolution of neutron stars. These newly discovered neutron stars are known as “pulsars.” These stars, which turn into pulsars through supernova explosions, are of the greatest mass, and are the brightest and fastest moving bodies in the universe.

Some pulsars revolve 600 times a second.51
The word “pulsar” comes from the verb to pulse. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word means to pulsate, to beat. Encarta Dictionary defines it as to beat rhythmically, to move or throb with a strong regular rhythm. Again, according to the Encarta Dictionary, the word “pulsate,” which comes from the same root, means to expand and contract with a strong regular beat.

Following that discovery, it was realised that the phenomenon described in the Qur’an as “tariq,” beating, bore a great similarity to the neutron stars known as pulsars.
Neutron stars form as the nuclei of super giant stars collapse. The highly compressed and dense matter, in the form of a rapidly revolving sphere, entraps and squeezes most of the star’s weight and magnetic field. The powerful magnetic field created by these rapidly revolving neutron stars has been shown to cause the emission of powerful radio waves observable on Earth.

In the third verse of Surat at-Tariq the term “al-najmu al-thaaqibu,” meaning piercing, moving on, or opening holes, indicates that Tariq is a bright star that pierces a hole in the darkness and moves on. The concept of the term “adraaka” in the expression “And what will convey to you what the Tariq is?” refers to comprehension.

Pulsars, formed through the compression of stars several times the size of the Sun, are among those celestial bodies that are hard to comprehend. The question in the verse emphasizes how hard it is to comprehend this beating star. (Allah knows best.)

As discussed, the stars described as Tariq in the Qur’an bear a close similarity to the pulsars described in the 20th century, and it reveal to us another scientific miracle of the Qur’an.

Allaah knows best.

Bashir Habeeb for knowislam.com.ng

THE QUR’AN ON THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE

In the Qur’an, which was revealed fourteen centuries ago at a time when the science of astronomy was still primitive, the expansion of the universe was described in the following terms:

وَٱلسَّمَآءَ بَنَيْنَٰهَا بِأَيْي۟دٍۢ وَإِنَّا لَمُوسِعُونَ

And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it.
Qur’an, 51:47

The word “heaven,” as stated in the verse above, is used in various places in the Qur’an. It is referring to space and the wider universe. Here again, the word is used with this meaning, stating that the universe “expands.” The Arabic word “moosi’oona” in the term “inna lamoosi’oona,” translated into English as “it is We Who are steadily expanding it,” comes from the verb “awsa’a,” meaning “to expand.” The prefix “la” emphasises the following name or title and adds a sense of “to a great extent.” This expression therefore means “We expand the sky or the universe to a great extent.” This is the very conclusion that science has reached today.

Until the dawn of the 20th century, the only view prevailing in the world of science was that “the universe has a constant nature and it has existed since infinite time.” However, modern research, observations, and calculations carried out by means of modern technology have revealed that the universe in fact had a beginning and that it constantly “expands.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann and the Belgian cosmologist Georges Lemaître theoretically calculated that the universe is in constant motion and that it is expanding.

This notion was confirmed by the use of observational data in 1929. While observing the sky with a telescope, Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer, discovered that the stars and galaxies were constantly moving away from each other. This discovery is regarded as one of the greatest in the history of astronomy.

During these observations, Hubble established that the stars emit a light that turns redder according to their distance. That is because according to the known laws of physics, light heading towards a point of observation turns violet, and light moving away from that point assumes a more reddish hue. During his observations, Hubble noted a tendency towards the colour red in the light emitted by stars. In short, the stars were moving further and further away, all the time.

The stars and galaxies were not only moving away from us, but also from each other. A universe where everything constantly moves away from everything else implied a constantly expanding universe. The observations carried out in the following years verified that the universe is constantly expanding.
In order to gain a clearer understanding of this, let us imagine the universe to be the surface of a balloon being inflated. In the same way that the more the balloon is inflated, the further away the points on its surface move from one another, celestial bodies also move away from one another as the universe expands. This was theoretically discovered by Albert Einstein, regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. However, in order to avoid violating the “static universe model” that was generally accepted at that time, Einstein laid that discovery aside. He would later describe this as the greatest blunder of his life.

This fact was explained in the Qur’an in a time when telescopes and similar technological advancements were not even close to being invented. This is because the Qur’an is the word of Allah: the Creator and Ruler of the entire universe.

Credit: HARUN YAHYA

Bashir habeebullah for knowislam.com.ng