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In 1925, American astronomer Edwin Hubble,

provided observational evidence that all galaxies

are moving away from one another, which implies

that the universe is expanding. The expansion of the

universe is now an established scientific fact. This is

what the Qur’an says regarding the nature of the

universe:

‘expanding it’, and it refers to the creation of the

expanding vastness of the universe.

One of the greatest astrophysicist Stephen

Hawking, in his book, ‘A Brief History of Time’,

says, "The discovery that the universe is expanding

was one of the great intellectual revolutions of the

20th century." The Qur’an mentioned the expansion

of the universe, before man even learnt to build a

telescope!

Some may say that the presence of astronomical

facts in the Qur’an is not surprising since the Arabs

were advanced in the field of astronomy. They are

correct in acknowledging the advancement of the

Arabs in the field of astronomy. However they fail

to realize that the Qur’an was revealed centuries

before the Arabs excelled in astronomy. Moreover

many of the scientific facts mentioned above, such

as the origin of the universe with a Big Bang, were

not known to the Arabs even at the peak of their

scientific advancement. The scientific facts

mentioned in the Qur’an are therefore not due to the

Arabs’ advancement in astronomy. Indeed, the

reverse is true: they advanced in astronomy,

because astronomy occupies a place in the Qur’an.

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