BELIEF IN BOTH GOD AND THE CREATION OF MATTER IN THE LIGHT OF THE BIG BANG
It has been the privilege of monotheistic religions to vindicate God’s existence and the fact that matter was created and the universe will come to an end when the time comes. Regardless of divergences of opinion among the various sects and commentaries of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the monotheistic religions share these basic tenets. In contradistinction with the common assertion of all materialistic philosophies about the eternal existence of matter, the monotheistic religions concurred in the fact that the universe had had a beginning and would come to an end. This assertion is of paramount importance, as it distinguishes the monotheistic religions from all other convictions. The answer to this issue will also demonstrate the reliability of the monotheistic religions.
THE BIBLE AND GENESIS
The initial verse in the Bible says that God created everything:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1-1
Biblical commentators like Abravanel say that the Hebrew word “bereshit,” the introductory expression, means “in the beginning of time.” This signifies that the creation of time and of the universe was coeval.
In the continuation of this introduction we read that God created the light, the seas, the stars and the living beings. According to this statement, the entire universe is the work of an all-powerful Creator. Every created thing has a definite purpose. In the perpetual presence of God, the universe is an entity having a beginning. The conclusion derived from this hypothesis is that matter and everything made of matter cannot be the essence and purpose of life. God, the creator of everything, is the telos of the universe and life’s true purpose. The Hebrew expression meaning creation is bara. This expression is used throughout the Bible only for the acts of God. Hebrew linguists interpret it as “creating something out of nothing.”
The Gospel according to John reads:
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
John 1-3
St Augustine, the foremost theologian of Christianity, says that philosophers unjustifiably contended that creation in time meant an eternal immobility of the Creator. Their error lies in their conviction that time before the creation was an infinitely long period. There can be no space and time before Creation.
The Creation is described in greatest detail in the Quran. Hundreds of verses speak of the creation of the universe and all the living in it by God. Expressions used are halaka, bedae and berae. Nouns derived from these verbs are Al-Halik, Al-Mubdi, Al-Bari. Here are a few of the verses in question.
“He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. To have anything done, He simply says to it, “Be,” and it is.”
2 The Cow, 11
“He is God, the Creator, the Maker and the Designer: to Him belong the most beautiful names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the Wise.”
59 The Exodus, 24
BIG BANG’S COROLLARIES AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS
The fact that the corollaries of the Big Bang theory have supported the arguments of monotheistic religions throughout history will be summarized in five points. There is no religious and philosophical system that has advocated all these points together.
1-THE UNIVERSE IS CREATED AND HAS HAD A BEGINNING
The controversy about whether the universe has existed from eternity or not has yielded its place to the discussion about the exact time of the beginning. All the various methods of calculation point to approximately 15 billion years ago.
The most important breakthrough among the consequences of the Big Bang theory was its demonstration that the universe had a beginning. Throughout history, more or less all atheists have postulated the eternity of the universe as an alternative for God’s existence. Hoyle argued against the Big Bang but acknowledged the fact that if it were indeed true, it would have been the answer to the postulation of creation out of nothing. The Big Bang theory as interpreted by Hoyle would lead back to nothing in case of recession in time. Briefly put, even the opponents of the Big Bang theory acknowledged that it would be the answer to creation ex nihilo.
Nothingness means the undefined; if there was nothing in the beginning of the universe, the origin of the universe cannot be defined. Calculations made based on physical laws indicate that in the beginning of the universe, laws of physics were inapplicable. This means the establishment within the framework of physical laws of the moment at which laws of physics lost their applicability and that no one expected that science would lead us to such a conclusion. William Lane Craig said: “The initial singularity is not an existent. That is to say, the singularity has no positive ontological status: as one traces the cosmic expansion back in time, the singularity represents the point at which the universe ceases to exist. It is not part of the universe, but represents the point at which the time-reversed contracting universe vanishes into non-being. There was no first instant of the universe juxtaposed to the singularity.” The theory of relativity links space, time and matter to each other. When the expansion is reversed, the folding up of the entire universe makes matter irrelevant, that is, having no existence.
The age-old argument of atheism is linked to the eternity of the universe. We have observed that once the postulate put forward by the Big Bang theory was acknowledged to be irrefutable, atheistic approaches proved to be forced and unrelated to the atheism advocated throughout history, and were but a consequence of despair for fear of losing the established creed. The Big Bang theory has discredited all the atheistic theses and demonstrated their absurdity. Thus, the argument that God’s existence was an inescapable fact has prevailed and the thesis advocated by monotheistic religions has found support. This has also made monotheistic religion reliable.
2-TIME IS ALSO CREATED
Monotheistic religions have always asserted that the universe was created. The controversy whether time was created or not has not been an issue of hot debate between believers and atheists as such. Yet, the fact that time also was created ex nihilo has been the general creed in monotheistic religions. The expression “God has always existed” has been interpreted by some people as connoting God’s existence in an infinite time, but the prevailing assumption is that God is “timeless,” “supra-temporal” and the “Creator of time.”
The Big Bang theory and the theory of relativity provide scientific evidence for this widely-shared view of monotheistic religions and inextricably linked space, matter and motion together and demonstrate that the nonexistence of any one of them also nullifies the others. The Big Bang theory has shown that in its beginning, the universe was in a state in which space folded up and motion came to a standstill and the laws of physics became inapplicable. This, in turn, is the negation of time. In point of fact, the studies of Penrose also include a detailed demonstration of this, based on mathematical formulas.
3-THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE FOLLOWED A PROGRESSIVE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
A common assertion of the three major monotheistic religions is that the creation process took six days. The Hebrew word for day is “yowm” which signifies 24 hours, as well as a “temporal unit.” Many Biblical commentators have argued that this expression of Genesis means a “long temporal unit.” The Quran also says that the creation process lasted six days/six periods and uses the word “yewm” which stems from the same root as the Hebrew. Quranic commentators also say that this word signifies a “long temporal unit.” On the other hand, a day made of night and day is a consequence of the fact that the world was created and of the processes operating in the world. In a state wherein the world was not yet in existence, one cannot speak of world’s “day,” therefore “yowm”/ “yewm” must be understood as a “unit of time.”
To sum up, the monotheistic religions do not speak of a spontaneous creation accomplished once and for all. They state that the universe evolved in stages. The Big Bang admirably describes the stages that the universe has gone through. In the beginning of the primary explosion the universe was very dense and hot; along with the process of expansion, the density and heat marked a fall that gave rise to successive stages. The primary explosion was succeeded by the formation of sub-atomic particles out of which atoms took shape to eventually form the various phases of celestial bodies. All these processes involved stages and the phenomena in each of them varied from one another.
The data produced by the Big Bang fit well the accounts given by monotheistic religions wherein the creation is described to have taken place in stages. The steady model of the universe that had previously been foreseen by Aristotle, who believed that the celestial bodies burned with an inexhaustible fuel, does not fit in the universal design that implies successive stages of development. The data of the Big Bang and modern physics are compatible with monotheistic religions.
Monotheistic religions believe in an all-powerful God who dominates the universe. A model of the universe, as if it were a clock that runs monotonously, may not adequately present active God of monotheistic religions. This model, which entails various stages of development, invalidates the deistic approach that prefers to remain content by placing God at the beginning of the universe, as only the ordainer of physical laws, ignoring His active participation in it. The successive creative processes at each stage of this model are further evidence of a teleological argument.
Many among those who studied the philosophical consequences of the Big Bang have dwelt in detail on the “origin of the universe”- which is the most import consequence – but have not given due emphasis to the issue stated here. This consequence was of special importance, as it pointed to the fact that the data provided by the Big Bang were in perfect accord with the age-old assertions of monotheistic religions.
4- THE UNIVERSE IS DESIGNED
Monotheistic religions imagine God as a Power with consciousness, Omniscient and Omnipotent that freely disposes of the material universe. The aforementioned epithets are among the most known attributes of God. The design in the universe is referred to in the demonstration of God’s existence as argument from design, teleological argument, argument of purpose and order which are endorsed by God’s most important attributes. The number of data ranging from our heliocentric system to the sub-atomic world, from the chemistry to the world of the living, is almost endless. The processes that succeeded the Big Bang are corroborative of these infinite numbers of data. For instance, the intensity of the primary explosion determines the expansion rate of the universe. Had the speed of this expansion been less, all matter would have collapsed under the gravitational force and the universe would not have formed. Had it been greater, the matter of the universe would have scattered around and the consequence would have been the Big Chill; the universe would still be impossible. One observes that the expansion rate of the universe was arranged with an incredible exactitude. The whole scheme of the Big Bang was so designed that the Big Bang was not a haphazard explosion but a teleologically arranged blast, well calculated and implemented.
The initial moment of the creation that involved low entropy made possible the formation of galaxies, celestial bodies and of living beings. Critical values observed at every stage of the evolution of the universe enabled the emergence of life on earth. These critical values have been taken into consideration in the proportion of the particles that came about in the subatomic world and of the antiparticles, in the value of the nuclear force within the atom and electromagnetic force and in the proportion of the rate of protons and electrons. All these were made possible by the design and arrangement prior to the big explosion. On the following pages we will discuss this subject in more detail.
5- THE UNIVERSE WILL COME TO AN END
Another important point that distinguishes monotheistic religions from all other systems of thinking, religions and philosophies is their statement that there will be an end of universe and the earth. Not enough emphasis has been given to this point in the discussions about the philosophical consequences of the Big Bang. Yet it has great importance, as it shows who is justified in his claims throughout history.
Two epilogues may be envisioned for the expanding universe:
1. Either the universe will go on expanding until it experiences the ‘heat death’ called the Big Chill.
2. Or gravitational force will prevail and the universe will recede, shrinking till it is resolved into a singularity, called the Big Crunch.
No matter which will come to pass, it is certain that the universe will have an end. For millennia, atheists and others, in their opposition to monotheistic religions, have claimed that the universe will exist forever, and have sought consolation in the eternity of the universe for their transitory life on earth.
In eschatological accounts, the expectation of the end of the world occupies an important place. In this connection, it is worthy of note that reincarnation in Hinduism postulates that the universe existed from eternity and will go on to exist endlessly and that the souls will continue to reincarnate. The model of a universe existing forever has played a significant part in the formation of this conception. The Big Bang’s demonstration that the universe had a beginning and an end not only weakened Indian philosophy, but also discredited the belief in reincarnation.
Eschatological accounts of monotheistic religions commence after the end of the universe and life on earth. The corroboration by the Big Bang theory of this assertion of monotheistic religions supports the eschatological accounts of monotheistic religions.
FURTHER CORRECTIONS BY THE BIG BANG THEORY
The Big Bang theory’s corrections have not been limited to the atheistic view of the world, as it also introduced amendments to certain creeds: among others, to mystical and philosophical approaches. Some Muslim and Christian mystics and philosophers like Berkeley have claimed that the perception of the universe existed only in the mind, outside of which nothing exists, while the sacred texts of monotheistic religions openly announce that God created the universe and matter. They could not have meant that the creation was limited to the confines of our imagination. The fact that the universe was created “with reality” is clearly expressed in many parts in the Quran:
“We created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them only with reality and for an appointed time.”
46 The Dunes, 3
The Big Bang theory discredits the materialistic view according to which the universe has existed from eternity and will go on existing for ever and ever. This does not imply that the universe is but a figment of our imagination. Advances in physics have demonstrated that the universe can be expressed in mathematical terms and that it was perfectly designed. To claim that the universe expressed with mathematical formula, about the creation of which we have acquired so much scientific knowledge, is but the work of our imagination, is to contradict science, common sense and religion. This assertion, having the touch of religion but contradicting it, is a glaring mistake. There have been people who espoused this idea against those who displayed hostility toward religion by using religion. We have seen in the present book that the religion revealed by God cannot clash with science, the knowledge of the universe that God created. Any likelihood of a clash is due either to a misinterpretation of religion or to a misinterpretation of certain discoveries. Science has demonstrated that the universe is subject to the laws of science and can be expressed in mathematical formulas.
There have been mystics and philosophers who make assertions that are hardly compatible with common sense. The concept of wahdat al-wujud of which the famous proponent is Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, often quoted along with Spinoza, is also referred to as pantheism. According to this conception, God is the universe itself; there is no distinction between God and the universe; the Big Bang theory, which reduces the origin of the universe to nothingness, refutes identifying God with the universe. The Big Bang theory necessitates a God who is transcendental, Creator of the universe and time. Identification of the initial singularity with God or a part of Him is impossible.
The Big Bang theory also invalidates “process theology.” Advocates of “process theology” postulate that both God and the universe are in a process of development, during which God and the universe affect each other. The fact that the universe had a beginning totally discredits this view. The conception of the singularity in the beginning shows that the universe cannot be of a constitution likely to cause changes in God, and that the evolutionary process occurs unilaterally in the universe. Moreover, the fact that the evolutionary process in the universe will come to an end has demonstrated the fallacy of this argument.
UNITY OF GOD AND THE BIG BANG
The Big Bang produces evidence not only for God’s existence, but also for many of His attributes. In our day, we can still observe traces of polytheism. According to polytheism, divinities have respective domains over which they are sovereign. Some worship the sun, some the moon and others have imagined mountains to be the abode of gods, thus lending divine attributes to natural phenomena. One thing they have in common, though: a divided universe in which the respective wills of gods cause it to fall apart.
The Big Bang is the best evidence of the unity of the universe. It has discredited all polytheistic concepts and produced evidence attesting to the unity of God. Some philosophers expressed this by the formula, “One comes out of One.” The unity in the universe was recognized even before the discovery of the Big Bang and the laws of modern physics. What the Big Bang theory brought us is the production of evidence based on modern physics in support of the unity, which previously had been the conclusive statement of logical reasoning. The following data of the Big Bang and modern physics point to the unity in the universe and to a Single Will operating in the universe:
1. The origin of the universe was a unity. All matter was comprised within a singularity, which is the evidence of the unity of the universe and of its emergence.
2. Another evidence of the unity is the fact that varying regions of the universe owe their origin to a single point, and the prevalence of the same laws of physics in them provides corroborative evidence. Had the universe been dominated by different wills, this unity could not have been realized. The theory of relativity has made it plain that nothing in the universe is independent, as space and matter and time are inextricably linked together and in continuous reciprocal actions and reactions.
3. Observations of the universe with sophisticated telescopes and the Fraunhofer lines, etc., have taught us that the entire universe has been made of the same raw material (of atoms, and especially of hydrogen and helium atoms).
4. The Big Bang points to the moment of creation of matter in the universe and to the origin with low entropy. The first law of thermodynamics is the law of conservation of matter and energy. According to this law, in the universe, matter and energy cannot get lost, nor can they come into being out of nothing. Matter and energy were created at a single moment with low entropy. Spontaneous creation and conservation of what is created point to a Single Creator. One cannot imagine the concourse of independent wills in the creative act.
5. Had the Big Bang explosion been of greater speed, matter would have scattered around and the universe would not have formed; had it been of lesser speed, matter would have collapsed. All these critical values indicate that the universe owes its origin to a single Creative Will. The said critical arrangements meant sovereignty over the entire universe, which included density of matter and intensity of explosion.
In the light of modern physics, there is no way to defend the idea of divinities inhabiting the peaks of mountains or powers controlling worldly phenomena and clashing with each other. Yet, although the falsity of the claim about eternity of matter is understood, those who still remain in the grip of materialistic philosophy are in the same category. The only difference is that, of the first category, the number of survivors have become negligible and have no claims for the support of science; while those in the other category, whose number is considerable, declare that they stand fast on scientific evidences and insist on acting according to the dictates of reason!
GOD’S ATTRIBUTES AND THE BIG BANG
The Big Bang demonstrates that there is a Creator, that He is eternal and that He brought the universe and time into being. The Big Bang also produces much additional evidence for the other properties of God, other than His being eternal.
The stars, the planets, the fish, the plants, the cars, the melodies, the smell of flowers, everything was a singularity without form. A comparison between the original singularity and the actual design, the infinite variety that the universe unfolds, points not to a skillful singularity but rather to the One that has created the potentiality immanent in that singularity. It stands to reason that matter was programmed long before its prospective transformations. This, in turn, is a proof of the Creator’s omniscience and prescience and of His power to realize this.
The raw material of trillions of stars created the space in which it scattered following the great energy-generating explosion. The control of such an intense energy and matter was an absolute necessity for the explosion and its aftermath. The Creator of the universe spread in the continuously-expanding space the immense matter and energy under His continuous control, proving His omniscience and omnipotence.
What monotheistic religions mean by the expression of God is that of an omnipotent, conscious and omniscient Being. The universe today was potentially present in the Creator’s mind before the triggering of the blast. What existed potentially came into being with power as real entities. It is inconceivable that whatever is generated now was not previously in God’s omniscience. So, God sees and hears. He is the Shaper of forms, and Artist. He is the Knower, the Almighty. God’s sovereignty is so vast that if there had been a slight variation in critical values preceding the creation process, nothing would have come into existence.
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND THE BIG BANG
I am not claiming that the Big Bang comes up with a solution for the problem of evil, but it may contribute to it, repudiating the approaches of atheists who try to infer God’s inexistence from the existence of evil. Yet, the existence of evil is not a subject related to either God’s existence or God’s inexistence, but it is related to God’s attributes.
We have seen that the universe is not eternal as atheists have conjectured and that the critical design behind the creation points to the existence of God. Evil observed in the universe is not contradictory to God’s presence. Contradiction in terms of logic means a set of a proposition and the negation of that proposition. For instance, the proposition “the universe has a beginning” and the proposition “the universe has no beginning” are contradictory terms. Verification of either of them is the negation of the other one. No such interdependence exists between the evil of this world and God’s existence. The propositions “Evil exists” and “God exists” are not contradictory. However, observation that evil reigns in this world may lead us to ask such questions as, “How it is that God allows such evils?” or “Why does man perpetrate evil acts;” but it would be irrelevant to question the existence of God in the face of this evil.
We can draw an inference from the existence and the design involved in the universe and declare that God exists. Based on these arguments, a God-centered ontology may be formed in philosophical terms. But to infer that God does not exist based on the existence of evil is not possible. The body of evidence arising from the Big Bang and modern physics enables us to prove that God exists (to formulate a God-centered ontology).
The question of evil may be addressed only within the framework of the overall system of monotheistic religions. For instance, monotheistic religions uphold the existence of an eternal life Hereafter. This puts a different garb on our view of natural disasters and death in our transitory life on earth. A person who conceives of death not as a complete extinction but as the beginning of a never-ending life does not consider death to be evil.
It is the contention of monotheistic religions that God is compassionate and merciful, that evil and good are but consequences of man’s free will and that God will punish some and reward others for their acts. Monotheistic religions maintain that a whole system is designed according to which God judges man according to his will, capable of differentiating good from evil. In this system most evil acts on earth (or acts that seem to be evil) lose their significance in the face of the eternal life of the Hereafter. The retribution for man’s iniquities is a consequence of the acts he has perpetrated on earth. Man’s free will is the source of all ethical evil.
Various approaches have been put forth to show the reason for evil. One such approach is to evaluate evil as a result of the freedom of choice that man’s free will entails. There is also the argument refuting the existence of evil as such, as evil is nothing but the absence of good. According to this conception blindness is nothing; the essential thing is the eye, while blindness is the eye’s failure to perform its function. Evil, in this context, is the absence of the eye’s capacity of vision. Another approach contends that evil is necessary for the formation of a higher good.
The origin of evil barely touched upon in the present study is outside its essential framework. The Big Bang enables us to tackle the issue by producing a large body of evidence proving God’s existence, leaving the question of His existence outside the purview of an inquiry. In order to have access to God’s intentions and the outcome of His wisdom, they should have been accomplished. We can better interpret and assess the details of a work of art once it is complete. Not all the ongoing processes upon the earth, including the human odyssey, have come to a close, so that we are not in a position to conceive all the details of His magnum opus.
ETHICS AND THE BIG BANG
The Big Bang advocates that the universe is the work of an omnipotent Creator. This is very important in ethical terms for everyday life. We cannot live ignoring God’s existence. God has created us, we owe him whatever we have. To be conscious that we are His subjects entails the obligation that we lead a life in conformity with His desires. Our moral conduct should place God in the center of our living. So our moral behavior must be God centered. Where the courts of justice and the police force fail to extend their sphere of influence, human moral virtues have a rational ground to prevail. The individual must arrange his ethical behavior according to the norms established with rational ends wherever social imperatives are absent, taking into consideration God’s overall presence.
Ethics is important not only in human interrelations but also in politics and economic affairs. We are not concerned here with those who fail to comply with the rational requirement of faith. There is no denying that causing damage to one’s kind, committing theft, and political exploitation and indifference to the plight of the poor are also observed in people professing a belief in God. This is the consequence of the individual’s failure to comply with the rational requirement of his creeds and of the gap existing between his belief system and his practices. An ideal moral standard is not built up merely by possession of a right idea about good conduct, but also by its practice. The Big Bang put an end to the materialistic way of life and nihilism by invalidating materialistic tendencies. It set up a God centered ethics. However, until individuals harmonize their ontology with their practices, the Big Bang will fall short of realizing the ideal moral conduct.
It is also important to remember that the Big Bang postulated that the entire universe was a singularity before it began expanding. The actual picture of the universe gives the impression that it embraced in its original composition all the stars, plants, animals and all the races of man. This original togetherness may increase our mutual sympathy. On the other hand, the ever-expanding universe creates dynamism in man’s spirit. Experiences based on love of one’s fellow beings and on dynamism will have important positive psychological and moral consequences.
Conception of the existence of God, the omnipotent Creator of the universe, should erase nihilism from the earth. Man, powerless in the face of death, will feel optimistic, being convinced that life on earth is not the end of all.
MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS, MIRACLE AND THE BIG BANG
The Big Bang provides evidence demonstrating that the monotheistic religions are systems truly sent by God in two respects. In the first place, the fact that the universe had a beginning and will have an end was advocated by monotheistic religions, which opposed all other contentions. The Big Bang supported the assertions of the monotheistic religions and provided corroborative evidence for their truth. In the second place, the Big Bang substantiated God’s attributes and found rational justification for His revelations. Questions often asked such as, “Where do I come from?” “Where am I going?” “How have I come into being?” prove that man is in need of a religion; as a matter of fact, many atheists acknowledge that man needs a religion and that need has induced him to fabricate it. Atheistic belief that the universe came into existence as a result of pure coincidences suggests that this need is also coincidental and from this they contend that it follows that religions are pure concoctions. Evidence that demonstrates the existence of God and His attributes indicates that man’s need for religion is also the work of God. This is a sign of God’s intention to reveal it. It is God who leads man to feel the need for religion. We can show this as such:
1-The Big Bang shows that the universe was created out of nothing and that it is designed.
2-Thus man, being a part of the universe, is created with consciousness.
3-This signifies that man’s need for religion was the design of God.
4-The fact that God created man’s need for religion indicates that God’s revelation of religion is consistent.
We have seen that all three monotheistic religions concur in God’s existence, in His omnipotence and share the belief that the universe was created in evolutionary stages and that a day will come when it will vanish. The Big Bang has provided evidence for all these facts and corroborated the reliability of revelation. (Divergences among these religions are the subject of another discussion.) During the course of history, various sects have emerged; human fabrications and divine revelations came to be confused. It is of the utmost importance to differentiate one from the other; however, this is not the subject of our present discussion.
All the three religions have their respective characteristics related to the Big Bang theory. Judaism was the first among the three monotheistic religions to assert God’s existence, and declared that the universe was created and has a beginning. Christianity was the medium in which the Big Bang theory was discovered and developed. Whatever their respective creeds may have been, Lemaître, Hubble, Gamow, Penzias, Wilson, etc., were brought up in the Christian tradition. The Quran has a privileged place in that it is the holy book that gives a detailed account of the Creation. Moreover, it also implies the Big Bang’s occurrence even before it was discovered. It is, in fact, the only book in the world that described it before the 1900s.
“Do not these disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were an integrated mass, which We then split, and from water we made all living things? Will they not believe even then?”
21 The Prophets, 30
“With power did We construct heaven. Verily, We are expanding it.”
51 The Dispersing, 47
The Quran has revealed that everything in the universe was comprised in a whole and that it splitted and expanded, just as the Big Bang theory has made it clear. Moreover, the Quran also mentions that in the beginning the universe was in a gaseous state (41 Elucidated 11), which conforms to the actual gaseous cloud from which galaxies are created, consisting of hydrogen and helium.
These accounts of the Quran are also an indication of the way the miracle happened. A description of the Big Bang in the Quran at a time when scientific developments and background were lacking and no instrument such as a telescope existed was certainly beyond the genius of any man. Philosophers who said that no miracle would ever come true were proved to be wrong. Thirteen hundred years prior to the scientific demonstration of the Big Bang, such a miracle had come true.