The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an: The Book of God
~ 53 ~
sun. Yet it is held that if the total quantum of cosmic
matter as worked out by astrophysicists – and it is
enormous – were to be compressed so as to
eliminate all space, the size of the universe would
be only thirty times the size of the sun. In view of
how recently these calculations have been made, it
is quite extraordinary that 1500 years ago the
Qur’an asserted that not only had the universe
expanded from a condensed form but that its
original quantum of matter had remained constant,
so that it could conceivably be re-condensed into a
relatively small space. It describes the end of the
universe thus: “On that day, we shall roll up the
heaven like a scroll of writing” (21:104).
The moon is our nearest neighbour, in space, its
distance from the earth being just two lakh and
forty thousand miles. Due to this proximity, its
gravitational force affects the sea waves, causing an
extraordinary rise in the water level twice a day. At
certain points these waves rise as high as sixty feet.
The land surface too is affected by this lunary pull,
but only in terms of a few inches. The present
distance between the earth and moon is optimal
from man’s point of view, there being several
