In most Muslim religious circles, though they are unaware of it, a Popperian view of the Natural Sciences holds sway.
There, Karl Popper, a mid 20th Century Philosopher, argued that Science is in the job of falsifying theories, and thus that there is nothing sure or certain about it.
This was later bolstered by Thomas Kuhn who empirically showed that Science can be seen as a social enterprise that progresses through seismic shifts in understanding that he likened to revolutions.
But whilst Kuhn took a realist and sociological view of the job of science, Popper’s was fully dogmatic.
Too many people erroneously compounded those two separate ideas, believing that they each corroborated one another.
But whilst Kuhn showed that Scientific progress is a social enterprise and this dented the view of Scientists being solely in the business of truth discovery, it did not endorse the opposing view of Scientists being in the business of falsifying theories. *1(a & b)
Then when we come across verse 53 of Surah Fussilat and we are confronted with;
“We will show them our signs..” in the outer reaches and within themselves;
we are forced to deliberate as to whether the “them” mentioned here is as a collective many, or as a collection of many individuals?
In the language of science - is it observable and repeatable, as in the collective many, or is it like a “revelationary showing” that is only accessible to those who are brought close, but as individuals only. These cannot share what they know, because it is not accessible to the vast many. *2
And then when we also come across verse 2 of Surah Raad, Thunder, we should be in awe of its clarity.
Surah Raad sits between Yusuf and Ibrahim, and when you read it you should realise that it is talking about our Messenger, who is a Messenger to us all and to those that will come after us. (All of the peoples *3).
Verse 2 here, talks directly to our current cosmological understanding of the Universe, but with such clarity that it is as if God is here showing us His signs first hand:
<Allah it is who raised the Heavens without any support that you can see,
And then afterwards He ascended the Throne.>
When you compare the ‘Arsh with the Kursi mentioned in greatest verse contained in Surah Baqara, one is translated as throne and the other as seat.
Even in the English idiom we know the difference, vis a vis ..
“Throne of Authority” and “Seat of Knowledge”, look now again at Ayah tul Kursi to see this for yourself.
And then ask yourself what happens on Thrones?
Edicts are issued and Laws are enacted.
So here Allah t’ala is informing us that it is He who expanded the whole Cosmos and then rose on His Throne of Authority and established the Laws of Creation.
<And then that He subjected the Sun and the Moon> to those Laws.
Arabic is unusual as a language because it’s words take forms that designate so much from subject to object to indirect object, from male to female, from singular to many to even two.
The next word here is outstanding, because Allah t’ala does not refer to the Sun and Moon and say “both of them” (as most translators of its meaning hold), but simply “all” as a singular subject, and not even “all things” (kuli shay), nor even “all of them” (kuli huma). *4
Here the All is not made definite by the inclusion of a preceding Al- (the definite article in Arabic) nor by a following noun or pronoun, but is in the indefinite subject form… meaning ALL- EVERYTHING- and as the subject of that speech.
Most Mufasir miss this and translate the Kulli here as both of them, when the word is clearly ..
<ALL run in their course for an appointed time. >
And everything when you think about it in cosmological terms is either a satellite like the moon, or a star like the sun.
But here it is clear that Allah t’ala is talking about the Whole Cosmos, and not just everything contained within it.
And in particular, in relation to our cosmological understanding this would explain those words in that place. That Allah t’ala here is telling us that He is the One that set everything in motion, established laws to govern those motions, and all of them are subjected to those .. running their course for an appointed time.
Now look out of your window and consider how much movement can you see?
In this verse God is saying that everything is in motion. *5
<And He regulates all actions and makes clear (or decisive) to you (plural form) the signs that you might know of the meeting.>
The last portion of this verse above, refers to itself.
God says We make clear to you, meaning to us here in this age of men, the truth of this verse so that you might also know of the truth of the promised meeting.
This is a direct message without any ambiguity. And that ambiguity has only fallen away in this age of men, and it is clear as daylight to all of us with a care for a rudimentary understanding of the current state of cosmology.
That the promised meeting is a sure reality.
So blessed are those that prepare for it, and unblessed are the heedless.
Knowledge is through study and contemplation.
Not lectures, nor this above.
1a
It is the job of theorists to put forward theories that are falsifiable, and that therefore lend to the construction of experiments. It is the offshoot of these experiments that is the engine for technological advancement.
*1b
Can it really be said that Newtonian dynamics has been supplanted by Einstein’s relativistic universe?
Or is it better to consider that they each hold explanatory power within each their respective remits?
*2
And when they do, then they risk humiliation.
*3 see the end of v7 of Raad.
*4 As one of my good friends who is an Arab has it that it means “Each of Them” without a restriction to the two, informing us that there are more.
*5 I read a quote recently that Jafar bin Abi Talib (ra) had said as much, and held this as a certain conviction, maybe having understood or deliberated on this verse or a similar verse.
