Khalifa:-
GOD created seven universes and the same number of earths. The commands flow among them. This is to let you know that GOD is Omnipotent, and that GOD is fully aware of all things.
Yusuf ALi
Allah is He Who created seven Firmaments and of the earth a similar number. Through the midst of them (all) descends His Command: that ye may know that Allah has power over all things, and that Allah comprehends, all things in (His) Knowledge.
Please do let me know.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Stephen Hawking
Re: Qhat are these 7 earths the Qur'an talks about?
I found a very interesting article relevant to that last time this came up. I'll just link rather than cut n'paste. It's an old one (1858), so bear that in mind, but that has one big advantage in that it long pre-dates all the Yahya-esque Qur'anic sciento-tosh (which, in this instance, can be dismissed pretty easily).
In fact, all the major world religions seem to refer to seven 'heavens', seven 'hells' or both somewhere, including mine. The significance of seven is probably very ancient indeed and seems to often represent totality.. i.e. anything in sevens is seen as being somehow complete or comprehensive. That would certainly fit in with the Yusuf Ali in particular.
Re: Qhat are these 7 earths the Qur'an talks about?
format_quote Originally Posted by Trumble
I found a very interesting article relevant to that last time this came up. I'll just link rather than cut n'paste. It's an old one (1858), so bear that in mind, but that has one big advantage in that it long pre-dates all the Yahya-esque Qur'anic sciento-tosh (which, in this instance, can be dismissed pretty easily).
In fact, all the major world religions seem to refer to seven 'heavens', seven 'hells' or both somewhere, including mine. The significance of seven is probably very ancient indeed and seems to often represent totality.. i.e. anything in sevens is seen as being somehow complete or comprehensive. That would certainly fit in with the Yusuf Ali in particular.
True, it is interesting how certain numbers seem to be universal in world religions.
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
The human mind has an incredible capacity for conjuring up images of possible and impossible things galore.
Probably the best example for creative speculation is that of the idea of what the scientists call a "multiverse" consisting of several universes.
In 1954, a young Princeton University doctoral candidate named Hugh Everett III came up with a radical idea: That there exist parallel universes, exactly like our universe. These universes are all related to ours; indeed, they branch off from ours, and our universe is branched off of others. Within these parallel universes, our wars have had different outcomes than the ones we know. Species that are extinct in our universe have evolved and adapted in others. In other universes, we humans may have become extinct. ( Josh Clark, Do Parallel Universes Really Exist?)
There was a BBC documentary shown in 2002 about the strange phenomenon of parallel universes, in which it was claimed that we live in just one of the multiple universes that exist parallel to one another.
"These other universes", it was alleged, "may even contain you, in a slightly different form." We are told that there are scientists who believe that "these parallel universes exist less than one millimeter away from us." (BBC Programme, Parallel Universes)
For years, science fiction writers loved to speculate on "other universes" which might exist. They say that in a parallel universe, the 'might-have-beens' in our life could have 'a local habitation and a name'.
For instance, consider a person who wanted to be an Olympic gold medal winner in this world, but failed to realize his dream. In one of the parallel universes, he (or his double) realizes this dream.
Of course, this sounds like pure fiction. But at the same time, there are scientists now who hold the view that there are several universes, and quite possibly an infinite number of them, each existing with a different law of physics, in the "multiverse". They say that our universe could be just one bubble floating in an ocean of other bubbles. (BBC Programme, Parallel Universes)
These scientists appear to be pressing the mathematical laws of physics too far. But it must be understood that the mathematical laws of quantum physics describe only possibilities of reality, and not reality itself.
It is possible that parallel universes exist in a higher dimension of space — an extension of our space, that is, some sort of "super-space". In altered states of awareness we may be able to get indications of the closeness of parallel worlds to our own world, according to Fred Alan Wolf. (Fred Alan Wolf, Parallel Universes)
A Muslim View
Considering the Islamic view of the matter, we read in the very first Chapter of the noble Quran of Allah Almighty as "the Lord of the worlds" (Al-Fatihah 1:2).
Indeed we see the same expression in several other places too, such as:
*{O Moses! Verily I am Allah, the Lord of the Worlds....}* (Al-Qasas 28:30)
and,
*{..Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds.}* (Al-A`raf 7:54)
In all these verses, the expression, "worlds" gives the idea of a plurality of worlds.
According to the Companion Abu Saeed Al-Khudri, Allah has created forty thousand worlds, and the earth and all the creatures on it are only one of those worlds. (Tafsir Ibn Kathheer, quoted by Dr. Hosny Hemdan Hamama in Are There Other Universes?)
Prof. Faheem Ashraf writes:
"Now as anthropic principle and quantum gravity suggest that there could have been many more quantum universes in addition to our universe, these universes may have their own values of physical constants and nature of the physical laws. To this fact we refer to the verse which says what means:
*{Allah is He Who created seven Firmaments (heavens) and of the earth a similar number. Through the midst of them (Allah) descends His Command: that ye may know that Allah has power over all things and that Allah comprehends all things in (His) Knowledge.}* (At-Talaq 65: 12)
It should be noted that if the word samawat (heavens) is taken equivalent to universe then there are at least 7 other universes (one above the other like onion) each with its own sets of physical laws.
It is apparent from this verse that God created other world systems and God's commands descend (Keep in mind the use of present tense) in those systems. Use of present tense means that these systems exist today contrary to what Quantum Gravity theories suggest." (Islamic Concept of Creation of Universe, Big Bang and Science-Religion Interaction)
The foregoing indicates the possibility of several worlds existing in the universe. Scientists speak of the existence of billions of galactic systems, each of which carries within it, billions of stars and planets.
If only one star in every 100,000 of the 100,000 million stars that exist in the Milky Way alone has one planet which bears Earth-like life, that still means there may be a million such planets that could communicate with Earth.
By means of strict scientific standards, no conclusive evidence has appeared so far for the presence of parallel universes as different from the galactic systems. But both science and the Quran provide ample indications that point to the possibility of the existence of multiple universes.
It is noteworthy that the Quran clearly and emphatically supports all kinds of sincere scientific investigations into the mysteries of the universe. Islam encourages humankind to study the universe; because such a study by perceptive minds may lead to some insight into the wonders of Allah's creative power.
There is no way we can equip ourselves to delve into all the secrets of the universe, nor can we know them except for what Allah allows us to know.
The concept of parallel universes certainly throws some light on the existence of beings like jinn and angels, and of the unseen world in general.
(Whoever usurps the land of somebody unjustly, even if it was a mere hand span, then his neck will be encircled with it down to the seven earths.) And in Sahih Al-Bukhari the wording is:
«خُسِفَ بِهِ إِلَى سَبْعِ أَرَضِين»
(...he will sink down to the seven earths.)
Therefore Yusuf Ali probably got a misunderstanding in the interpretation, it refers to the layers of the earth itself;
Re: What are these 7 earths the Qur'an talks about?
True...actually there is a popular expression we use in spoken arabic (lebanese) which is : تحت سابع أرض (Under the 7th earth) which means deep down under the ground. So maybe the 7 earths refers to the layers of the earth instead of 7 planets?
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