The teaching of the Qur'an that life is a process of progressive creation necessitates that each generation, guided but unhampered by the work of its predecessors, should be permitted to solve its own problems.

(The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam)

Big Bang

In 1946, George Gamow, a Russian-born scientist, proposed that the primeval fireball, was an intense concentration of pure energy. It was the source of all the matter that now exists in the universe. The theory predicts that all the galaxies in the universe should be rushing away from each other at high speed as a result of that forceful initial explosion of a singularity, which is now called “Big Bang”. A dictionary definition of the hot Big Bang is like this: ‘The entire physical universe, all the matter and energy and even the four dimensions of time and space, burst forth from a state of infinite or near infinite density, temperature, and pressure.’ This primeval fireball later on referred to as a ‘singularity’ and the supposed explosion of the ‘singularity’ was termed “Big Bang” for the first time by an outstanding British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle during a radio broadcast from the BBC in 1950.

The theory of the big bang is the dominant scientific theory for the origin and evolution of the universe. There is no doubt that our universe had a beginning. Scientists say that before that moment (Big Bang) there was nothing. However, there was something after that and it was our universe. Through the big bang theory scientists have made efforts to explain what happened during and immediately after that moment. They say that the universe came into existence around 13.7 billion years ago as a result of an explosion of that singularity. That event is termed as the big bang. What is singularity and where does it came from? “Well”, they say, “to be honest, we don’t know for sure.”

We are told by scientists that after its initial appearance the singularity inflated (now called Big Bang). It then expanded and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our present universe. It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside it, incredible creatures living on a unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons unknown. This is the Big Bang theory.¹

Time and space came into existence after the big bang. Before the big bang there was no time and no space. The question arises that if there was no space then where was the singularity situated? The answer from the scientists is that space was inside the singularity. As for ‘time’ it came into existence with the event of the big bang. To the scientists, prior to the singularity there was no time, no space, no matter, no energy, nothing at all. If we ask them where and ‘in what’ did the singularity appear if not in space. The reply from them is: “We don’t know. We don’t know where it came from. All we really know is that we are inside of it and at one time it didn’t exist and neither did we.”²

As stated earlier, most scientists believe in the existence of God. The theory of the Big Bang has also in a way added to the belief in the existence of God, although at the very outset it looked like an attempt at the denial of God. Let us assume that the universe came into existence through a Big Bang. The Big Bang theory starts from the presence of a singularity containing pure energy in an extremely compressed condition. But it (the theory) has failed to say anything about the cause or power which kept that singularity intact and did not allow it to explode for a certain period. Secondly every event must be followed by a cause. But the cause behind the explosion of the singularity also remains unknown. The majority of the scientists believe in some unknown power behind the creation of the singularity and the event of the Big Bang. It is also a fact that a number of them happen to be atheists or non-believers. Even Einstein, who never accepted the reality of a personal God, had to admit ‘the necessity of a beginning’ and admitted ‘the presence of a superior reasoning power.’ We are at a loss to understand what is that which is preventing them to accept that the universe was created by its Creator, God. This can solve the problem of the scientists once and for all.

We are quoting below the contents of a home page ‘Did God use the Big Bang to create the universe’. Recommended resources: Bible Creationism by Henry Moms.

“Some Christians are vehemently opposed to the Big Bang Theory. They view it as an attempt to explain the origin of the universe apart from God. Others ascribe to the Big Bang Theory, with the view that it was God Himself who caused the “Big Bang”. God, in His infinite wisdom and power, could have chosen to use a Big Bang method to create the universe, but He did not. The reason that can be absolutely stated is that the Bible argues against such a method. Here are some of the contradictions between the Bible and the Big Bang Theory.

In Genesis 1, God created the earth before the sun and stars. The Big Bang Theory requires it to be the other way around. In Genesis 1, God creates the earth, sun, moon, stars, plant life, animal life, and mankind in a span of six 24 hour days. The Big Bang Theory requires billions of years. In Genesis 1, God created all matter by His spoken word. The Big Bang theory begins with matter already in existence and never explains the initial source of cause of matter.

2. In Genesis 1, God breathed life into the body of the perfectly created Adam. The Big Bang Theory requires billions of years, and billions of chance circumstances, to get around the first human; and it never can explain how the first microscopic life form happened to “evolve” from a non-living atom. In the Bible, God is eternal and the matter and the universe are not. There are different versions of the Big Bang Theory, but in most of them the universe and/or matter is eternal. In Genesis 1, the existence of God is assumed in the beginning. The true purpose of the Big Bang Theory is to deny His existence. We can accept certain aspects of the Big Bang Theory – but the theory itself is entirely atheistic.”³

According to Stephen W. Hawking most of the Greek philosophers including Aristotle did not like the idea of the creation of the universe by God. On the other hand they believed that the human race as well as the whole world had existed always and will exist for ever. Even until the time of Newton the universe was considered as static by most people. But Newton’s theory of gravity negated the idea of the universe being static. Edward Hubble observed in 1929 that, instead of the universe being static it is expanding as the galaxies in remote regions are moving rapidly from us. It apparently shows that at one time – say about ten or twenty million years ago, all the galaxies were exactly at the same place. This brought idea to the scientists that the universe had indeed a beginning, and this ultimately resulted in the discovery of the Big Bang theory.⁴

To Iqbal Creation out of nothing gives nothing. Creation of the universe has its direct source and fountain-head in Divine Ultimate Life. It is the revelation of Divine powers: the actualisation of Divine possibilities. It is a partial expression of the infinite inner possibilities of the Divine Creative Activity. It is the self-affirmation of the Ultimate Ego (God) which gives rise to the other or the non-self. The ultimate ego posits the non-self, its opposite, this world of change and flux, of desire and yearning, of love and beauty, in order to have its own manifestation.⁵

The Supreme Ego is the Unity and the entire diverse and manifold appearance springs forth and emerges out of His Creative Power. He divides His flame into sparks, His ocean into drops, in order to become the object of love, quest and yearning, He weaves texture of the visible existence out of His own Life. He underlies the whole colourful panorama of spatio-temporal wonder-land: the entire rich manifold variety, all the particulars and individualities, the totality of discreteness and the finite many. His effulgence has illuminated thousands lamps in this colourful dome of reality. He is the source of the movement of the sun, the moon, the stars, of the whole dazzling fabrication of heaven and earth. The finite reality with its constituent factors and finite selves is the manifestation of the One.⁶

The following verse of Qur’an should open the eyes of the proponents of the Big Bang theory. It also solves the question of the cause behind the Big Bang.   

“All things we have created with a fixed destiny; Our command was but one, swift as the twinkling of an eye..” (54:50).

G.SABIR