What do you read?
-A magazine…
What magazine?
-It’s about muslim and current issues in Malaysia
Is it a magazine published by ABIM?
-No…
That conversation continues for few minutes until I get to know why this 50 years old ummarried Christian man can perfectly proclaim syahadah and also know the meaning of surah Al-Fatihah. 15 years ago, he was searching for the truth of the religion. He learnt about Islam and other religion but then choose Christianity as his faith. He learnt Islam for few months under ABIM (Angkatan Islam Malaysia) programs, which is include learning some basic principles such as how to proclaim syahadah, solat, 5 pillars of Islam and others. At the end, after know many thing about Islam; he rejected to proclaim syahadah when the officer ask him to do so.
The above story perhaps tells us that if Allah doesn’t want to give hidayah to a person, then a person will not get it. This is not a new but there are many people who turn away from Islam even though the have deep understanding on this beautiful religion. You might know Karen Amstrong, an author who write many popular books about Islam and Dr. Maurice Bucaille, the author of the popular book, Quran, Bible and Science(picture), which both of them, in fact of doing many research on Islam, still not embrace Islam( from what I know, Dr. Maurice was not a muslim until his death in 1998).
However, there many non-muslim who embraced Islam after getting shock to know that the holy book, Quran has many interesting information that never found in the other religion’s book. An example, a brother called himself as Baba Ali(picture), an
American Muslim, a very popular guy on internet for his dakwah videos. He enthusiast about Islam came a long before September 11.Through the research and discovery on this Islam, he found how amazing this religion especially when we look to the scientific facts within, thus rejected the claim by many Islam-hatred people that Quran was written by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him). Of course, al-Quran is not a book of science, but the scientific facts that presented more than 1400 years ago in it, purposely for reminder to man to reflect the greatness of Allah and thus give the full submission to Him.One of the scientific facts that very important is the way Allah created the universe. For me understanding the early of universe very important because from that we know where the universe and everything inside it came from.
The expansion of the universe has become the greatest discoveries during the 20th century .It is open the window for the scientists to think more than sciences itself .Even the Albert Einstein who before believe that the world is static, at last confessed that the world is constantly expanding each seconds .The expansion of the universe was open the scientists mind to accept the existence of God .Before that, many scientists are believe that the universe is static and it will continue at this condition without end .Even Albert Einstein was tried to find the equation to fixed with this theory, but failed , except he need to make some adjustment to his equation .And at last he said"God not play dice" even though he is atheist .
The first attempted try to prove the expansion of the universe has done by Russian physicist,Alexandra Friednman in 1922 .He produced computations showing that the structure of the universe is not static instead expand .And then another scientist ,George Lemaitre recognize the Frienman’s work and declared that the universe has a beginning and will expanding before come to the end .However, for the few years, this theory was not attracted much attention because no observational evidences.
However , everything has changed in 1929 when an American scientist, Sir Edwin Hubble has made an important discoveries in the astronomy field .Using the big telescope(picture) from the California Mount Wilson observatory, he discovered that their light was shifted towards to the red end of the spectrum and this shifted is directly related to the distance of the stars from the earth .According to the law of physics, the light beams travelling towards the observation point tend towards violet while the light beams travelling away from the observation point tend towards red .So based on the Hubble’s observation,it’s mean that the stars are move forwards from the earth because the colour is red.
Actually, the stars not only move away from the earth but also each other .The expansion of the universe can be explain when you blow the balloon. Lets say that you make many points on the balloon that represent the stars (galaxies) and then you blow it .As the balloon becomes bigger, you can see that the distance between each points are greater.
So, what does it mean?
It mean that the expansion of the universe not caused by the movement of galaxies but the expansion of space .Like the balloon, the point just move because the movement of balloon rubber . One may wonder , how can space in the universe expands? .For this question, we go back to the Einstein’s Relativity Theory which is stated that time and space are not constant .It can change.
So, the expansion of the universe is the good evidence for people to turn back to God .It is because universe has beginning which is mean it is created out of nothing .Created out of nothing means creation and the only One who have power can do all this thing that is God .After the Big Bang, the universe continues to expands until it come to the end .So, the question now where we are going after the universe?.Definitely, we will going to the new world where what will doing in this world will be judge accordingly .The expansion of the universe that has been discovered in last century actually was revealed 1400 years ago when human know a little bit about the universe .It was stated clearly in the muslim’s Holy Book, al-Quran .In the one chapter, sura’ Ad-Dzariyat,verse 47 which means:
it is We Who built the universe with(Our creation) power,and, verily,it is We Who are steadly expanding it.
The key words here are"steadly expanding it" which mean that the universe is expands with the constant rate .This is prove that this Holy Book is really came from the God that is Allah .However, it’s depend to ourselves whether we want to give attention on this revelation or not .The truth has come .If we ignored it just because our arrogant, surely a great torments are waiting us in the hereafter.
p/s: going back to Kedah tonight for a week.
:: Faisal
:: 5:57 pm
:: Sunday, July 05, 2009
