By Manal Binti Ammar
Islamic cosmology is one of the constituents and an essential part towards understanding Islamic worldview. All created things and beings around mankind, visible and invisible, are part of the cosmology and the universe.
The universe is a sign of Allah, created for men in order to become closer to Him, to obey his commandments and to worship Him unconditionally. When the Quran talks about reading, it means two types of reading, reading the revelation and reading the universe, both manifest the greatness of Allah.
As stated in the Quran, Surah Az-Zumar verse number 33, “And the one who has brought the truth and [they who] believed in it – those are the righteous.” That being said, the Quran urges mankind to ponder and study the universe.
The Quran presents the scientific facts in order to open the eyes towards understanding and realising natural phenomena for attaining various branches of scientific knowledge. For example, the Quran states that the Earth is in geo-spherical shaped. As we know, there have been such organisations that promote the belief that the Earth is flat rather than a globe. This belief is very much contradicted with what is stated in the Quran.
In the Quran, surah Luqman verse number 29, it is stated that Allah causes the night to merge into day and vice versa. The word ˜merge here means that it slowly and gradually changes. This phenomenon can only happen if the Earth is spherical in shape because if the Earth is flat, then there will be a sudden change from day to night. The Quran has already mentioned about this 1,400 years ago, long time before the modern science proves it.
There are a lot of scientific facts that had already been mentioned in the Quran and all of these facts had been proven during this modern era of science. It is clearly shown that the Quran is never a book of lies and deceits but rather the book that contains the wisdom of Allah, however, it is not to be mistaken that the Quran is a book of science but it is in fact, a book of guidance for mankind.
Francis Bacon once said that little knowledge about science makes you an atheist whereas deep understanding of knowledge makes you a believer of one god. The study of the cosmos is not merely to gain scientific knowledge but also to realise the reality of life with a better knowledge of divine wisdom.***