Khalq

The Process of Creation
A Qur'anic Perspective

by Dr Israr Ahmad

The cosmogony of the Qur'an is a specifically creation theory. The Qur'anic account of creation is distinctive in its thoroughness (creation ex nihilo) and in its impact upon both philosophy and science. A Muslim believer sees the cosmos as a contingent, derivative world, a world with creaturely status. The Qur'an affirms that Allah created all things out of nothingness through the Divine word of “kun”. The core of this belief is indeed the world’s ontological dependence upon Allah. Since Allah created the cosmos and time together, His creative and sustaining act must be said to fall outside the temporal dimension, and likewise His “purposing” and “willing”. Even the most alluring analogues to eternal existence --- the “timeless moment” of aesthetico -mystical experience, or extrapolation from experiences of a “specious present” --- shed little or no light upon the concept of a timeless willing or purposing to create. Nor do they illuminate the conception of Allah as sustaining the world from moment to moment --- the eternal and non-temporal supporting a world existing in time. The ‘recession’ of the galaxies, the ‘expanding’ of the universe has seemed to some cosmologists also to imply a “beginning”, a primordial state of immense density, the center from which expansion and dispersion subsequently took place. 

The old paradigm and its classical materialism within the fields of both physics and astronomy have become increasingly outdated. A whole range of phenomena in sub- atomic/astro physics and astronomy are now being seriously considered. Scientists are working in areas that force them to revise their observational methods, to invent new and more flexible models and to develop more subtle mathematical procedures for interpreting their experimental data. Particle physicists cannot see directly into the subnuclear world they wish to explore and must therefore work  indirectly and inferentially. Modern cosmologists have no hope of ever seeing for themselves the creation of the universe, and infer from that they now see what must have taken place at the beginning of time. 

 

In cosmology, as in particle physics, experimental or observational evidence is being replaced with theory and speculation, which is increasingly removed from what can be measured; cosmology may come to be ruled more by aesthetic preference or prejudice than by the traditional principles of science. In fact, some scientists claim that the new physics has freed itself from the old mechanistic world- view found within Newtonian physics and moved much closer to the world-view of religion. The two basic theories of modern physics --- quantum theory and the theory of relativity --- seem to contain certain features of the theological worldview, in particular the incredible interconnectedness of things and the fundamental unity that underlies the entire universe from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

The above paragraphs go a long way to vindicate that in a part of the realm of light ( noor) --- through the Divine word of Kun --- an explosion of dense matter took place, which according to current cosmological theories marked the origin of the cosmos, the galaxies and planets including the solar system and our earth. For a believer of Qur'anic metaphysical world-view, it is very easy to imagine that the  “Big Bang” was the effect of another word “Kun” of Allah that took place in a part of the sphere of ethereal noor. Heat and fire are the main characteristics of this phase of creation. In the beginning a fireball of radiation at extremely high temperature and density, but occupying a tiny volume, is believed to have formed. According to Steven Weinberg 1933--- a leading astrophysicist, this fire consisted of tiny particles of electrons, positrons and neutrons with extremely high degree of temperature—probably one hundred thousand million degrees centigrade.

This expanded and cooled, extremely fast at first, but more slowly as sub-atomic particles condensed into matter that later accumulated to form galaxies and stars. The galaxies are currently still retreating from one another. What was left of the original radiation continued to cool and has been detected as a uniform background of weak microwave radiation. The important point to note is that at this stage jinns were created by Allah. Both the Qur'an and the hadith describe the jinn as a definite species of living and personalized beings who enjoy a certain amount of free will and will thus be called to account on the Day of Judgment.

As the words noor and naar --- the essential originative substance of angels and jinn --- are phonetically close, similarly jinn have special affinity with angels. That is why Azazeel, on account of his immense piety and great devotional service, associated with angels of lower stature. Generally the jinn, however, cannot rise up to the lofty station of highly elevated angels. The jinns nevertheless do try to eavesdrop some information from the angels when the latter descend on earth for the execution of Allah’s plan and orders. The following parts of three verses of the Qur'an describe these points:

"…..they (devils) cannot listen to the higher group (angels) for they are pelted from every side…. [Al-Safafaat 37:8]

“…..except such as snatches away something…..” [As-Saaffaat, 37:10] 

“…..but he who listens by stealth is pursued by a visible flame.” [Al-Hijr, 15:18]

Since they are essentially created beings (and therefore belong to the realm of khalq), their movement is always in time, though they can travel and move at a tremendously fast speed on account of the subtle and non-dense source of their origination. Thus they can easily and speedily reach the farthest corners of the heavens for which we humans have to spend trillions of dollars. And as a matter of fact human beings have not yet gone as far as the jinn have access to. Lastly, jinn, like angels, can assume various forms. For example angels can appear in the form of human beings as we read in Surah Maryam: “…..and he (Gibraeel) appeared to her in the semblance of a man.” [Maryam, 19:17] Similarly, jinn in addition to human form can take the form of animals and reptiles etc., particularly snakes. 

Going back to the scientists’ and cosmologists’ views about the creation of the universe, the acceptance of Big Bang Theory by them definitely repudiates the time-worn belief based on Newtonian Physics with regard to the eternity of the material universe. Researchers are now almost unanimous in asserting that the physical universe came into being some twenty billion years ago as the result of a ‘Big Bang’. If asked when and where exactly this Big Bang took place, the theoretical physicists simply reply that there was no time and space before the explosion and therefore, the question itself is meaningless. Similarly, they totally avoid and keep silent about the question as to who brought about this Big Bang explosion into motion as this obviously demands a Necessary and self-existent Creator. Moreover, the scientific and naturalistic method is, by its very nature, unable to appreciate the realm of amr and its entities preceding the realm of khalq.

Source:  The Process of Creation

 to be continued  . . . .