In this article I have written about two possible interpretations verse no.38 of Surah Yasin of the Quran. In addition to this I have also written about Al-Biruni's views on the orbit of the Sun.
Translation of Verse no.38 of Surah Yasin
And the Sun Runs his course For a period determined For him : that is The decree of (Him) The Exalted in Might The All-Knowing.
Explanation
This verse of the Holy Quran describes about Allah's knowledge and his power in a very profound manner. In the first part of this verse Allah Almighty says that Sun moves for an appointed period of time. This means that sun is not stationary but it is moving for a specified amount of time. Modern Physics suggests that Sun along with our entire solar system is moving around the centre of the Milky way Galaxy with an incredible speed of about 220 km/s. This means that within a matter of one minute the Sun along with our entire solar system will have travels an immense distance of 13200 km with respect to the center of our Milky way Galaxy. Our Sun is about 4.5 billion years old and since its birth up untill now it has only been able to complete about 20 cycles or orbits around the centre of our Galaxy. The reason why the Sun has completed only 20 orbits is because the distance from our Sun to the Galaxy center is approximately 8200 parsec where parsec is a unit to measure large distances in Astronomy and one parsec is equal to 30.9 trillion kilometres. Assuming that the orbit of our Sun is circular so that would mean to complete one complete orbit around the Galaxy center our Sun has to travel a distance of 2π(8200 parsec) where π=3.14. This formula that I have used is to calculate the circumference of a circle. You can calculate the rest yourself to know how much distance the Sun has to travel to complete one orbit around our Galaxy. It takes about 250 million years for the Sun to complete one orbit around the galactic center and this time can also be known to as Galactic year. Just like our planet Earth rotates about its own axis the sun also rotates or spins about its own axis. Its spin has a tilt of 7.25 degrees with respect to the plane of the planets’ orbits.
Another interpretation of this verse could be that our Sun has limited amount of life span that Allah Almighty has specified for it. According to scientists our Sun has a stable lifespan of about 10 billion years which means that it would be burning for another 5.5 billion years. After this it will run out of Hydrogen in its core and will convert into a Red giant. Red giant is a phase of a Sun's lifespan where it exhausts its Hydrogen completely as a result of fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. Now it will start the process of Helium burning. It will increase in Size and luminosity because of the Helium buring that takes place in its core. When it will run out of Helium in its core it will be left with Carbon as all the Helium has fused into Carbon. This stage of a Sun's lifespan is known as White dwarf. White dwarf is a stage where the sun has lost all its nebulae as a result of fusion. No process of Nuclear fusion can take place because it is left with Carbon which doesn't have the energy to produce further fusion.
The last part of this verse says that this is the decree that Allah Almighty and All knowing has determined for it. This is a great description of Allah's power and knowledge. It is impossible for us to even think about Allah's power as his power has no limits whereas we are his creation who are so powerless that we can not even control rainfall from the sky. In comparison to this Allah is the creator and the sustainer of whatever we see around us and also that which we don't have the ability to see. Allah is also All knowing because his knowledge encompasses each and everything in this universe and also whatever we think of. He knows the precise detail of each and every thing in this universe no matter how big or how small it is. His knowledge and power is beyond our brain's ability to comprehend or even imagine. No matter how powerful someone is in this world his power is nothing compared to Allah's power so this means that Allah is the one who is worthy enough to be feared. Only Allah Almighty is the one who can fullfil our needs. He is the one who can save us from any calamity that we face. If we seek something from him but he doesn't give us then this doesn't mean that he can't give us but this means that thing is not good for us because only Allah knows whatever is good for us and whatever is bad for us. The reason for this is that he has complete knowledge of everything. Maybe he wants to give us something which is even better for us so we should remain patient when this happens. Due to all these reasons which I have mentioned above then this is common sense that we spend time pleasing Allah rather then pleasing false worldly Gods. We can please Allah by obeying his commands and refraining from those acts which he has commanded us not to do. All of Allah's commands have been mentioned in the Holly Quran and the best person whose foot steps we should follow to please Allah is our Prophet Muhammad SAW. By acting according to the Quran and the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad SAW and doing what the rest of Allah's Prophets have done we can please Allah and be successful in this life and in the life hereafter.
There can be various other interpretations of this verse but only Allah knows which one would be correct among them. Our job is to read the Quran and ponder upon the Greatness and Wisdom of Allah Almighty that has been mentioned in the Holy Quran. While doing this we should not forget that Quran is not a book of Science but it is book of guidance. It is to guide mankind to the right path so that he can succeed in this life and in the life hereafter. It does mentioned various Scientific facts but these facts are mentioned only so that we can be humbled by the greatness and wisdom of Allah.
Views Of Muslim Scholars
Views of Al-Biruni on the Orbit of the Sun
Al-Biruni was 10th century Muslim Polymath from. He is also known as Father of Optics and wrote extensively on History, Physics, Geophysics and Optics etc. He also calculated the radius of Earth with remarkable accuracy. Al-Biruni was not in favor of geocentrism infact he was quite neutral on the issue of heliocentrism or geocentrism but Al-Biruni viewed both the Sun and Earth as having their own respective orbits. He was not in favor of Geocentrism but he was also not in favor heliocentrism as well infact he was quite neutral on this issue. However he did propose some theories to improve Ptolemaic systems. To explain the motion of the planets, Al-Biruni adopts the Ptolemaic system of epicycles which was later improved by other Muslim astronomers. In his book Qanun Al Masudi he states that;
Each planet has a small orbit known as an epicycle, falak al-tadwlr; the earth is not within it but the orbit is entirely above us. On the circumference of this epicycle the planet moves, when on the upper part towards the east in accordance with the succession of signs, and when on the lower towards the west; during such movement it completes its revolution and adheres closely to the circle. For the apparent motion of the Sun he says that: The auj of the Sun is the highest point which it attains in its orbit: the circumstance that there is a highest point is explained by the fact that it does not travel on the circumference of its own mumaththal orbit, but rather on the circumference of another orbit in the same plane but with a different center. This is its eccentric orbit falak al-auj. The earth is inside this orbit; consequently there is one point where it is nearest to the earth, and another opposite to that, furthest from the earth.
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Verse of the Holy Quran in which there is Mention of Atoms and the views of Muslim scholars on atoms
