A Trip Unlike Others Into the Nature and Universe

When people talk about the book of God, they usually refer to fundamentals of religion and ethics. However, when we specifically talk about the Quran, you can see a much wider spectrum of topics. In this blog, I would like to take you to a trip into the nature and universe guided by some of the verses from the Quran. Let's begin, "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate":

(2/26) Indeed, Allah is not timid to present an example - that of a mosquito or what is beyond that. And those who have believed know that it is the truth from their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve, they say, "What did Allah intend by this as an example?" He misleads many thereby and guides many thereby. And He misleads not except the defiantly disobedient.

(2/74) ... For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah . And Allah is not unaware of what you do.

(2/164) Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the [great] ships which sail through the sea with that which benefits people, and what Allah has sent down from the heavens of rain, giving life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness and dispersing therein every [kind of] moving creature, and [His] directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth are signs for a people who use reason.

(6/99) And it is He who sends down rain from the sky, and We produce thereby the growth of all things. We produce from it greenery from which We produce grains arranged in layers. And from the palm trees - of its emerging fruit are clusters hanging low. And [We produce] gardens of grapevines and olives and pomegranates, similar yet varied. Look at [each of] its fruit when it yields and [at] its ripening. Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe.

(10/5) It is He who made the sun a shining light and the moon a derived light and determined for it phases - that you may know the number of years and account [of time]. Allah has not created this except in truth. He details the signs for a people who know.

(10/22) It is He who enables you to travel on land and sea until, when you are in ships and they sail with them by a good wind and they rejoice therein, there comes a storm wind and the waves come upon them from everywhere and they assume that they are surrounded, supplicating Allah, sincere to Him in religion, "If You should save us from this, we will surely be among the thankful."

(13/8) Allah knows what every female carries and what the wombs lose [prematurely] or exceed. And everything with Him is by due measure.

(15/16) And We have placed within the heaven great stars and have beautified it for the observers.

(16/8) And [He created] the horses, mules and donkeys for you to ride and [as] adornment. And He creates that which you do not know.

(16/79) Do they not see the birds controlled in the atmosphere of the sky? None holds them up except Allah . Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe.

(17/12) And We have made the night and day two signs, and We erased the sign of the night and made the sign of the day visible that you may seek bounty from your Lord and may know the number of years and the account [of time]. And everything We have set out in detail.

(17/44) The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him. And there is not a thing except that it exalts [ Allah ] by His praise, but you do not understand their [way of] exalting. Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving.

(21/30-32) Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe? And We placed within the earth firmly set mountains, lest it should shift with them, and We made therein [mountain] passes [as] roads that they might be guided. And We made the sky a protected ceiling, but they, from its signs, are turning away.

(23/17) And We have created above you seven paths, and never have We been of [Our] creation unaware.

(30/21-22) And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought. And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.

(31/31) Do you not see that ships sail through the sea by the favor of Allah that He may show you of His signs? Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful.

(35/27-28) Do you not see that Allah sends down rain from the sky, and We produce thereby fruits of varying colors? And in the mountains are tracts, white and red of varying shades and [some] extremely black. And among people and moving creatures and grazing livestock are various colors similarly. Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Forgiving.

(36/36-38) Exalted is He who created all pairs - from what the earth grows and from themselves and from that which they do not know. And a sign for them is the night. We remove from it [the light of] day, so they are [left] in darkness. And the sun runs [on course] toward its stopping point. That is the determination of the Exalted in Might, the Knowing.

(40/79-80) It is Allah who made for you the grazing animals upon which you ride, and some of them you eat. And for you therein are [other] benefits and that you may realize upon them a need which is in your breasts; and upon them and upon ships you are carried.

(41/10-11) And He made on the earth firmly set mountains over its surface, and He blessed it and determined therein its [creatures'] sustenance in four days without distinction - for [the information] of those who ask. Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, "Come [into being], willingly or by compulsion." They said, "We have come willingly."

(51/47-49) And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander. And the earth We have spread out, and excellent is the preparer. And of all things We created two mates; perhaps you will remember.

(57/4) It is He who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne. He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein; and He is with you wherever you are. And Allah, of what you do, is Seeing.

(57/25) We have already sent Our messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance that the people may maintain [their affairs] in justice. And We sent down iron, wherein is great might and benefits for the people, and so that Allah may make evident those who support Him and His messengers unseen. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might.

(65/12) It is Allah who has created seven heavens and of the earth, the like (as many) of them. [His] command descends among them so you may know that Allah is over all things competent and that Allah has encompassed all things in knowledge.

Kinetic Theory of Individuals and Families

In the ancient times when scientific knowledge was less and universal philosophical quests were more popular, people used to take the human being as the model to understand the rest of the creation. Anything and everything that is found in the human body and human soul was treated as a microscopic model of what is out there in the nature and universe. So, if you wanted to learn and analyze the creation, you did not necessarily need to go anywhere. All you needed to do was to watch and listen yourself. Even now, this kind of philosophy is used by many. I am not trying to object to this idea, but here, I want to take a different direction using the same metaphor, and ponder over what is happening to the families in the modern life.

Today, scientific knowledge has increased tremendously. We have mathematical laws to understand and predict the behavior of much of the existence known to us. We have instruments to actually observe and measure what is happening out there, even if it is billions of kilometers away from us. Using these laws and observations, according to the premise "human is the microuniverse", it is possible to deduce some lessons about the fate of the families and individuals in general. To do this, first, I am going to take you to a brief journey into the "ideal gas theory" and "kinetic theory of gases".

Let's start with the basic assumptions. The gas consists of particles at the atomic level. These particles are point-like entities, and they move around independent of each other. The particles interact with each other only through collisions. What we call as temperature is related to the average kinetic energy of all of these particles. To give that average, however, some particles travel much faster and some others travel much slower, and many of them go in the vicinity of that average.

Whenever there is a chemical reaction, these particles unite or break apart. With increase of temperature, the gas particles move faster so that, when a velocity threshold is reached, the molecules break apart upon colliding with each other.

With further increase of temperature, the electrons in the individual atoms are energetic enough to break free from their atomic nucleus. If you keep heating up the gas, even the atomic nuclei can go into reaction to make up a new atom through fusion or fission.

Having looked at our knowledge of the universe (i.e. macrohuman), we can start shedding light on the human beings and their lives. To do that, we are going to model the individual human beings as the gas particles. By applying the assumptions mentioned above, we are going to hold that the individuals are "moving independent of each other", and are interacting through "collisions". Now let's think, what these assumptions could correspond to in real life, and if they are correct.

Individualism is a concept that is more and more prevalent among the modern societies. Here, I am not going to talk against individualism, because personally I believe that it is not necessarily the same as selfishness and ego-centrism. Nevertheless, we know that people are suffering from a desperate "solitude among crowds". We know that with the increase of population and intensification of urban life, people are more self-focused. Therefore, our first assumption seems to be acceptable.

Clash of civilizations is a concept that was suggested years ago, but the recent world history shows a growing list of wars and conflicts. Societies seem to oblivious to their mutual needs, and are interacting only through interest-motivated actions. Moral values seem to fade away in the face of immediate satisfaction of desires and material benefits. So, the second assumption seems to be correct, too.

If we focus on the interaction of the genders, instead of a family concept that is established on mutual dedication for an eternal life, instant gratification of sexual desires and acquisition of worldly benefits are gaining dominion. So again, self interest and physical/material obsession are approval of the validity of the assumptions listed above.

Today, the human population is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Also, with the advent of technology and with extensive use of energy resources, people are moving faster and over long distances. This state of the humans is reminiscent of a gas that is becoming denser and hotter. Increase of density and temperature leads to more frequent and more violent collisions according to the theories we glanced at above. Indeed, the widespread violent conflicts at the large scale is a confirmation of this analogy between the microuniverse and the humanity.

When we come to the individual humans, There are two major observations that are unlike anything in the known history. First, the rate of divorce is increasing globally. In fact, the developed countries that host the individuals that are "traveling more and faster" have higher divorce rate. The divorce can be thought of as the break up of the molecules due to the magnitude of the collisions in our model.

The second of those unprecedented observations is the gender-based evolution and revolution. There are shifts from one gender to the other, or there are people who exhibit mixed traits that traditionally belong to the straight individuals. This state of the humans is analog to the break off of the electrons from the atoms so that the atoms exhibit different chemical and physical properties. Again a sign confirming the increase of temperature in the gas.

As a side note, and ironically, the global warming that we observe actually is just a cream on this cake!

If you fast forward to see what could possibly happen in the near future, our model says that the atoms will disintegrate due to the further increase of temperature. In order to see what this could mean for us, we can get help from the science fiction stories and actual scientific developments. The advancement of android and smart instrument technology and with further control of the genes of humans and animals, there could be "half-animal half-human" or "half-human half-robot" or "half-animal half-robot" individuals around us. Even in this environment, there still will be pure humans with straight or trans-gender characteristics, but they are going to be few.

So what?

We can use this analogy between humanity and the microuniverse, and speculate about other things too. These speculations can helps us better understand the two sources of religion better, i.e. Quran and hadith (e.g. slavery, marriages), which in turn can help us orient ourselves in that train of convolutions. Besides that, for the people now and here, what lesson can we take home?

One quick answer is if you want to preserve something, you must cool it. This is something we already know thanks to the refrigeration technology. But now, we see it again in a much broader context. We must create islands of slowness (calmness, isolation, peace) and resist the ever-accelerating pace of the daily life at certain times. Doing this, we can preserve a healthy state of what makes us human. Otherwise, the more frequent and more violent interactions of the end of times are going to threaten us both from outside and from within.