Quasars

QUASARS AND THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS EFFECT

 Allah is the light of the heavens and the Earth. The metaphor of His light is that of a niche in which is a lamp, the lamp inside a glass, the glass like a brilliant star, lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east nor of the west, its oil all but giving off light even if no fire touches it. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whoever He wills and Allah makes metaphors for mankind and Allah has knowledge of all things. (Surat an-Nur, 35)

Quasar is the name given to extremely dense and bright bodies that look like stars and emit radio waves in space. Quasars are the brightest known bodies in the universe. The brightness of the brightest quasar in the universe is more than 2 trillion times greater than that of the Sun (2x1012); it is approximately 100 times greater than the total light emitted by a galaxy such as the Milky Way.1


The word "noor" in the verse means “light, brightness, daylight, shining, illumination.” The light referred to in the verse is suggestive, in terms of its brightness, of these celestial bodies known as quasars. Because other expressions in the verse describe the visibility of quasar light and the source of that light in the very wisest terms. (Allah knows the truth.)

The word “durriyyun”, meaning “bright,” in the expression "kaannaha kawkabun durriyyun” in the verse, itself meaning “like a brilliant star,” is highly compatible with the scientific description of quasars as “bright, stellar bodies”.2 In addition, the verse speaks of “giving off light even if no fire touches it.” It is probable that this is a reference to the way quasars burn without fire - nuclear fusion. Since oxygen is not naturally present in space, there can be no question of the brightness of quasars having anything to do with fire. The burning taking place here does so as hydrogen atoms are compressed and produce helium. The energy released during this process then illuminates space.

The expression “light upon light” in the verse may well be a reference to the “gravitational lens effect” in astronomy. (Allah knows the truth.) Many astronomers investigating the sources of light in the universe will easily understand this description in the verse. The effect in question refers to the way light from a source behind a body with a very dense mass, such as a black hole, departs under the effect of that dense body and reaches us. It appears that there is therefore more than one source of light of the images we see. Due to this “gravitational lens effect,” an object appears to be somewhere different to where it actually is, and in greater numbers.

The term “a niche in which is a lamp” in the verse may be interpreted as the niche being the area of gravitational lens effect of a black hole. (Allah knows the truth.) It is significant that in describing the effect that arises, NASA scientists use the analogy of the effect of a drinking glass:

The gravitational effect of the galaxy on the distant quasar was similar to the lens effect of a drinking glass on a distant street light – it created multiple images lenses here too.3

In his book The Whole Shebang, regarded as one of the leading books of the 20th century by the New York Times, the science writer Timothy Ferris clarifies the subject as follows:

The reference in the verse to “light on light” may be a description of reflected light forming more than one image. In addition, the term “neither of the east nor of the west” in the verse is in all likelihood a reference to the uncertainty of the light’s source. (Allah knows the truth.)

Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe, and are the nuclei of growing galaxies with the black holes in their center. Black holes, that arise as the result of the contraction of stars and gasses belonging to galaxies, are the source of quasar energy. Quasars’ brightness is spread by stars falling into the black holes at the centers of galaxies.5 Thinking of the “lamp” in the verse as a quasar, the “niche” may well be a reference to the “black hole” that feeds the quasar. (Allah knows the truth.)

Einstein suggested that due to the effect described as the “gravitational lens,” bodies in space could bend light and that it was possible for an observer to see several images from one single source.6 However, this effect was only observed for the first time in the quasar known as the “Twin Quasar” in 1979. Quasars were first discovered in 1963, 14 centuries after the revelation of the Qur’an. The status of the heavenly bodies described in verse 35 of Surat an-Nur is in surprising agreement with our current scientific knowledge. This and a great many other scientific miracles are clear proof that the Qur’an is the revelation of our Omniscient Lord, the Creator of all things.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

2 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/quasar; http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951022.html

3 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950711.html

4 Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang, 1997, p. 61.

5 http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0028790.html; http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/quasars.html

6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lensing

The cloning

THE CLONING OF LIVING THINGS

[Satan said:] “I will lead them astray and fill them with false hopes. I will command them and they will cut off cattle’s ears. I will command them and they will change Allah’s creation.” Anyone who takes satan as his protector in place of Allah has clearly lost everything.” (Surat an-Nisa’, 119)

The above verse contains the expression “yubattikunna,” which derives from the verb "battaka” meaning ”to cut off or break off.” The term “yughayyirunna” in the verse derives from the verb “ghayyara,” meaning “to change, alter, impair a thing’s original form.” At the end of both verbs appears the confirmatory letter ”nun.” With these expressions, verse 119 of Surat an-Nisa’ may, in one aspect, be pointing to the scientific activity of copying or cloning of organisms. (Allah knows the truth.) That is because cloning experiments are generally conducted with cells taken from an animal’s ear. To put it another way, a replica living thing is produced with the taking of cells from tissue samples “cut from animals’ ears,” just as described in the verse.

A report by the German Federal Agricultural Research Center provides the following information:
The tissue collection phase is short and simple. Once an animal has been located and restrained, a tissue sample like an ear clipping can be collected within seconds. Furthermore, somatic cells can be collected from all species. … For cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, camelids and llamas, a unified and identical procedure can be used by obtaining a tissue sample from the ear using notchers which are also used for setting earmarks… Clearly, for all species lymphocytes could be used, but somatic cells from ear clippings will be much easier to obtain and are therefore preferable. 1
Some reports concerning organisms cloned by taking samples from ear tissue include:

- According to a report by Reuters dated 1 May, 2002, a research veterinarian at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil, Jose Visintin, produced cloned embryos for the first time in the country by using cells taken from the ear of an adult cow.2

- According to a BBC report, South Korean scientists cloned a dog called Snuppy from cells taken from a 3-year-old Afghan hound. Researchers at the Seoul National University extracted genetic material from the cells taken from the ear and placed it into an empty egg cell. An embryo was then obtained by stimulating the cell to divide.3

- Another BBC report said that a new clone had been produced using ear cells from an adult cow in research carried out by Dr. Jean-Paul Renard et al. at the Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique in France.4

- According to information of the official Human Genome Project website, in February 2002, scientists from the Advanced Cell Technologies (ACT) biotechnology company carried out experiments on cloning a cow embryo using the skin cell of the donor cow’s ear.5

- A report by Associated Press, dated 24 January, 2000, announced that Japanese scientists had cloned the clone of a bull for the first time. In the re-cloning, skin tissue samples from the first generation cloned bull’s ear were taken when it was four months old. These cells were then fused with an unfertilized egg from which the nucleus had been removed.6


The way that changes in the creation of living things are referred to in the Qur’an and the expression “cutting off cattle’s ears,” at a time when no branches of science such as genetics or embryology existed, shows that the Qur’an has come down from the Sight of our Lord, Allah, Who is unfettered by time. We are also told at the end of the verse that these people will be disappointed when they alter what Allah has created. The verse may therefore be indicating that cloning will give rise to various problems for human beings. (Allah knows the truth.) Indeed, statements from the Genetic Science Learning Center of the University of Utah provide the following information:
When we hear of cloning successes, we learn about only the few attempts that worked. What we don't see are the many, many cloning experiments that failed! And even in the successful clones, problems tend to arise later, during the animal's development to adulthood.7
Information from the Human Genome Project website take this form:
Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from adult DNA, [died on] Feb. 14, 2003. Prior to her death, Dolly had been suffering from lung cancer and crippling arthritis. … More than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. … In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese studies have shown that cloned mice live in poor health and die early. … Appearing healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously. For example, Australia's first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to determine a cause of death.8
In general terms, the risks arising from cloning experiments are as follows:

1) A high failure rate: The level of success is just 0.1%-3%. That means a failure rate of 970-999 for every 1000 experiments.9

2) Problems during development: Cloned animals that do survive generally have abnormally larger organs compared to the originals. This may lead to respiration and circulation difficulties, unhealthy kidneys and brain, and an impaired immune system.

3) Abnormal gene expression patterns: Although clones have the same DNA sequences as the originals, the cell nucleus in the clone does not have the same program as that in a natural embryo. To put it another way, the DNA cannot express the right set of genes essential for the development of the clone at the right time. For example, cells of all kinds, nerve, bone, blood or skin for example, all have different programs but the genetic programs in the clone embryo do not work as healthily as those in a natural embryo.

4) Telomeric differences: Chromosomes are shortened as cells divide. The reason for this is that DNA sequences at both ends of a chromosome, known as telomeres, are shortened during each DNA replication. As an animal grows older, the telomeres shorten as part of that aging. Therefore, the copied life form has shortened chromosomes from the moment it is born, just as if it were actually older.
Genetic material taken from living cells is used in cloning experiments, but fertilization takes place artificially. The reproduction mechanism created by Allah is thus impaired with these methods, and unidentified diseases, developmental deficiencies and early deaths are encountered. The way that it was reported 1400 years ago that scientists would engage in cloning and that the problems awaiting people therefrom are emphasized, clearly reveals that the Qur’an is a Divine scripture.

In the cloning process, DNA from a cell of the living thing planned to be copied is placed under the microscope and placed into an egg cell from another member of the same species. The DNA of the animal intended to be copied is used for this. An electric shock is then applied, which stimulates the egg cell to start dividing. The embryo continues to divide and is placed into the womb of a member of the species, and is then left to develop and be born.

1 http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/a0070t/a0070t05.htm
2 http://ngin.tripod.com/010502b.htm
3 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4742453.stm
4 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/331793.stm
5 http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml
6 http://www.gene.ch/info4action/2000/Jan/msg00061.html
7 http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/cloningrisks/
8 http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml

9 http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/cloningrisks/

THE OZONE LAYER AT THE POLES AS THE SUN RISES

THE OZONE LAYER AT THE POLES AS THE SUN RISES 

Until he reached the rising of the sun and found it rising on a people to whom We had not given any shelter from it. (Surat al-Kahf, 90)

The Arabic word “sitran” in verse 90 of Surat al-Kahf means “cover, shelter, curtain or screen.” The term "lam najAAal lahum min dooniha sitran" describes an environment devoid of any shelter or protection against the Sun. In the light of present-day knowledge, this is suggestive of the ozone layer that protects living things against harmful solar rays.
The area where the ozone layer around the Earth is thinnest, where it protects least against solar radiation, is the poles.1 Scientific research has established a severe thinning of the ozone layer at the North Pole at the moment the Sun rises2 and this scientific discovery has been described as Sunrise Ozone Destruction (SOD)3.

As a matter of fact, during their research, American scientists determined a rapid decrease in ozone concentration at the moment of sunrise – when there was no sign of any before.4 This phenomenon is particularly encountered in the North Pole (Arctic) region, and there is a serious loss of ozone for a few hours immediately after sunrise.5
The Arabic word “matlia” in this verse, meaning the “rising place” of the Sun, may well be a reference to this scientific discovery about the ozone layer. (Allah knows the truth.) The fact that this information, obtained with 20th century high technology, also appears in such a compatible form in the Qur’an, is yet more proof that the Qur’an is the revelation of our Lord, the One and Only Owner of science and technology.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion
2 L. A. Barrie, J. W. Bottenheim, R. C. Schnell, P. J. Crutzen, R. A. Rasmussen, "Ozone destruction and photochemical reactions at polar sunrise in the lower Arctic atmosphere", Nature, 14 July 1988, Vol. 334, pp 138-141; http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v334/n6178/abs/334138a0.html
3 I. Nagao, K. Matsumoto, H. Tanaka "Sunrise Ozone Destruction Found in the Sub-Tropical Marine Boundary Layer", Geophysical Research Letters, 1999, Vol. 26, no. 22, pp. 3377–3380; http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1999/1999GL010836.shtml
4 Jagir S. Randhawa, "A Balloon Measurement of Ozone Near Sunrise"; http://www.stormingmedia.us/31/3147/0314707.html
5 I. Nagao, K. Matsumoto, H. Tanaka "Sunrise Ozone Destruction Found in the Sub-Tropical Marine Boundary Layer", Geophysical Research Letters, 1999, Vol. 26, No. 22, pp. 3377–3380; http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1999/1999GL010836.shtml

What Do Our Chromosomes Tell Us About Our Distant Relatives?

(Note: I recommend reading the previous posts 1 and 2 first)In this post I will reveal some striking observations about our chromosomes that may come as a surprise for many, specially the religious. Basically, chromosomes are sub-cellular components of organized DNA structures that hold individual instructions. These instructions are called genes and are necessary for developing

The Scientific Knowledge

In this post I will explain the concept of "scientific knowledge" and demonstrate some important principles that can be used to evaluate scientific claims. Basically, science refers to the systematic objective approach of acquiring knowledge, and to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research. The "objective systematic approach" is known as the scientific method and it consists

Common Misconceptions

In this post I present the notion of "misconception". This is because most Islamic writings that describe the relationship between Islam and modern science are mainly based on misconceptions.Basically, a concept is an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances and is typically labeled or designated by a corresponding term. For example, in Physics, we have concepts like

Perspectives on Islam and Modern Science

The majority of Muslims today believe that Islam is in complete harmony with modern science and that the relationship between Islam and science is very strong. This belief is based on many claimed observations. There are many references in the Quran and the Sunnah that encourage the act of seeking knowledge and that appreciate and glorify science and scientists. Also, many Muslims are convinced