The smallest has a long history.
It were the Greek scientists, (or at least of those who are known) who first postulated that “all matter is made of atoms and empty space” (Steven Weinberg, Subatomic
Particles,
Freeman
and
Company, USA, 1982). They also considered “atoms” as that particle which could not be further divided. Muslim scientists called it “dharrah”
(the littlest thing possible), a term which included a tiny, almost invisible ant, specks visible in air when a ray of light passes through a hole into a dark room, and anything smaller than that. The name has stuck, and today’s Arab scientists refer to the atom as “dharrah,” and “atom bomb”
as “gunbulatu dharrigyab” قنبلة ذرية .
The Quran often used the word “dharrah. For example (ch.4: verse
( إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ ) النساء: ٤٠
Allah does not wrong (anyone) even by the weight of an atom
That the Arabs thought that harrah is the smallest particle which could not be further divided was used in a debate between two scholars Ahmad al-‘Abbas b. Suray and Muhammad b. Daud Zahiri (d. 298), who denied giyaas (analogy) any role in Islamic Law. Ibn Surayi attacked him, “You say giyaas is invalid in Law. Now, Allah said, Whosoever did an atom’s (dharrah) weight of good shall see it (on Judgment-day, and whosoever did an atom’s weight of evil shall see it (also)?’ [99: 7-8]. So, the question that arises is, what about deeds weighing less than an atom?” (Should you not use’
“giyaas’ to decide what their fate would be?)
Daud went quiet and Ibn Surayj won the hour. But it was only an hou’s win, because other scholars pointed out that dharrah was the ultimate indivisible particle, and so Ibn Suray was wrong in using the verse to prove that analogy was permissible in Law. (Al-Burhan fi Uum al-Quan, Badru- ddin Zarkashi, vol. 1, p. 485).
In short, to the Arabs dharah was the smallest, indivisible, matce particle.
3a. Splitting the atom For a long time atom was the tiniest of matter that was indivisible until 1897 when Thomson discovered that atoms were not one whole piece of matter, but consisted of a tiny particle as its constituent, which later came to be known as electrons. Following that
Rutherford made the major discovery in 1911 that an atom could not be a single solid particle. He concluded from his experiments that there must be a hard core at the center of an atom which was so dense that particles could not pass through it.
When rays were directed at it, they got scattered or were reflected back but did pass through the areas immediately surrounding the core. The
Fig.6: An atom. The central part is nucleus and the outer balls are electrons. In actual fact, the electrons
central core (called nucleus)
are far flung away. (http://blog.labroots.com/easier-
seemed to occupy very little methods-for-building-new-drugs/)
space but was responsible for all the mass of an atom, whereas electrons had little mass, and seem to be spread far and wide. (Actually, between the nucleus and the electrons circling it, 99% space is free). The nuclear particle was called proton. His assistant James Chadwick discovered in 1932 that the core or nucleus of an atom actually consisted of two particles: protons and neutrons. (Fig.6)
The work was not to stop at that, and while dozens of
sub-atomic particles have
been discovered since then, the search for the smaller and smaller goes on now in atom-smashers, or Particle
Accelerators. It might be added for further interest that it also discovered that electrons which occupy space at various levels around the nucleus can also be considered as clouds.
It might be added for further interest that it also discovered that electrons which occupy space at various levels around the nucleus can also be considered as clouds.
Of course, this brief account cannot mention the dozens of scientist, if not, hundreds, who made their contributions of the last century and a half towards the risk discovery of particles after particles that make up an at this point,
at this point, Quran mention about matter that could be smaller than an atom catches our eyes