Author: askttravellers@gmail.com

Considering the matter at a different level, the earth happens to be in a specific area in space where alone life can survive. Known as the “ecosphere” or since recently, “the habitable zone,” it is an area around the Sun which alone is suitable for life’s propagation. Had the eath been closer to the sun by a small margin, all its waters would be

in the atmosphere, and if away by a margin, all water would become ice.

Any planet which supports life must satisfy several conditions:

1. It is not merely the earth which should be in the habitable zone of the solar system, but, the solar system itself should be in a specific zone – call it the stellar habitable zone. If it is, e.g. nearer to the core of the galaxy, life wouldn’t be possible. If it is too far away, then too it faces several hurdles.
2. For earth to support life, it must be at the right distance from the star it rotates around, at the right speed and axial rotation.
3. For life to thrive the star itself has to be the right size. If bigger than the sun, it would burn all life, and, if small, water would become
4. The arrangement of planets plays its on role. For example, ifupier was inner planet, in place of Venu, life would be seriously affected.
5. Even within the habitable zone, the cath-like planet has to be of the right size. If its diameter is bigger than the inner and outer

 of the habitable size, life would have problems existing.

For any other earth-like planet to support life, it must have the same elliptical movement as earth. If larger, it would go out of the habitable zone during its rotation around the sun, endangering life on it.

7. It should have a large moon, when compared to its size, and proportionately at the same distance, for tidal waves to occur, which are necessary for stirring the seas.

A Quranic verse of amazing content catches our eye:

( وَٱلْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ ) الرحمن : ١٠

And the earth, He placed it for mankind.” (55: 10)

It may be noticed that the verse does not use the word, “created the earth.” But it moved away from the usual and normal choice of the word “created,” which it did in many other places, but rather, used the term “placed.” Since every word of the Qur’an is revealed, this sets us thinking.

To be sure, this happens to be another instance of the Quan preparing the human mind for discoveries of the future. That the earth is the place where humans live is a fact of unnecessary mention. The humans do not say to each other, for instance, that they live on the earth. So, we need to look below the surface to discover what exactly is meant by the statement that Allah created the earth for humankind.

And one is immediately struck by the fact that no other planet, near or as far as tens of light years away, could be discovered which appears to support life.

It is not only the coincidence that the earth itself is placed in an eco-sphere in space (a little away and life would freeze, or a little closer and life would evaporate), but, it appears that the solar system itself is placed in an area in the Milky Way galaxy, which affords development of life and its continued existence.

The list of coincidences that allow for existence of life on the earth is

long enough for a whole chapter. The fact that the earth is the right size to allow for the formation of an atmosphere, that there is abundance of water in it, that it is tilted at 23 deg. causing changes in seasons, that it has a moon close enough to cause tides, refreshing the sea waters, that it has an atmosphere thick enough to prevent penetration of shortwave radiation from the Sun, that it has the right mass for gravitational pull to prevent gases from disappearing into inter-stellar space, yet light enough to have an escape velocity which allow for rockets to rise up and go into space (larger planets do not allow that), that the Sun’s companion star is on the other side of the galaxy and not close as its neighbor to disturb the dynamically balanced stability of the planets, saving them from smashing against each other, etc. are all facts without whose fortuitous presence life as we know it couldn’t come to existence.

The SETI program

The known part of our universe has 200 billion galaxies and on an average every galaxy has 200 to 400 billion stars. If every star has just a few planets, we have billion upon billions upon billions of planets in

have always been optimistic, and quite enthusiastic about finding life elsewhere, to prove that an Intelligent Being is not required to create life, but it can arise anywhere all by itself, given the right circumstances. Here on earth, some bacteria thrive in the environment of temperatures 360 deg. Celsius, so, why not elsewhere?

A program was launched during the second half of the 20h century to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Radio telescopes (some as lage as 360 feet wide) were installed in several places to identify any intelligent communication arriving to the earth.

were any, that the earth bore an intelligent civilization, also brought no response from any area.

Doubts were raised, funding began to be reduced and interests waned.

Some went as far as to say that the whole idea was freak because life on earth itself was such a chance occurrence in which many unlikely events worked together, that a repeat anywhere else in the Universe was next to impossible. Harold P. Klein of Santa Clara University in California was quoted in Scientific American as saying, “The simplest bacterium is so damn complicated from the point of view of the chemist that it is almost impossible to imagine how it happened.” (We are not Alone, Walter Sullivan, Plume Books, 1994, p. 130).

Finally, the program was scaled down, and then, terminated in most places, because, as Senator Richard Bryan of Nevada said, “As of today, millions have been spent and we are yet to bag a single little green fellow. Not a single Martian has said, ‘Take me to your leader,” and not a single flying saucer has applied for FAA approval.” (Ibid) Interestingly, however, despite the complete failure to spot, let alone an intelligent civilization, or even a rudimentary one, Muslims have not lost hopes of life on other planets, within this galaxy or those beyond because the Qur’an said,

الطلاق: ١٢

( اللَّهُ الَذِي خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَٰوَاتٍ وَمِنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ يَنَنَزَّلُ ٱلْأَمْرُ بَيْنَهُنَّ )

“It is Allah who created the seven heavens and of the earth their like; the command descends between them.” (65; 12)

Most scholars of the past have understood the above to mean that there are seven Earths, like there are seven heavens. Ibn ‘Abbas, a Quranic interpreter of the first generation has gone so far as to say that there are beings in those earths as there are beings on this Earth, but different.

Our main thrust has been, however, that the difficulties that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has faced, is simply because of the uniqueness of this earth, as stated by the Quran.

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