Redshifting not in the Quran
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WikiIslam Archive,
Archives of the first iteration of WikiIslam, prior to acquisition and revamp by Ex-Muslims of North America
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The Quran doesn't talk about redshifting at all.
Contents
"Miracle"
Do you remember how a rose opens up? That is, the outer petals move outwards more than the inner petals?
Imagine that those petals have galaxies on them and that we are at the center of the rose. Now imagine this rose opening up; the farther out the petals are the faster their recession away from the center (where we are). Well this is exactly how the universe expands around us; the farther out galaxies are the faster their recession away from us.
[Quran 55.37] If the heaven ripped and it were a rose like paint...
Here God assures skeptics about Paradise: if the heaven ripped open like a rose then Paradise will as surely contain so and so... Today we know for sure that the universe is expanding around us like a rose, that is, the greater the distance the greater the expansion.
Do you remember how an ambulance siren sounds like when it approaches you? And how it sounds like when it recedes from you? The sound pitch changes, right? Similarly when a light source approaches you or recedes from you its color changes.
If it is approaching you its color shifts towards the blue, and if it is receding from you its color shifts towards the red; the faster it recedes the redder it appears. Today we know that galaxies are rushing away from us from redshifting of their light. The farther out galaxies are from us the faster their recession away from us and hence the redder they appear.
When you apply paint the colors' intensity is not even but rather it changes with distance:
Similarly the more distant galaxies are the more reddish their colors appear to us, that is, their redness is a function of distance. This is because the farther galaxies are the faster they are receding away from us (like a rose). The Quran describes it as: "Rose like paint", that is, it's redness is not even but rather varies with distance just like paint.
How could an illiterate man who lived 1400 years ago have known about redshifting?
The verse
Apologetic translation
The verse says nothing about expanding universe, nothing about light and nothing about redshifting: It talks about heaven getting ripped and becoming red:
If (إذا) the heaven ripped and it were a rose like paint...
Actual translation
The word إذا (idhaa) is usually translated as "when", not "if" as apologists translated it:
Muhsin Khan: Then when (إذا) the heaven is rent asunder, and it becomes rosy or red like red-oil, or red hide.
Pickthall: And when the heaven splitteth asunder and becometh rosy like red hide -
Sahih International: And when the heaven is split open and becomes rose-colored like oil -
Yusuf Ali: When the sky is rent asunder, and it becomes red like ointment:
That's because from the context it is obvious that it is talking about what will happen when the Day of Judgement comes (not what's happening in today's universe before the Day of Judgement):
55:37 And when the heaven is split open and becomes rose-colored like oil -
55:38 So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny? -
55:39 Then on that Day none will be asked about his sin among men or jinn.
55:40 So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?
55:41 The criminals will be known by their marks, and they will be seized by the forelocks and the feet.
So the verse doesn't talk about today's universe and the miracle claim is unsubstantiated. And even if was about today's universe, the verse doesn't talk about expansion it talks about "splitting/ripping of the heaven" - that's not expansion.
Also it's not very scientific to claim that the universe "becomes red". Apologists use an example of a siren:
Do you remember how an ambulance siren sounds like when it approaches you? And how it sounds like when it recedes from you? The sound pitch changes, right? Similarly when a light source approaches you or recedes from you its color changes.
The siren doesn't become of lower pitch. It only appears to us, because it's moving away from us. In reality the pitch emitted by the siren is the same. Just like the colors are the same, they don't "become red". They look different to us only because the objects are moving away from us. But the Quranic verse rather seems to talk about actual reddening of the heavens. Which would correspond to the siren actually lowering its frequency.
Ibn Kathir explained the verse:
The Horrors of the Day of Resurrection
Allah said,
﴿فَإِذَا انشَقَّتِ السَّمَآءُ﴾
(Then when the heaven is rent asunder,) on the Day of Resurrection; this meaning is clear in this and similar Ayat, such as,
﴿وَانشَقَّتِ السَّمَآءُ فَهِىَ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَاهِيَةٌ ﴾
(And the heaven will be rent asunder, for that Day it (the heaven) will be frail and torn up.)(69:16),
﴿وَيَوْمَ تَشَقَّقُ السَّمَآءُ بِالْغَمَـمِ وَنُزِّلَ الْمَلَـئِكَةُ تَنزِيلاً ﴾
(And (remember) the Day when the heaven shall be rent asunder with clouds, and the angels will be sent down, with a grand descending.)(25:25) and,
﴿إِذَا السَّمَآءُ انشَقَّتْ - وَأَذِنَتْ لِرَبِّهَا وَحُقَّتْ ﴾
(When the heaven is split asunder, and listens to and obeys its Lord -- and it must do so.)(84:1-2) Allah's statement,
﴿فَكَانَتْ وَرْدَةً كَالدِّهَانِ﴾
(and it becomes Wardah like Dihan.) This means they will melt just as sediment and silver are melted when heated. And they will be colored, just as dies stain something, sometimes red, sometimes yellow, or blue, or green. This demonstrates the extent of the horrors of the Mighty Day of Resurrection.
So the verse describes supernatural events of the Day of Judgement, it's not about natural phenomena of the universe today.
Also calling the universe "heaven" and the whole Quran's division of the world on "the heaven and the earth" is unscientific. The Earth is just a little part of the universe.
