Another Quranic science and how baseless and absurd it is!
The speed of light is a scientific discovery by humans after long and exhausting research, which revealed that it is the fastest thing in the universe, traveling at approximately 186,282 miles per second. Its astonishing speed has marveled many astronomers, cosmicists, mathematicians and philosophers throughout history.
It is important to note that light travels at a speed of 186,282 miles/second through vacuum. If light passes through water, its speed is measured at 140,000 miles/second, 124,000 miles/second through glass, and 77,500 miles/seconds through diamond.
The theory of relativity explains that when an object starts to move, the time become slower and when it reaches the speed of the light, the time almost stops for it. Its equation is very famous: E = mc2.
Historical facts show us that research about the light is not merely 400 or 500 years old, but much older. Man has tried to understand the laws of light even before Common Era. Ancient Greek philosophers Empedocles (490-430 BCE), Aristotle (383-321 BCE) and Euclid (300- BCE) did valuable research into the properties of light and vision.
Muhammad's Night Journey (Mi’raj)
It is also a very popular event in Islamic history that Muslims believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, set off on a flying horse (buraq) from the Kaaba to Baitul Maqdas; then from Baitul Maqdas, he ascended to seven skies, where he met famous earlier prophets; and finally he met with Allah on His Arsh, the throne of Allah. When he came back from that celestial journey, he found his bed was still warm.
Many Hadiths have been recorded for this incident to enhance the popularity and fame of Muhammad by boasting and exaggerating. About the event, the Quran has says:
Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things) [Quran 17:1]
Allah's words in the Quran regarding Muhammad's Mi'raj in the above verse does not explain what happened after Muhammad visited the farthest Mosque, i.e. masjid-ul-Aqsa, and stopped there. How Allah can stop mentioning in the Quran about the event of Mi'raj, highly regarded by every Muslim? Even Muslim scholars cannot answer this question. It seems that the prominent Muslim biographers of Muhammad, who wrote Islamic histories and the Sunnah, were more informed than Allah.
Hadiths had, no doubt, earned a lot of praise and admiration from their contemporaries for skillfully adding lies and fabricated stories -- all attributed to their master, Muhammad.
It's notable that whether the ascension of Muhammad to Allah's Arsh was in physical or spiritual form is also an issue of controversy amongst Muslims. Some Muslims believe he just dreamt, some believe that he went in spiritual form, but most believe he went on Miraj in physical form.
Propaganda of the Quran and Muslims
Today, misperception has grown widely amongst Muslims about the Quran and its soi-disant (questionable) miracles. Many Muslims, who acquire better education in Western countries, are struggling hard to prove that the Quran is miraculous. They try to put forward various irrational reasons and claim that lunar calendar 12,000 lunar orbits/earth day assumed as the speed of light.
Islamic Education society propagates that the ‘speed of light’ is mentioned in the Quran. They have gathered this idea from Quran 32:5:
He arranges [each] matter from the heaven to the earth; then it will ascend to Him in a Day, the extent of which is a thousand (1,000) years of those which you count.
Muslim scholars believe that this verse is a hint about the speed of light, which was mentioned 1,400 years ago.
There is another verse in the same Quran, which differs from the verse cited above (Quran 70:4):
(Whereby) the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years.
There is a clear contradiction between these two verses. But the core of this article, however, is not to discuss these contradictions, but to prove that Allah lied and miscalculated in the verse, which puts his one day with our 1,000 years.
It proves that Allah and his angels are so slothful that it takes one day for them to cover our affairs, while it takes one thousand years on earth.
Now pay attention to this: Muhammad said that he was escorted from Kaaba to Baitul Maqdis and from there he ascended to seven skies and when he comes back, he found his bed still warm. Now, Allah says that his one day’s affairs are equal to our 1,000 years, and Muhammad, a human, says that he returned back from visiting Allah and other prophets within a short moment. Who is lying here?
Wisdom would tell us that both Allah and Muhammad are lying. Let me explain why.
If we focus on the theory of relativity, which says an object that moves with the speed of light, the time almost comes to a standstill for it. First, Allah obviously lost his/her mind completely and said things contradictory to what the theory of relativity says. Second, if Muhammad, the founder of Islam, had have visited Allah in his/her Arsh, 1,000 years must have passed by on the earth by the time he returned. Therefore, amongst those people Muhammad landed after the visit to heaven would be alien or unknown to Muhammad; he would have been amongst the people, belonging to the era of 1,000 years later than that of Muhammad’s time (i.e. 620-21 C.E.).
In the words of Hadith compilers, Muhammad lied in claiming that the distance between earth and first heaven is 500 years, then from the first heaven to the next heaven is also 500 years; this calculation keeps repeating till the final heaven and the Arsh of Allah.
Very interestingly, many Muslims on the internet are now at pain, because the distance between the earth and heaven can’t be 500 years. So, they are calling these hadiths zaeef (unauthentic, week). These Hadiths are recorded by:
Abu Dawood, Book 40, number 4723, Sunan Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah 173.
To my utmost delight, when I tried to search this hadiths in Abu Dawood Book 40, number 4723, this hadith has been skipped from his collection. Readers can personally see that hadiths number 4723 has been missing by visiting this link.
And elsewhere, Muslims are hilariously arguing with each other about whether or not the earth is 500 years away from heaven, as prophesied by their master Muhammad -- who is highly esteemed and equivalent to Allah. Read the discussion here: http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vbe/showthread.php?t=8806
Why 1,000 years?
In olden days, thousand years were considered a very big span. When someone thought about 1,000 years, they immediately thought of the Qayamah, the Day of Judgment. There were millenarians, who thought that the Judgment day will appear after a thousand years; they couldn’t contemplate or perceive what could happen after this long period of time. Even there were millenarian Christians, who thought that Armageddon come a thousand years after Jesus; so, thousands of them from Europe travelled to Palestine, the Holy Land, in the year 1,000 after Jesus to enjoy a blessed end of the world. Thus, Muhammad and his Allah decided to add some thrill to their verses in order to show that the affairs of Allah are so fast (in their miscalculation) that it would be beyond human imagination. He sends his affairs down from skies to earth and then lift up them back in one day, which amount to 1,000 years of the human calendar.
