028 the gravitational lens effect

QUASARS AND THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS EFFECT

THE HOLY QUR’AN

BASED ON THE WORKS OF HARUN YAHYA WWW.HARUNYAHAY.COM and othersPREPARED BY [email protected]

http://www.harunyahay.com/

The HolyQur'an is

theWord of

Allah

(Surat an-Nur, 35)24:35

http://quran.com/24/35

(Surat an-Nur, 35) 24:35Allah 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 butgiving 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)

24:35



(Surat an-Nur, 35) Tafsir http://www.aalalbayt.org

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth, in other words, He illumines both of them with the sun and the moon. The likeness of His Light, that is, the description of it [as it resides] in the heart of a believer, is as a niche wherein is a lamp.

http://www.aalalbayt.org/

(Surat an-Nur, 35) http://www.aalalbayt.org

The lamp is in a glass — this [glass] is the [case for the] lantern and the misbāh is the torch, that is, the wick that is lit; al-mishkāt is a recess that does not penetrate [to the other side], in other words, the tube inside the lantern, the glass,



with the light inside it [is], as it were a glittering star, that is, a light-giving [star] (read dirrī’un or durrī’un, derived from al-dar‘, ‘to repel’, because it repels darkness; or read durriyyun, derived from al-durr, ‘pearls’) kindled, is this lamp (read past tense tawaqqada;



a variant reading has the imperfect tense of awqada, in the passive voice: yūqadu; another reading has tūqadu, in which case the reference is to al-zujāja, ‘the glass’) from, the oil of, a Blessed Tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, but in between the two, so that no harmful cold or heat affects it; whose oil would almost glow forth [of itself], though no fire touched it, because of [the extent of] its purity.


(Surat an-Nur, 35) http://www.aalalbayt.org Light, by Him, upon light, by fire; the light of

God is His guidance of the believer, light upon the light of faith. God guides to His Light, that is, [to] the religion of Islam, whom He will. And God strikes, He illustrates, similitudes for men, by approximating [such similitudes] to their comprehension, so that they might take heed and believe; and God is Knower of all things, including [knowledge of] how to strike similitudes.


(Surat an-Nur, 35)

24:35



(Surat an-Nur, 35)Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is

like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it

were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil

would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah

presents examples for the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things.

24:35



(Surat an-Nur, 35)Allah is the Light of the heavens and the

earth. The parable of His Light is as (if there were) a niche and within it a lamp, the lamp

is in glass, the glass as it were a brilliant star, lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east (i.e. neither it gets sun-rays only in the morning) nor of the west (i.e. nor it

gets sun-rays only in the afternoon, but it is exposed to the sun all day long), whose oil

would almost glow forth (of itself), though no fire touched it. Light upon Light! Allah guides

to His Light whom He wills. And Allah sets forth parables for mankind, and Allah is All-

Knower of everything24:35


(Surat an-Nur, 35)

خداوند نور مثل است؛ زمین و آسمانها نور خداوند ) فروغ ) پر چراغی آن در که است چراغدانی همانندو شفاف حبابی گیرد، قرار حبابی در چراغ آن باشد،با چراغ این فروزان، ستاره یک همچون درخشنده

زیتونی پربرکت درخت از که می شود افروخته روغنیروغنش ) غربی؛ نه و است شرقی نه که شده گرفته ) بدون است نزدیک که است خالص و صاف آنچنانفراز بر است نوری شود؛ شعله ور آتش با تماس

هدایت خود نور به بخواهد را کس هر خدا و نوری؛ . داناست چیزی هر به خداوند و می کند،

24:35



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 ; it is

approximately 100 times greater than the total light

emitted by a galaxy such as the Milky Way.1

http://www.miraclesofthequran.com/scientific_97.html#_edn1


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

QUASARS AND THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS EFFECT•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:


As light from a Quasar travels towards us… it may pass through either side of an

intervening cluster of galaxies.The warped space surrounding the cluster can act as a lens, with a result that we see two

images of what is (or was) actually one quasar.4


NASA's Hubble Space Telescope caught a single quasar in space

producing images of five separate stars for the very first time. Bodies

with a high density – a group of galaxies here – produce more than

one image by giving rise to the gravitational lens effect, bending

the light from objects behind them, in this case quasars.


The illustration shows a quasar appearing to be in four

separate places due to the gravitational lens effect.

The images, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (Chandra), represent a

distance of 11 billion light years.


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.


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.)

Quasars’ brightness is spread by stars falling into the black holes

at the centers of galaxies.5


QUASARS AND THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS EFFECTEinstein 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 Holy

Qur’an is the revelation of our

Omniscient Lord, the Creator of all things.


If a star is immediately behind the black hole, as

in the illustration, the star will appear to be

both to the right and to the left of the black hole.

Gravitational lens effect

QUASARS AND THE GRAVITATIONAL LENS EFFECT 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

028 the gravitational lens effect

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