QURAN ON ELEMENTARY PARTICLES

Quran On Atoms And Subatomic Particles

Evolution Of Atomic Theory

Although the concept that things are made of small particles is quite old. The first person who gave the idea of the smallest particle was Democritus in 460 BC. He says cut anything until get very small that you cannot cut more. That he called “atomos” In Greek “a” means “Not” and “tomos” means “Cut” i.e indivisible that you cannot cut more. But the concept that things are made of particles so small that they are invisible from us is not very old.  In 1897 J.J.Thomson discovered electron then in 1911 Ernest Rutherford presented the idea of nucleus &

electron and after that Neils Bohr gave the model of the atom with a nucleus inside and electron in different orbits. And in 1970 we found that proton and neutron are also not basic fundamental particles but made up of quarks. But whatever latest theories we take like Quantum field theory or The String theory one thing is common that everything we see is composed of things that we cannot see that is they are very very small.

How Small Is An Atom?

Atom is so small that in only one human cell which you cannot see without a microscope there are almost 100 trillion atoms. If you put 500,000 atoms in a row shoulder to shoulder than they only be as wide as the thickness of a human hair. To understand it more if you increase the size of the nucleus to that of a coin, the edge of the atom would be at a distance of 2-3 kilometer.

So we can clearly see that 200 years ago the human knowledge was that atom is the smallest particle and it is not divisible. Now look almost 1400 years ago Quran not only mentioned about Atoms but also things and particles that are smaller than it.

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَا تَأْتِينَا السَّاعَةُ ۖ قُلْ بَلَىٰ وَرَبِّي لَتَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ عَالِمِ الْغَيْبِ ۖ لَا يَعْزُبُ عَنْهُ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَلَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا أَصْغَرُ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْبَرُ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ

But those who disbelieve say, “The Hour will not come to us.” Say, “Yes, by my Lord, it will surely come to you. [Allah is] the Knower of the unseen.” Not absent from Him is an atom’s weight within the heavens or within the earth or [what is] smaller than that or greater, except that it is in a clear register. Surah Saba 34:3

وَمَا تَكُونُ فِي شَأْنٍ وَمَا تَتْلُو مِنْهُ مِنْ قُرْآنٍ وَلَا تَعْمَلُونَ مِنْ عَمَلٍ إِلَّا كُنَّا عَلَيْكُمْ شُهُودًا إِذْ تُفِيضُونَ فِيهِ ۚ وَمَا يَعْزُبُ عَنْ رَبِّكَ مِنْ مِثْقَالِ ذَرَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ وَلَا أَصْغَرَ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْبَرَ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ

And you are not in any matter or recite any of the Qur’an and you do not do any deed except that We are witness over you when you are involved in it. And not absent from your Lord is any [part] of an atom’s weight within the earth or within the heaven or [anything] smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear register. Surah Yunus 10:61

٧ فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ

٨ وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it,

And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.  Surah Zilzal 99:7-8

 إِنَّ اللَّهَ فَالِقُ الْحَبِّ وَالنَّوَىٰ ۖ يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَمُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتِ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ

Indeed, Allah is the cleaver of grain and date seeds. He brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living. That is Allah; so how are you deluded?  Surah Anam 6:95

 أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يُزَكُّونَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ ۚ بَلِ اللَّهُ يُزَكِّي مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلًا

Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who claim sanctity for themselves? Nay-but Allah Doth sanctify whom He pleaseth. But never will they fail to receive justice in the least little thing. Surah Nisa 4:49

 وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِنَ الصَّالِحَاتِ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَأُولَٰئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ نَقِيرًا

But whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, and is a believer—those will enter Paradise, and will not be wronged a whit. Surah Nisa 4:124

Building Blocks Of This Universe

There are many miracles in words used here in these verses. As we know that in 21st century modern science also pointing us to new theories about the fundamental building blocks of this universe as I clearly explained in my article “Matter is an Illusion” where it is mentioned that matter (particles) is nothing but made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating, each one radiating its own unique energy signature. Or smallest particles are but small tiny strings as in String theory.

Quran Miracle In The Use of 5 Different Words For Atoms & Subatomic Particles

Now look at these verses, and you can see that there are few words used for smallest particles other than “ذَرَّةٍ” which are “الْحَبِّ”, “النَّوَىٰ” , “فَتِيلًا” , And ‘نَقِيرًا”. The meanings of which are such that it contains all the meanings for the coming generations. That is for the previous human generations these words were giving a sense as per their time, and for us again, these words have the capacity that they give new meaning as per our modern understanding of science. This is what should be a characteristic of a divine revelation that it should be universal, valid for all ages. Arabic is a wonderful and appropriate language for a divine revelation. Below are given the meanings as was understood before and the more appropriate meanings were ignored because people were not able to understand and connect those meanings with the verse. Now just look that the actual meanings of these words which I mark as (New) are miraculous as how they are expressing the modern scientific facts and the miraculous wisdom and knowledge contained in the Holy Quran.

Now, فَتِيلًا can be taken as A twisted rope as in string theory, النَّوَىٰ as the nucleus of an atom which also gives another Miracle as in 6:95 it is mentioned that “النَّوَىٰ” can be cleaved and split which exactly happened recently when we discovered the nuclear energy. Lastly, نَقِيرًا are vibrations of a rope OR vortices of energy as within string theory or as I mentioned in detail in my article “Quantum Field Theory.”

فَتِيلًا: a thread inside a date seed (Old) / A twisted rope (New) 

النَّوَىٰ: date seeds (Old) / Nucleus نواة”. Plural nuclei is نَّوَىٰ” (New)

الْحَبِّ: grain (Old) / Nut, Whit, smallest thing (New)

نَقِيرًا: the speck on a date seed (Old) / Sound OR Vibrations of a Rope (New) 

Another Miracle: Atomic Weight

Another Miracle is that in the above verses whenever God mentioned the smallest particle “ذَرَّةٍ” ..the word “مِثْقَالَ” is also mentioned before that which means “Weight.”  Which is a miracle that now in modern science we measure small particle and elements by their “Atomic Weights” and not by their Size or anything else.