God’s Strings

[imadul]

In 1968 a young Italian physicist Gabriele Venziano while researching strong nuclear force found an equation in a 200 year old math book authored by Swiss Mathematician Leonard Euler which seemed to described strong nuclear force. Strong nuclear force bind together quarks which are constituent particles of protons and neutrons as wells as protons and neutrons themselves in the nucleus of an atom. Further research by physicist Yoichiro Nambu, Holger Nielson, and Leonard Susskind revealed that Euler’s equation make more sense if elementary particles are considered to be tiny vibrating strings.

This was the birth of String Theory which took a shot at combining Einsteinian cosmos scale General Relativity with sub-atomic level Quantum Mechanics.

String Theory describes that all matter is made up of extremely tiny vibrating strings of energy which are 100 billion, billion time smaller than an atom. In other words, if you keep dividing basic building blocks of matter into smaller and smaller particles you will end up with these tiny strings of energy.

String Theory is still the buzz word of physics and there are still detractors who question it because of String Theory’s projection which sheds light on extra dimensions and parallel universes. Here science, knowingly or unknowingly entering into area of metaphysics

Columbia University Professor Brian Greene who is a strong believer and advocate of String Theory says, “String Theory elegantly stitches together Einstein’s General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics.

I have rephrased his words a bit, but the interesting word he used is “Stitches” together. This statement and the String Theory which is a theory of tiny strings of energies reaches to a simple statement of Quran, Sura Al-Anbia, Aya (21:30):

“Have not the unbelievers then beheld that the heaven and the earth were a mass all sewn up and then we unstitched them and of the water fashioned every living being? Will they not believe?”

Quran Interpreted by A.J. Arberry, http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=21&verse=30.

The reason translation By AJ Arberry is being quoted here; he is using the literal translation which other six translator on the Quran Corpus site did not use for their reasons. They used other dictionary meaning like “a joined entity”, “one piece”, “joined together” etc.

Let’s synthesize actual Arabic words used in this Aayah with help from Edward William Lane’s classic Arabic English Lexicon, published 1863.

The interpretation below is mine but I am using Lane’s dictionary for interpretation. Curious readers themselves can refer to Lane’s dictionary which is available online. (http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/).

Actual word used is رَتْقًا which gives both the meanings, to close up and to sew up. Another related word is رتاق which means, “he sewed up, or together”.

Other main word of interest in the Aayah is فتق. This also has several meanings like, to slit, to open, but also, undid the sewing of it, unsewed it, or unstitched it. It also gives the meaning of being swollen or inflated.


I did not see the word “a mass” under word to word translation in the Quran Corpus (http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=21&verse=30#(21:30:1).

So, if we use the literal meaning, the translation will be “Heaven and earth were stitched together and we unstitched them”.

Applying this statement from Quran to the origin of cosmos and explaining it with the help of the String Theory, it says, in the beginning cosmos was in the state of its elementary constituent objects, vibrating strings of energy or loops of energy which were stitched together (How did it look like, we can only speculate but cannot give it a shape because even string theory exists mathematically and experimental verification is beyond present day technology) and then the Word Kun commenced the beginning of the cosmos (Popularly known as Big Bang) and with it the fabric of space-time and mater were unstitched and ‘it’ started to expand.

String Theory helps us to understand this highly advanced Ayah or Sign of Allah, that the earliest form of the cosmos right after the so called Big Bang was vibrating strings or loops of energy. No one could have understood this meaning of this Ayah 1395 years (1438 moon years) before except Messenger of Allah and may be a select few who were taught by the Messenger. This is the Plank Era and this is closest current physics can go to Big Bang as general relativity and quantum physics collapse at that point.
Picture: Creation Time Line

String Theory postulate the many theories about universe during plank era or right after the so called Bing Bang, but it can be strongly hypothesized that matter and energy were in the form of tiny vibrating strings of energy right after the Big Bang. These tiny strings of energy then combined to form elementary particles of matter; quarks, leptons and then hadrons (proton and neutrons) and finally atoms. Latter 1.6 million years after, gravity started to forming stars and galaxies though further studies and research from physicists is required to make it a firm theory. This is depicted in this figure of Big Bang time line.

Rataq (رَتْقًا) and Fataq (فتق) are the Arabic words that give the meanings of stitching, sewing and unstitching which is very intriguing as modern physics seem to be able to reach the concept of the String Theory.


Acknowledgement:

I was inspired to write this article after reading and listening to Professor Ahmad Rafique Akhtar’s speech “God, Man and Universe” which has now appeared in his book Mahzar-e-Takhliq. Professor Ahmad Rafique Akhtar pointed to the meaning of Rataqan (رَتْقًا) and Fataq (فتق).

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