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Quranic Miracle: Universe is steadily expanding

Modern Muslims Scholars are of opinion that Quran had already told that universe has been constantly expanding even before the advent of modern science. .

They present the following verse as their proof:

Zakir Naik writes regarding this verse:

Criticism

But the critics point out that the term “lamūsi‘ūn لَمُوسِعُونَ ” in this verse is a "NOUN"  and not a "Verb", and it describes "God" and not the "heaven" (i.e. the term “wa-innā lamūsi‘ūn وَإِنَّا لَمُوسِعُونَ” means "God is the Expander", and not "the Universe is Expanding").

Thus the earlier Quran Translators translated it as under:

Moreover, the root word of لَمُوسِعُونَ (lamūsiʿūna) is و س ع . However in Quran, this word and it's derivatives have been used in the meanings of "Encompassing".

Look at the following verses:

Also see verses 7:89 and 20:98.

Also see verse 65:12, where directly the word of "احاط" (encompass) has been used instead of "wasi'a"

ٖThus few translator used this figurative meaning:

Critics also point out that exactly the same grammar has been used in the next verse 51:48.

In this verse, the word الْمَاهِدُونَ (spreader/smoother) has exactly the same grammar ^[1] as the word لَمُوسِعُونَ (i.e. expander) in the previous verse, but no one translated it as "earth is steadily spreading out".

Critics point out that the modern Muslims scholars have altered the meaning of 51:47 in three ways:

• They have translated the Quranic word “heaven سَّمَاءَ” as “universe”, which is not correct.
• They it was the Arabic Noun “We are the expander”, but they turned it into the Verb “The Universe is expanding,”
• And then they added the entirely superfluous adverb “steadily” in an attempt to insert into the Quran additional ideas that are not actually there.

With these three translational liberties, they have completely changed the meaning of this verse from a simple description of Allah’s creation of the heavens into a scientific statement of Hubble’s expanding universe that is not actually contained in the Quran.

Universe consists of "Space", while Quranic HEAVEN is a solid canopy which could not expand

Critics also point out that according to science, universe consists of space and galaxies are travelling away from each other in this space and thus it is considered as an expansion of the universe.

But according to the writer of Quran, :

The word translated as canopy is binaa or binaan ( بِنَاء ). This word means "building"^[2]. Here, the heavens are described as a multi-story building over the earth. There are seven layers or stories to this building called the heavens. The heavens are built on a foundation called "the earth". The tafsir of Ibn Kathir, among others, elaborates this^[3]:

And according to the tradition in Sahih Bukhari, prophets are residing upon these solid heavens along with their nations, and solid things don't expand.

References: