And the Sun runs to its resting place. That is the decree of the
Almighty, the All-Knowing. (Surah Ya Sin, 38)
A photograph of the Sun taken by NASA. The bright areas on the Sun are
those regions where the magnetic field is strongest.
The Sun has been emitting heat for around five billion years as a
result of the constant nuclear reactions taking place on its surface.
At a moment determined by Allah in the future, these reactions will
eventually come to an end - and the Sun will lose all its energy and
finally go out, extinguished like a light bulb which runs out of
power. In that context, the above verse may be a reference to the
Sun's energy one day coming to an end. (Allah knows the truth.)
The Arabic word"limustaqarrin"in the verse refers to a particular
place or time. The word"tajree"translated as"runs,"bears such meanings
as"to move, to act swiftly, to move about, to flow."It appears from
the meanings of the words that the Sun will continue in its course in
time and space, but that this motion will continue until a specific,
predetermined time. The verse "When the sun is compacted in
blackness,"(Surat at-Takwir, 1) which appears in descriptions of
Doomsday, tells us that such a time will eventually come. Of course,
the specific timing is known only to Allah.
The Arabic word"taqdeeru,"translated as"decree"in the verse, includes
such meanings as"to appoint, to determine the destiny of something, to
measure."By this expression in verse 38 of Surah Ya Sin, we are told
that the life span of the Sun is limited to a period of time ordained
by Allah. Other verses of the Qur'an on the subject read:
Allah is He Who raised up the heavens without any support – you can
see that – and then established Himself firmly on the Throne. He made
the Sun and Moon subservient, each running for a specified term. He
directs the whole affair. He makes the Signs clear so that hopefully
you will be certain about the meeting with your Lord. (Surat ar- Ra'd,
2)
He makes night merge into day and day merge into night, and He has
made the Sun and Moon subservient, each one running until a specified
time. That is Allah, your Lord. The Kingdom is His. Those you call on
besides Him have no power over even the smallest speck. (Surah Fatir,
13)
He created the heavens and the earth with truth. He wraps the night
around the day and wraps the day around the night, and has made the
Sun and Moon subservient, each one running for a specified term. Is He
not indeed the Almighty, the Endlessly Forgiving? (Surah az-Zumar, 5)
The use of the word"musamman"in the above verses shows that the life
span of the Sun will run for a"specified term."
Scientific analysis regarding the end of the Sun describes it as
consuming four million tons of matter per second, and says thatthe Sun
will die when that fuel has all been consumed. 54The heat and light
emitted from the Sun is the energy released when matter is consumed:
hydrogen nuclei turn into helium in the nuclear fusion process. The
Sun's energy, and its life, will therefore come to an abrupt end once
this fuel has been used up. (Allah knows the truth.) A report titled
"The Death of the Sun" by the BBC News Science Department says:
... The Sun will gradually die. As a star's core crashes inwards, it
eventually becomes hot enough to ignite another of its constituent
atoms, helium. Helium atoms fuse together to form carbon. When the
helium supply runs out, the centre collapses again and the atmosphere
inflates. The Sun isn't massive enough to fully re-ignite its core for
a third time. So it goes on expanding, shedding its atmosphere in a
series of bursts... The dying core eventually forms a white dwarf - a
spherical diamond the size of the Earth, made of carbon and oxygen.
From this point on the Sun will gradually fade away, becoming dimmer
and dimmer until its light is finally snuffed out. 55
PERIODIC TABLE
A documentary, also called "The Death of the Sun," broadcast
byNational Geographic TV, provides the following description:
It (the Sun) generates heat and sustains life on our planet. But like
humans, the Sun has a limited lifespan. As our star ages, it will
become hotter and expand, evaporating all of our oceans and killing
all life on planet Earth... The Sun will get hotter as it ages and
burns fuel faster. Temperatures will increase, eventually wiping out
animal life, evaporating our oceans and killing all plant life... the
Sun will swell and become a red giant star, swallowing up the nearest
planets. Its gravitational pull will lessen and perhaps allow Earth to
escape. By the end, it will shrink into a white dwarf star, emitting a
weak glow for hundreds of billions of years. 56
Scientists have only recently unraveled the structure of the Sun, thus
discovering what goes on inside its burning mass. Before that, nobody
knew how the Sun obtained its energy or how it emitted heat and light.
The way that such a giant mass of energy would one day consume all its
energy and expire was revealed fourteen centuries ago to mankind
through Allah's Final Messenger (pbuh.) Once again, the Qur'an its
credentials as a source of sublime knowledge. That knowledge belongs
to our Lord, Whose knowledge enfolds all things. It is revealed in
another verse of the Qur'an thus:
... My Lord encompasses all things in His knowledge so will you not
pay heed? (Surat al-An'am, 80)
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