In Surah Luqman, Allah describes the creation of the heavens:
"He created the heavens without pillars that you see and has cast into the earth firmly set mountains, lest it should shift with you, and dispersed therein from every creature. And We sent down rain from the sky and made grow therein [plants] of every beneficial kind." (Luqman 31:10)
The same idea is repeated in Surah Ar-Ra'd: "It is Allah who erected the heavens without pillars that you [can] see." (Ar-Ra'd 13:2)
The expression "without pillars that you can see" (bi-ghayri 'amadin taraw-naha) is remarkable: it suggests that the heavens are supported by something invisible.
The invisible forces of physics
Modern physics has revealed that celestial bodies โ planets, stars, galaxies โ are not supported by visible material structures, but held in equilibrium by invisible fundamental forces:
- Universal gravitation: described by Isaac Newton in 1687, it governs the attraction between masses and keeps planets in orbit around the Sun.
- General relativity: formulated by Albert Einstein in 1915, it describes gravitation as a curvature of space-time.
These forces, although invisible, maintain the cosmic order with remarkable precision. Galaxies, for example, are held together by the gravitational attraction of their billions of stars.
A description compatible with science
The Quranic formulation "without pillars that you can see" is remarkably cautious and precise. It does not affirm that there is no support, but that the supports are not visible โ a description perfectly compatible with the modern conception of invisible forces maintaining the celestial order.
This formulation avoids the pitfall of ancient cosmologies that imagined material structures supporting the sky, and agrees with modern physics that describes invisible force fields.
A sign of divine order
The verse invites contemplation of the harmony of the universe, maintained by precise and invisible laws. Modern science, by revealing the nature of these forces, gives new depth to this Quranic description.