Islam and Extra Terrestrial life?

Freiheit

Just wondering whether Islam views the earth as being at the centre of the universe like the bible ? and if so would this be compatible with life on other planets?...as this would mean that the earth would not have a central place in creation? This could just as easily be asked of Christianity. Salam!:)

af_thefragile

Freiheit wrote: »

Just wondering whether Islam views the earth as being at the centre of the universe like the bible ? and if so would this be compatible with life on other planets?...as this would mean that the earth would not have a central place in creation? This could just as easily be asked of Christianity. Salam!:)

I think the view is that life outside of this planet does exist. As the 1st or 2nd verse of the Quran (the way what you'ld consider as 1st) that you'ld read says, "All praise is due to Allah, the lord of the Worlds". Now if you notice the last word, it says "worlds" as opposed to "world" which clearly means this world (Earth) is not the only 'world' in the universe and there's a lot more out there.

Now then you can keep digging deeper and enter the realm of metaphysics. The early Arabs were pioneers in the field of astronomy, sciences and philosophy (around 8th to 13th century). A lot was known about the universe back then as to the Earth orbits the sun, the moon orbits the earth, why solar and lunar eclipses are formed, among the basic things. Then there's also a lot of work done in metaphysics which speaks about dimensions and the different beings that inhabit the universe. Such as we humans share this universe with the Jinns (similar to demons but not quite) and the angels but they live in a different dimension to us which is why we cannot see them or sense them. And there are beings in different parts of the universe who all worship Allah. So if there're no human beings like us outside this planet, there're at least less intelligent beings around and there are the Jinns (who're also Allah's creation and live lives like us humans, have families and all, and possess a high degree of free will like us). The Quran also speaks about the creation of universe by the Big Bang and how the universe is expanding among other scientific phenomenon such as how Iron (an element that wasn't formed in our solar system) "came down" to earth from the sky.

It is stated in the Quran that humans are the greatest creation of Allah and this world is only a test for us to sort out the ones who're worthy of entering heaven. So we humans are if not the center of creation, the most important creation. The earth is definitely not the center of creation. We have only been sent on this planet as a representative of God to look after all the creatures on here and our time here is only very limited for once we die, we'll go to heaven and hell depending on our deeds and we'll reside there indefinitely. This means our time on Earth is really very short and almost insignificant compared to the time we'll spend in heaven or hell.

The essence of most Islamic philosophy, especially of the non-Aristotelian, persian kind such as Al-Ghazali and Rumi is simply that there is no truth except Allah. Meaning all this world and universe is just an illusion, it has been created for our pleasure and pain, as the Quran repeatedly mentions about the favors Allah has bestowed upon us humans by making our world such a habitable place which we can enjoy and live in peacefully (read surah Al-Rahman (Chapter 55, the Beneficent)) but we chose to fight and cause suffering. So everything around us is not in true sense real and the only reality is Allah, who created all of this "reality" for us. Its not the popular/mainstream Islamic belief but if you read into some of the philosophical texts, you'll find this.

hivizman

Another verse from the Qur'an that seems to be used as evidence of extraterrestrial life is Surat Ash-Shura (42:29): "And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of all the living creatures which He has caused to multiply throughout them; and He has the power to gather them whenever He wills." (Muhammad Asad The Message of the Qur'an) Asad comments: "In the Qur'an, the expression 'the heavens and the earth' invariably denotes the universe in its entirety." The word daabbatin, which Asad has translated as "of living creatures" (grammatically, it is in the genitive plural case in this ayah), appears 18 times in various grammatical forms in the Qur'an, always with the sense of creatures that are alive and move.

Given that the Qur'an states that Allah has sent prophets to all peoples, it is quite possible that, if sentient extraterrestrial life exists anywhere else in the universe, then that life has been sent a prophet, preaching essentially the same Islam as Muhammad. Islam thus avoids the problem arising from the unique salvational role of Jesus Christ in Christianity - the question of how sentient beings on other planets who have never heard of Jesus can be saved.

hivizman

Although this is slightly off topic, there is a website called "Islam and Science Fiction" (not recently updated), which lists various science fiction books with Islam as a theme. The website refers to a collection of stories A Mosque Among the Stars, which seems to be privately published (it's on the Amazon.com site as a Kindle download, but not on the Amazon.co.uk site).