Naseer Ahmed and the Seven Heavens

By Ghulam Mohiyuddin, New Age Islam 23 September 2024 Naseer sb.'s stretched attempt to align cosmology with the Quran's Seven Heavens is either self-deception or a desperate attempt to make a name for himself based on nothing. In Islam, each of the seven levels of heaven has a degree or grade according to which each soul is given a place. The righteousness of one’s deeds decides the level of heaven where one will reside after death. Here is what the Quran says about the Seven Heavens: He (Allah) it is Who created for you all that is in the earth, and He directed Himself to the heaven, so He made them complete seven heavens, and He knows all things. (Surah 2, The Cow) The seven heavens declare His glory and the earth (too), and those who are in them; and there is not a single thing but glorifies Him with His praise, but you do not understand their glorification; surely He is Forbearing, Forgiving. (Surah 17, The Children of Israel) So He ordained them seven heavens in two periods, and revealed in every heaven its affair, and We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars and (made it) to guard; that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing. (Sura 41, Ha Mim). Now try to reconcile the above description of Seven Heavens with the galaxies. There are millions and millions of galaxies in the universe. To the naked eye, only 5 galaxies may be visible, but to God, of course, all of them are visible. God says, " We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars". So the lower heaven is the sky as we know it. The other six heavens presumably are layered over the sky, one over another. They are not "adorned" with stars. To think that these seven heavens have anything to do with the galaxies shows a desperate degree of eagerness to find a similarity when none exists. The Seven Heavens are nothing but the imagination of a seventh-century mind as to what lies above the sky and to interweave the layers resulting from such imagining to the levels of virtuous merit of those lucky ones who were assigned to go to Heaven on the Day of Judgment. Naseer sb. says, "The structure of the universe, with galaxies spread out across vast distances and potentially organized into large cosmic webs or clusters, could resemble a layered, expansive system." "Could resemble" is not a phrase one expects to see in a serious article. Naseer sb. says, "These galaxies, in a sense, could represent the "heavens" that are far beyond human reach, " "Could represent" suggests speculation as well as wishful thinking. Naseer sb. says, "The description in the Quran of the Universe made up of "seven heavens" in layers one above the other is remarkable. There was no way of knowing this. " In modern astronomy, there is no concept of the Universe being made up of layers lying one above the other. Trying to use ChatGPT to find science in the Quran or to find the Quran in science is foolish. ChatGPT can only spit out what it has been fed. Whatever you say to Naseer sb., he will now continue to present his false hypothesis as a genuine discovery. It is easy for him to do so because he has the unique gift of totally ignoring what others say. ----- Ghulam Mohiyuddin is a retired psychiatrist. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/debating-islam/naseer-seven-heavens/d/133262 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism