For centuries, whenever man has raised his head to the sky, he has witnessed the miraculous order of the universe. Today, when technology has reached an advanced level, scientists examining the depths of space with sophisticated systems such as the Gaia Space Telescope encounter a new miracle of creation with each passing day. One of these striking discoveries is the dynamics of motion of the Milky Way Galaxy in which we live.
It has been observed that our galaxy, which for years was assumed to rotate statically and along a straight line, actually moves forward as if swimming in a cosmic flow, with downward and upward waves like a vast ocean.
This magnificent engineering and flawless mathematical calculation, only now being deciphered in laboratories and by means of supercomputers, points to a miracle revealed by our Lord in the Qur'an 1,400 years ago.
The Flawless Physics and Fluid Mechanics in Galaxies
The 3D position and velocity data of billions of stars obtained by astronomers from the Gaia satellite have revealed that the outer edges of the Milky Way's disk move with a flawless "S" curve. It has been seen that this motion is not a random drift, but the result of a harmonious cosmic wobble and a floating wave motion.
To explain how the wobble and wave motion take place, our galactic disk does not remain on a fixed plane, but moves with a vast "stellar wave" spreading outward from the center. This delicate motion, in which one complete wave cycle takes approximately 600-700 million years, shows that our galaxy travels as if over a fluid texture. Scientists predict that this undulation was triggered in the past by the gravitational touches of satellite galaxies. Just as a stone thrown onto the surface of still water forms flawless, geometric rings, gravitational waves in the universe also cause the Milky Way to undulate with a magnificent rhythm.
While the vacuum of space was defined in classical physics as "absolute nothingness," modern astrophysics and quantum theory have revealed that space-time behaves like a fluid fabric that can bend and undulate. The billions of stars and clouds of gas in our galaxy flow along as if over this cosmic fabric, without experiencing any friction, instability or collision, in a flawless order that is a manifestation of our Lord's sublime creation.
The Floating and Undulating Universe in the Qur’an: Yasbaḥūn
This flow displayed upon the waves of space-time by the Milky Way Galaxy, which contains vast masses, clouds of gas and stars that possess no reason, consciousness or will, has been revealed by our Lord in the Qur'an through the use of the word YASBAḤŪN as follows:
It is not for the Sun to overtake the Moon nor for the night to outstrip the day; each one is swimming in a sphere. (Surah Ya-Sin, 40)
It is He Who created night and day and the Sun and Moon, each one swimming in a sphere. (Surat al-Anbiya’, 33)
The word "to swim-swimming" (Yasbaḥūn), chosen in the verse for the motion of celestial bodies, literally refers to moving through a liquid or fluid medium by propelling and gliding through it. The upward and downward undulating motion we observe in video simulations of stars and galactic structures is just like the rhythm of waves on a sea. The choice of this word, which 1,400 years ago, at a time when there were no telescopes, space telescopes or astrophysical models, described the motion of galaxies directly as "swimming in a fluid" rather than "rotation" or "forward movement," is only one of the proofs of the creation of our Almighty Lord, Possessor of infinite wisdom, Who created the universe from nothing.
Our Lord Created the Universe with a Sublime Order
This galactic order, which professors of quantum physics and astrophysicists can only observe in the most advanced observatories with budgets of billions of dollars, can never be explained by coincidences. It is mathematically impossible for inanimate and unconscious atoms and vast clusters of stars to make such delicate wave calculations by themselves in harmony with one another. Every detail in the universe is a manifestation of the names of our Almighty Lord, ar-Razzaq, Who provides sustenance for, watches over and protects every living thing, and al-Muqaddir, Who brings everything into existence with a specific measure, plan, order and destiny.
Almighty God, Who encompasses the entire universe, from the subatomic particles inside the smallest leaf to the undulating and floating of vast galaxies billions of light-years in size, reveals this magnificent creation to us in Surat al-Furqan as follows:
… He created everything and determined it most exactly. (Surat al-Furqan, 2)
