From
Surah 10, Yunus (Jonah):
Huwal-ladhi ja’alash-shamsa
diyaa-anw-wal-qamara nuran-
The One is who made the sun
a radiant light and the moon a light reflected,
wa qaddarahu manazila lita
lamu adadas-sinina wal-hisab.
and has determined for it
phases so that you might know how to compute the years and to measure
time.
Ma khalaqal-lahu dhalika
illa bilhaqq.
None of this has God created
without an inner truth.
Yufassilul- Ayati
liqaw-miny-ya lamun [5]
Clearly does He spell out
these messages to people of knowledge:
[5]
Inna fikh-tilafil-layli
wan-nahari
For, truly, in the
alternating of night and day,
wa me khalaqal-lahu
fis-samawati wal-ardi
and in all that God has
created in the heavens and on earth
la Ayatil-liqawminy-yattaqun.
[6]
there are messages indeed
for people who are conscious of Him [6]
In
the summer of my 16th year, my family drove from Maryland to my Uncle Juke’s house in Detroit. Those were the days when Detroit was still a
booming town, an exciting place to visit.
The auto industry - Ford, GM,
Chrysler – were unrivaled in producing cars for Americans. Uncle Juke and Aunt Bunny would take us and
my four cousins on the Boblo boat to Boblo Island, visit Greenfield Village and
the Henry Ford Museum and theater, and drive through a thriving downtown. It was all very exciting for a bunch of farm
kids. But the excitement of that visit
in the summer of 1969 went way beyond the attractions of Detroit. In fact, it entered the realm of the surreal,
when the unfathomable became a reality.
Even my Uncle Juke – whose expressive sense of joy and wonder in living
made him the center of attention wherever he went – even Uncle Juke was
rendered speechless by the events of that day.
July
20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission landed two men on the moon. We were glued to the television for hours,
listening to Walter Cronkite try to give us the technical details of the
various procedures involved – entering the moon’s orbit, the blackout period
when the space capsule went behind the moon, the next day the transfer of Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from the command module Columbia to the lunar module,
the Eagle, the separation of the lunar module from the command module, descent
toward the moon’s surface, and then holding our breaths - seemingly with the
rest of humankind - while Armstrong tried to maneuver the lunar module to a
safe landing in a field of boulders while the fuel gage dropped and computer
alarms were sounding. And then we heard
the words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has landed.”
And
then another long wait until finally, at 10:56 EST, Neil Armstrong, climbed
down the Eagle’s ladder and said “That’s one small step for a man, one giant
leap for mankind.” They left behind a
plaque that said:
• HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET
EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL
MANKIND
A later Apollo mission sent back pictures of earthrise from the surface
of the moon that changed our image of ourselves forever.
From Surah 21, Al-Ambiyaa
(The Prophets)
Are, then, they who are bent
on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were [once] one
single entity, which We then parted asunder?
- and We made out of water every living thing? Will they not then believe? [30]
And [are they not aware
that] we have set up firm mountains on earth, lest it sway with them, and
[that] We have appointed on them broad paths, so that they might find their
way, [31] and [that] We have set up the sky as a canopy well-secured?
And yet, they stubbornly
turn away from the signs of this [creation], [32] and [fail to see that] it is
the One who has created the night and the day and the sun and the moon – all of
them floating through space! [33]
Eight years
after Apollo 11, in August and September, 1977, two space probes were launched by NASA to study the outer Solar System. Operating for 41 years now, the Voyager 1 spacecraft and it’s sister
craft Voyager 2 communicate with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and
return data. Those probes are now over
13 billion miles from Earth. Voyager 1 is in "Interstellar space"
and Voyager 2 is currently in the "Heliosheath" -- the outermost
layer of the heliosphere. NASA has fascinating information and a tracking
system on its website, “NASA’s Eyes Visualization.”
In 1990, Voyager 1 had completed its primary mission
of studying the planets and was leaving the Solar System. At the request of the famous astronomer Carl
Sagan, NASA commanded it to turn it’s camera around and take a picture of the
Earth across the great expanse of space.
This is that picture:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
Carl Sagan wrote these words
on seeing that picture:
“That’s here, that’s home,
that’s us. On it, everyone you love,
everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was
lived out their lives. The aggregate of
our joy and suffering, Thousands of arrogant religions, ideologies and economic
doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and
destroyer, every king and peasant every young couple in love, every mother and
father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every
corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every sinner in the
history of our species, on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small
stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of
the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in a
moment of glory and triumph they can become the momentary masters of a fraction
of a dot.
Think of the endless
cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the
scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how
eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are
challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely spec in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there
is no hint that hope will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The earth is the only world
known so far to harbor life….
There is perhaps no better
demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to
deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue
dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
When Apollo 11 landed on the
moon, we thought anything could be possible.
We had such faith in the future of humankind, that progress toward a
peaceful and self-sustaining existence for humankind on earth was not only
possible, but our manifest destiny.
But here we are, 49 years
later, and the president of the nation responsible for planting those noble
words on the moon has called for our country to launch a “Space Force” – to
militarize the space beyond the “well-secured canopy” of our sky. We face the prospect that we have the power
to make outer space a war zone. Indeed
it increasingly seems that we do not have the power not to make our
planet uninhabitable.
As Muslims, we are warned in
the text we take as divine revelation, not to succumb to that fatalistic
vision. Our holy text reminds us that
the universe holds signs for us, if we will only see them:
From
Surah 16, The Bee:
Wa ‘alqa fil-ardi rawasiya
an-tamida bikum
And Allah has placed firm
mountains on earth, lest it sway with you,
wa anharanw-wa subulal-la
‘allakum tahtadun. [15]
and rivers and paths, so
that you might find your way, [15]
Wa alamatinw-wa binnajmi hum
yahtadun. [16]
As well as other means of
orientation: for it is by the stars that men find their way. [16]
When that passage was revealed, it reminded the Arabs
of how they used the stars to navigate their way across the deserts. In our time it takes on a whole new
meaning. In August 2012 Voyager 1
entered interstellar space, the region between stars, filled with material
ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago. It is now sending us information about that
star stuff that is transforming our understanding of the universe. The Voyagers are expected to continue their
mission until 2025, when their generators will no longer supply enough power to
operate any of their instruments. We are
indeed learning new things, directly from the stars. One thing is for sure – they have given us a
new perspective on our place in the universe.
We are living through a time that seems very, very
dark. We have many challenges. Bishop
Desmond Tutu has said “We are meant to live in joy. This does not mean that life will be easy or
painless. It means that we can turn our
faces to the wind and accept that this is the storm we must pass thorough. We cannot succeed by denying what
exists. The acceptance of reality is the
only place from which change can begin.”
[The Book of Joy, p. 224] In
other words, path to joy lies in facing and working through our
challenges. We can
take comfort in the revelations recorded in Quran that assure us that Justice,
Compassion and Mercy will ultimately prevail in this universe. Joy
comes from working on the side of Justice, Compassion and Mercy.
As you return to school this
fall – or if you are an adult, contemplate how you will spend the extra time
you have when your kids go back to school - think about what it means that
Allah called us human beings “Vice-regents on Earth.” Devote yourselves to studying the realities
that exist – scientific and political. But
open yourselves to exploring new ways of looking at things, and to discovering
the new answers that will allow us, in the words of Carl Sagan, “to preserve
and cherish the pale blue dot,” and in the words of Sagan and the Quran, “to deal
more kindly with one another.”
From Surah 7, Al-Araf
Inna Rabbakumul-lahul-ladhi khalaqas-samawati wal-arda
fi sittati ayyamin-
Verily, your Sustainer is God, who has created the
heavens and the earth in six aeons,
thummas-tawa alal ‘arshi.
and is established on the throne of Almightiness.
Yugh-shil-laylan-nahara yatlubuhu hathithan
The One Who covers the day with the night in swift
pursuit,
wash-shamsa wal-qamara wan-nujuma
musakhkharatim-bi’amrih.
with the sun and the moon and the stars following that
Command:
Ala lahul-khalqu wal-amr.
Truly - all
creation and all command.
Tabarakal-lahu Rabbul-alamin. [54]
Hallowed
is God, the Sustainer of all the worlds.
[54]
