Today we talked about Surah Yasin: 37-40; signs of God in the heavens. Specifically, we talked about change of night to day (the image the Qur’an uses is the daylight is stripped off, like paint, from the sky, revealing the darkness), the phases of the moon, and how the sun and the moon each follow their own orbits.
Each of these are significant because: 1) when we reflect on them, they show God’s power and wisdom, in how He designs the world in this beautiful and intricate way (we see the moon and the sun move in such beautiful synchrony, almost like ships moving in sync, as they run or sail along their orbits); 2) these are important verses for our own worship, during the day (the daily salat), the month (when the months of Ramadan or Hajj start, for example), and the year (our ages, bulugh, and of course tax time!). These two dimensions are of course connected: we are part of God’s creation, and must constantly align/re-align ourselves with it.
We watched a short documentary that talked about how Muslims had developed the field of astronomy, along with over scientific disciplines like mathematics and navigation over 1000 years ago, and continued to develop it over centuries. This is an important part of our collective heritage as Muslims, and we should be aware of these advances, and pursue the sciences to stand in wonder of God’s signs.
