A Mercy Case

When I was a kid, I used to hang out in the science section of the library. I would pull the books off the shelf, and look at pictures of Red Giants, enormous suns much larger than our own. I remember becoming freaked out at the idea that one day our own sun would become a Red Giant and engulf Earth in a fiery apocalypse. These were the first stirrings of my imagination through the expanses of spacetime, and the concomitant challenges in conceiving of a beginning and an end to the universe. Beyond the Big Bang, no human mind can penetrate. Across the event horizon of a black hole lies undiscovered realities. The truth is, we are locked in our little place in spacetime. Our intellects can only travel so far, but our imaginations can take us much farther.

Most young lovers of science naturally gravitate to science fiction. It is the way the imagination takes us beyond the limits of what is actually knowable. We fantasize about distant worlds with sentient life, even though none has been detected. We project our own earthly troubles onto intergalactic empires as a way to humanize the dead cold of space. In some forms of science fiction, there is nothing but meaninglessness and despair to be found beyond our solar system, but in most, humanity is on a continual process of discovering the meanings of the vast universe. The creation of this narrative is natural in a secularized world – if we abandon the idea that the Heavens come down to us on Earth, then our only hope for purpose in the long run is that we go forth from Earth into the unknown heavens. It is a mythical crutch that helps the secularized mind deal with the unavoidable meaninglessness of human existence that results from describing spacetime in a purely materialistic and empirical fashion.

In college, I took an astronomy course, because I wanted to learn the real science behind my youthful readings and teenage sci-fi movie binges. It was wonderful, but it also made me realize how trapped we really are on Earth. It is only the imagination that can take us much farther, and it was in college that my imagination was ignited by the Qur’an and the life story of the Prophet Muhammad (upon him and his family be blessings and peace). Of all stories on Earth, it has been the one that makes me feel closest to the Heavens.

In short, astronomy brought me incredibly far, science fiction brought me even further, but faith has brought me to the realm of eternal meanings behind the observably beautiful universe.

لا إله إلا الله