The expansion of the universe is the most imposing discovery of modern science. Today it is a firmly established concept and the only debate centers around the way this is taking place.

It was first suggested by the general theory of relativity and is backed up by physics in the examination of the galactic spectrum; the regular movement towards the red section of their spectrum may be explained by the distancing of one galaxy from another. Thus the size of the universe is probably constantly increasing and this increase will become bigger the further away the galaxies are from us. The speeds at which these celestial bodies are moving may, in the course of this perpetual expansion, go from fractions of the speed of light to speeds faster than this.

The following verse of the Quran (sura 51, verse 47) where God is speaking, may perhaps be compared with modern ideas:

'Heaven' is the translation of the word sama and this is exactly the extra-terrestrial world that is meant.

'We are expanding it' is the translation of the plural present participle musi'una of the verb ausa'a meaning 'to make wider, more spacious, to extend, to expand'.

The discovery of expansion was made by Vesto Slipher at Lowell Observatory in 1917:

* Measured radial velocities from spectra of 25 galaxies.

Found:

* 21 of the 25 show a redshift

* speeds of some >2000 km/sec

Most galaxies are rapidly receding from us.