Our Nothingness! A Summation of Our Collective Insignificance (Lecture)

Our Nothingness! A Summation of Our Collective Insignificance  

All praise and glorification is due to Allah: The Lord of all the known and unknown worlds. The Creator of everything that exists, but was not created. The Beginning, without a beginning, and the ending, without an end. The essence of our being, and the Being of our essence. The One. The Absolute. The Initiator. 

We are currently living in unprecedented times; the world has been shook by the “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus” (SARS-CoV-2) or Covid-19.

As the pandemic unfolded, I remembered the joke about the atheist insisting on seeing God as a condition for accepting God’s existence, but running scared from what can't be seen. Evidently, the “seeing is believing” mantra is not always applicable, especially in this unprecedented scenario! 

In actuality, though the coronavirus can't be seen with normal human vision, there are some specialized equipments that can be utilised for this purpose. The human eye can see as small as 0.1 millimetres, and the coronavirus is not even detectable with the standard optical microscope.

The coronavirus measures around 100 nanometres. To put the size in perspective, about 10,000 coronaviruses can fit into the millimetre of a standard ruler. 1 million millimetres make 1 nanometre, so 10,000 millimetres makes 100 nanometres. 

So at 100 nanometres, the size of the coronavirus is very small, and the smallest wavelengths of light that the human eye can see with a standard optical microscope measures around 400 nanometres. To be able to see something as small as the coronavirus, requires magnification or acceleration with a device that uses shorter wavelengths than visible light. This is where electron microscopy comes in handy. 

There are two types of electron microscopy techniques available:  Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM).
The two electron microscopy techniques offer different views. The SEM scans surfaces of sample viruses and processes the information that bounces back. Its information relay process can be compared to that of a satellite in orbit.
The TEM operates by transmitting electrons of virus samples and projecting a cross-section of its internal structure. A combination of these two techniques gives adequate coverage, and assists with monitoring how the virus operates.
This gives a clearer understanding of how the coronavirus penetrates host cells with its ribonucleic acid (RNA), its self-reproduction capabilities and potential chimerical manifestations. 

The world has been literally brought to a standstill by a virus not visible to the naked eye. Nonetheless, the coronavirus remains a manifestation of creation in its minutest form. Allah is The Creator and Observer of everything that exists, from the infinitesimal to the infinite.

Comparatively, as minuscule as the coronavirus is to the human body, human beings are even more minuscule, when analysed from a cosmological perspective.

Mankind’s collective summation of insignificance and overall nothingness is further underpinned when the cosmos is explored via 7 dimensional levels:
(1) Earth (2) Solar System (3) Milky Way Galaxy (4) Local Group (5) Virgo Spuercluster (6) Observable Universe (7) Unobservable Universe. 

(1) Earth: The earth is estimated to be at least 4.5 billion years old. The entire planet has a total surface area of about 197 million square miles (510 million square km). There are currently about 7.8 billion human beings on earth.

(2) Solar System:  The entire Solar System is about 36 billion times larger than Earth. The Solar System comprises the Sun and all the objects that orbit it, particularly the 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. In terms of size, Earth is the fifth largest, coming after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and ahead of Venus, Mars, and Mercury. Planet Earth can fit into Saturn 764 times and fit into Jupiter 1,300 times. All the planets can fit into Jupiter, and Jupiter can fit into the Sun, 1,000 times. About 1.3m Earths can fit inside the Sun. 

(3) Milky Way Galaxy: The Milky Way Galaxy has at least 200 billion stars. It is estimated that about 40 billion Earth-sized planets are orbiting in the habitable zones of stars within the Milky Way galaxy. 

(4) Local Group:  The Local Group comprises at least 54 types of galaxies. Three of the largest galaxies in that category include the Andromeda Galaxy, Milky Way Galaxy and Triangulum Galaxy.

(5) Virgo Supercluster: The Virgo Supercluster is a mass concentration of galaxies containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group. The Virgo Supercluster contains at least 100 galaxy groups and clusters, and possibly 2000 member galaxies.

(6) Observable Universe: The Observable Universe contains about 10 million superclusters, and the Virgo Supercluster is just one of them. There could be a conglomerate of at least 2 trillion galaxies within the Observable Universe.
The Observable Universe is a summation of all possible observability, based on the attainable limits of human technological capabilities.

(7) Unobservable Universe: The Unobservable Universe is anything beyond the Observable Universe. Basically, it is anything beyond technology-aided human observability. This is sometimes referred to as the boundless or unbounded universe.

In reality, what some scientists consider the unobservable or unbounded universe actually has its bounds. The cosmos is not as infinite as science would want us to believe. What some aspects of science refer to as ad infinitum actually has its confines. Beyond those confines is The Creator - The Initiator - Allah.
Allah transcends matter, space and time, because He is The Creator of everything that exists, which includes matter, space and time. 

The Throne of Allah is actually several levels above all of what we humans know as the unobservable universe.
The entire universe does not even scratch the bottom surface of The Throne, because the Throne is above the 7^th heaven (space) and what is oft-referred to as the cosmos, is at the lowest level of all the 7 heavens (spaces).

“His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth...” - Quran 2:255 

Essentially, all the billions of people that have existed and will exist, collectively, with all our histories and civilizations, including advancements in knowledge, sciences and technologies, are literally an insignificant tiny dot in the bigger scheme of universal affairs. This is the summation of our collective insignificance - our nothingness! 

Fundamentally, we human beings are nothing without The Creator. Despite our so called achievements, we did not even create ourselves. To put it succinctly, humans are a creation incapable of creation. I am not referring to replicative science, or in layman's terms, copy and paste science, but actually creating something from nothing. If humans can't create ex nihilo, then what's the basis for arrogance?

A fundamental question was asked in Quran 52:35:

“Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]?”

Obviously, we were not created by nothing, neither did we create ourselves!
So whatever position of authority, or supposed power or superpower that has been attained, we must remember each one of us were once a sperm, created. A mere sperm that was fortunate enough to emerge victorious against tens of millions of other sperms. In view of these existential realities and human incapabilities, we ought to be grateful, and most especially humble ourselves to The Creator.

 

© M.B.O 2020 

(Lecture delivered to The Academy on April 26, 2020)