51:47 says: “And We have built the heaven with power, and We are expanding it.”
Many Muslims point to this verse and say: “Look, this is proof that the Quran already spoke about the expansion of the universe—something only discovered in the 20th century.”
Let’s break this down step by step.
1. What does the Arabic word “mūsiʿūn” mean?
It comes from the root w-s-ʿ (wasa‘a), which can mean to make spacious, widen, expand, or also to be rich. In the Quran, it is usually used in a moral or economic sense, such as:
“Allah is ample in His provision” (2:247, 24:32)—so not “to expand,” but “generous,” “powerful,” “rich.”
So linguistically, it can mean either “to make spacious” or “to be powerful/generous,” depending on the context.
Why the term universe doesn’t fit the Quranic context
The idea of a “universe” as a single, all-encompassing whole that developed from a Big Bang only arose in the 19th–20th centuries.
In antiquity (and thus also in 7th-century Arabia), the worldview was geocentric and hierarchical:
The earth was at the center,
The sun, moon, and stars moved above it,
The seven heavens were layered one above the other, above the earth.
So when modern translations use “universe” for as-samāʾ, this is actually a translation that doesn’t belong in Islam.
The observation is entirely correct:
The Quran doesn’t have a cosmology of an expanding universe, but rather a multi-layered celestial structure.
“Expansion” or “extension” in 51:47 fits within this imagery: a vast, impressive creation by an almighty God.
So the connection to the modern “expanding universe” theory is a contemporary interpretation, not something that comes from the 7th century context.