Science in the Glorious Quran: Location of Stars

“لَا أُقْسِمُ بِمَوَاقِعِ النُّجُومِ. وَإِنَّهُ لَقَسَمٌ لَّوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عَظِيمٌ” (الواقعة:75-76).

“No! I swear by the locations of the stars and this is indeed a mighty oath, if only you knew.” (Qur’an, 56: 75-76)

The number of stars in our “Milky Way” galaxy is about 200-400 billion stars, and our galaxy is about average in size with regards to the number of stars. The stars are on the constant move; for example, our own Sun is moving through space at about 30 km per second.

We see stars through the light which reaches our eyes. The light emitted from the second closest star to the Earth reaches us after more than 50 months; during which, it has definitely moved millions of kilometers.

Therefore, what we actually see is the location of the star and not the star itself.  The above Qur’anic verse, speaks of the dynamic “positions” of stars rather than the static position.

There are thousands of light years between the sun and other stars (left). Location of some moving stars relative to the sun (right).