The Conclusion : Big Crunch (Episode : 3)

Welcome to the final movement of our cosmic symphony (The Last Episode in the Cosmic World). Having previously traced the universe from its blinding genesis to its accelerating expansion, we now stand at the precipice of the closing act: "The Big Crunch." In this finale, we peer into the twilight of time, where gravity pulls the vast tapestry of reality back into a single embryonic point—a scientific destiny that converges beautifully with the ancient prophecy of a cosmos folded away like a finished manuscript.

Before the beginning, there was no sound, because there was no air to carry it. There was no darkness, because light had not yet been permitted to exist. There was not even 'nowhere,' because space itself had not been born.

Then, 13.8 billion years ago, from a point infinitely smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, the entirety of reality violently tore itself into existence. In a fraction of a millisecond, the universe expanded exponentially, burning at trillions of degrees—a chaotic, roiling soup of primordial plasma where the fundamental laws of physics were being forged in real-time. Everything you have ever known, every star in the sky, and the very atoms that make up the screen you are reading this on, were forged in the aftermath of that singular, incomprehensible explosion.

Hold out your hand and look at your veins. The iron running through your blood right now did not originate on Earth. It was forged in the agonizing death throes of a massive star, detonating in a supernova eons before our solar system even existed.

The calcium in your teeth, the oxygen in your lungs, the carbon in your DNA—none of it is native to this world. You are constructed entirely from the recycled ashes of ancient, dead stars scattered across the void. We often treat cosmology as the study of things impossibly far away, but it is actually the most intimate science of all. When we build observatories to gaze out into the deep black, we are not looking at an alien landscape. We are the universe, finally waking up, opening our eyes, and looking back at ourselves

Humanity is immensely proud of its mastery over the physical world. We have split the atom, mapped the human genome, and left boot prints in the dust of the moon. We look at our towering cities and deep-space probes and believe we have a firm grip on reality.

We are dead wrong.

In the grand cosmic accounting, everything we have ever seen, touched, or comprehended—every planet, every blazing star, every black hole, and every grain of sand on Earth—amounts to a cosmic rounding error. It constitutes a measly 5% of the universe. The remaining 95% is a phantom realm of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'—forces that hold galaxies together and rip the universe apart, yet remain completely invisible to our eyes and instruments. We are passengers on a fragile ship, navigating a pitch-black ocean, entirely blind to the water we are sailing on

Cosmology is not merely the geography of the stars; it is archaeology on a scale so vast it shatters the human ego. Every telescope we build is a literal time machine, allowing us to stare deep into the ancient past, watching cosmic history unfold live, millions of years after it actually happened.

And there finally comes a point where man senses how helpless he is, how needy he is, how minute he actually is, and what place he holds in this majestic space almighty created when compared to this humongous universe. His existence gives up as he witnesses the cosmos, He is brought to his knees when he sees how perfectly this system was designed, his thoughts go blank and his memory gives up once he glances towards the massive sky as the nature whispers to him, nothing but haste, unbothered, weak, anxious, impatient and fragile!

  إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا

Translation (70:19): "Indeed, mankind was created anxious:"

إِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ جَزُوعًا

Translation (70:20): "When evil touches him, impatient,"

  وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الْخَيْرُ مَنُوعًا

Translation (70:21): "And when good touches him, withholding [of it],"

  وَخُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ ضَعِيفًا

Translation : and mankind was created weak."

Subhanallah!

Previously, we had a peek on how the universe began and how it is gradually expanding with a speed greater than light, there is nothing we know of that can move faster than light, except space itself, and every moment, the speed increases respectively, this is the third and last episode on the Cosmology Subject we covered so far, we will discuss how this massively expanding space may probably end, although there are many observational conclusions to this, one of such scientific probable theories suggest that the world may end as THE BIG CRUNCH

Let’s talk about expansion. Even though it has been shown previously, there still comes a doubt on to how exactly the universe is expanding, let’s understand it this way, stick some stickers on a balloon partially bloated, once they are sticked, start blowing more and observe how the space on the surface expands, now imagine the balloon to be the universe and the stickers to be planets, suns, stars and moons, when we say the universe is expanding we tend to say that the density gets smaller and that every point expands itself in the universe, therefore we as the inhabitants of a planet do not expand nor does the earth we live on does, instead the distance between the constituents of this cosmos grow and stretches, the farther a galaxy is from us, the faster it recedes, there is no centre, no edge, every paint is moving apart because the fabric of space itself is growing

After the big bang, the universe is continually expanding, infact it is accelerating, the force driving this acceleration is called dark energy, invisible, untouched and beyond anything we can ever imagine. It is woven into the very fabric of space pushing this universe to grow faster and faster. 70% of the universe is made up of this energy.

This dark energy has an enemy, something we’ve all heard to be the product of an apple falling off on the head of an Englishman , gravity. It fights back to dark energy as it is the basic force that attracts object across each other, these were some basic prerequisite terms to understand in order to grasp the upcoming para’s

What does it mean when we say Allah almighty is The Last (الآخر)? Well as we know this universe started its journey from a singularity, blows up to create trillions of stars galaxies, species and other objects which fill up the dimensions of space and time, and then the expansion followed by the creation of more galaxies and planets. Seemingly an infinite cosmos. But this expansion is not endless in the sense of permanence, when it eventually ends, the beginning of the end will arrive, every soul shall taste death, every creation shall cease, and the very fabric of space and time shall vanish, this is what it means when Allah is called last.

And when nothing existed before the singularity and before the creation of space and time, meaning that no created thing existed, That was the moment when Allah was all alone, The First (الأول), and when all ends he will be the Last (الآخر).

This is the ultimate fate of the universe!

THE BIG CRUNCH:

Like every other scientific theory, The Big Crunch is one of the most nominated theory with regard to how to universe will henceforth collapse, gravity is the key force behind the Big Crunch, the space is expanding, the gravity is fighting back, now, under some conditions, the collective gravitational force of all matter could slow down the expansion

Why does this make sense?

Think of throwing a ball upward, at first it rises but gravity slows it down, the time for its arrival depends on the intensity you throw it upwards from, the Big Crunch does something similar but on an unimaginable scale

If the density of matter and energy in the universe is high enough, gravity would eventually overpower the expansion, the outward motion of galaxies would slow down, eventually stop and then slowly start coming towards each other

For years everything would move inwards, The Ultimate Collapse, or The Big Crunch would be the mirror image of Big Bang

Space would get energetic, everything heats up and ends exactly how it started and this hotness where atoms would not be able to survive would result in quark and gluon formation and henceforth compress itself into the primordial singularity!

Now let’s go back to what the lord of heavens and the creator of this very universe mentions in the Quran with regard to the probable ending our minds would bare to understand

Just see how explicitly it describes with such breathtaking precision

    يَوْمَ نَطْوِى ٱلسَّمَآءَ كَطَىِّ ٱلسِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ ۚ كَمَا بَدَأْنَآ أَوَّلَ  خَلْقٍ نُّعِيدُهُۥ ۚ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَآ ۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا فَـٰعِلِينَ

Translation : "The Day when We will fold the heaven like the folding of a [written] sheet for the records. As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. [That is] a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it”

The Reversal: The sudden collapse and "folding" of space. ( The Big Crunch)

The Return to Singularity: "As We began the first creation, We will repeat it." Just as the universe began from a single compressed point, it will return to one.

The rhetorical beauty of the Quran lies in its ability to explain complex physical realities through profound, accessible imagery. The Arabic wording in Surah Al-Anbiya is mathematically elegant and linguistically majestic:

"Natwi" (نَطْوِي): This word comes from the root Tayy, which means to fold, roll up, or compress something that was previously spread out. It perfectly mirrors the scientific concept of space-time contracting upon itself.

"Ka-tayyi as-sijilli" (كَطَيِّ السِّجِلِّ): This translates to "like the folding of a scroll/sheet." In ancient times, a scroll was rolled out to be read (symbolizing the expansion of the universe) and rolled tightly back up when finished (symbolizing the contraction). In modern physics, space is often described as a "fabric" that curves and bends. The Quran's choice of a physical sheet or scroll aligns perfectly with the concept of the fabric of space-time being rolled up.

Subhanallah!

This is a perfect example of Tashbeeh Tamtheeli (تشبيه تمثيلي)

The heavens, with all their galaxies, nebulae, and unimaginable distances, seem permanent and unconquerable to the human eye. Yet, to the Creator, folding the entire cosmos requires no more exertion than a writer calmly rolling up a piece of parchment once a letter is finished. The sheer disparity in scale highlights the absolute majesty (Jalal) of Allah.

The choice of the word as-sijill (the scroll or sheet of records) is a stroke of linguistic perfection. A scroll is not a blank piece of paper; it is a document that holds a record, a story, or a decree.

By comparing the universe to a scroll for writings (lil-kutub), the Quran implies a profound philosophical truth: the universe itself is a divine text. Every star, every orbit, and every era of human history are simply words and sentences inscribed upon the fabric of time and space.

When a writer finishes their manuscript, they roll it up. The story is complete; there is nothing left to add. The rolling of the heavens signifies the absolute end of the cosmic narrative. The purpose of creation has been fulfilled, the records are finalized, and the grand theater of existence is closed.

The true brilliance of this cosmic journey is not in the stars themselves, but in the unseen Creator who guides them. The story of the universe is not an accident of science; it is a beautiful masterpiece, written by the perfect wisdom of Allah (SWT).

Out of absolute nothingness, He brought the universe to life with a single, powerful command—Kun Faya Kun ("Be," and it is). In an instant, light and matter filled the dark emptiness. He did not just create the heavens; He set them in grand motion. Across billions of light-years, He is constantly stretching space and pushing galaxies outward. This amazing expansion was revealed centuries before the first telescope was ever built: "And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander" (Quran 51:47).

Yet, the true power of His design is that whatever He spreads out, He can easily fold back together. When the final hour arrives, the universe will not just quietly fade away. Triggered by the deafening blast of the Trumpet, the moving heavens will come to a sudden halt. The laws of nature will break, stars will scatter like dry leaves in the wind, and the wide fabric of space will violently collapse and blast inward.

This explosive end is the ultimate proof of His majesty. He is Al-Khaliq (The Creator) who started the first spark, Al-Wasi (The All-Encompassing) who stretches the vast sky, and Al-Mu'eed (The Restorer) who will blast the heavens down, only to build them beautifully anew. All glory and praise belong to Allah—the Maker of the first dawn, the Sustainer of the growing universe, and the absolute Master of its final end.

Alhamdulillah, by the will of Allah the Almighty, I have completed my first series of Quranic studies. Using a logical and scientific approach, I explore the flawless perfection of the cosmos to shed light on the reality of existence. This series encourages us to use our reflection and intellect to uncover the hidden truths and truly grasp the profound message our Lord has sent down in the Holy Quran.

Sources and References :-

• The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Dr. Katie Mack – An exceptional, highly accessible look at the physics behind the ultimate fates of the universe, including deep dives into the mechanics of the Big Crunch.

• Cosmos by Carl Sagan – The foundational text for the perspective that "we are a way for the cosmos to know itself," capturing the profound intimacy of cosmology.

•The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene – Explores the deep physics behind the structure of space-time and the cosmic expansion driving galaxies apart.

• Ibn Kathir (Volume 6) by Hafiz Ibn Kathir – Classical commentary detailing the traditional theological understanding of Surah Al-Anbiya and the imagery of the cosmic scroll.

Websites

NASA Science: Universe (science.nasa.gov) – Ground-truth data for cosmic acceleration, dark energy metrics, and the early timeline of the Big Bang.

The Quranic Arabic Corpus (corpus.quran.com) – An academic linguistic database used to trace the precise grammar, syntax, and root origins of words like Natwi and As-Sijill.

ESA Planck Mission (esa.int) – Source for the precise global cosmological accounting data that maps the universe at 68.3% dark energy, 26.8% dark matter, and 4.9% normal matter.

Lisan al-Arab (The Arab Tongue) by Ibn Manzur – The authoritative classical Arabic lexicon utilized for the etymological definitions of Tayy (rolling/compressing) and As-Sijill (the recording parchment).

Ilm al-Bayan (The Science of Rhetoric) Frameworks – Standard classical Arabic literary principles defining Tashbeeh Tamtheeli (compound/fused allegorical comparisons).