god particle_a discourse

7/30/2019 God Particle_A Discourse

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God and god-particle

Mubashir Hassan

Higgs Boson, which is commonly termed as god particle has been claimed to be discovered

now. The discovery no doubt is a magnificent accomplishment and a great discovery as far as theunderstanding of the physics is concerned. But connecting the discovery recklessly with the

divine order may turn out to be a dangerous enterprise. The misnomer of God particle and the

unnecessary media hype about it has led to some confusion and misunderstanding among the

masses and even the so called elites of the society. The misunderstanding is of diverse types

some have swayed to one extreme and the others to the very opposite extreme. The irony is that

even those who dont even know the basics of the physics have started giving their own opinion

on the matter. Recently I came across an article published in a local daily in which the author

concludes by the sentence: Beyond that God particle is God himself and that great great God is

ALLAH!! What shall one think about such a line of thinking? This is just the flight of

imagination of the author, his ignorance and a bold and irresponsible assertion. If people start

writing in such an irresponsible way, God alone know how much devastation would it cause to

the simple living (and thinking) of our people. And not only that some others have started

thinking in the completely opposite direction. Therefore to refute such baseless assertions, I

would try to make things comprehensible in the following few lines.

God Particle: The Higgs Boson or the god particle was initially theorized in 1964. The standard

Model of physics fails to explain how particles actually get their mass. The void is filled up by

the god particles. The standard model predicts that it is the Higgs Boson which gives the effect of

mass to the material. Anyway the said particle is just like any other elementary particles (the

smallest particle which has no sub-structure) like, quarks, leptons, neutrino, muon, Gluons, tau,

tau, etc. which make up the matter and, like other elementary particles, has properties specific to

it. Higgs Boson and the Higgs field, as per the theory, are the products of the Big Bang and so

were created at a certain period of time.

On 14th

of March 2013 after going through forty years of tireless experiments, the Higgs

Boson was (tentatively) confirmed at Large Hadron Collider. It is just another discovery and

there is nothing new about it. The discovery of electron, proton, nuclear fission and the nuclear

fusion etc. too were not less exciting at the time of their discovery, but now, when so many new


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discoveries have been made, those discoveries simply appear as if they were trifles. Perhaps the

excitement is simply because it has wrongly been nicknamed as god particle. Perhaps a few years

down the line there might be so many newer discoveries which might change our idea/perception

about the universe and the discovery of the Higgs Boson may appear only a small discovery.

There are so many things or mysteries about the universe which have not been discovered

yet or we do not still have any ideas about them nor have they yet crossed the imagination of any

Scientist. What do we know about the dark matter? Or anti-matter? Who knows we might be

holding some views which are totally unfounded and we regard them as truths and one day we

may know how wrong we had been. (Compare a three year kid theorizing about the working of a

racing toy car! What would be his conclusions and when would he realise that he was wrong?)

How many times it has happened that we had to change our ideas and admit that we had

been wrong. We do not yet know about distant galaxies and stars whose light has not yet reached

the earth? The astronomers are saying about their properties simply on the basis of their

conjecture which in turn is based on what they have observed with regard to the observable.

What can they say about something which is beyond their reach, even beyond the reach of the

powerful telescopes and the electromagnetic waves sent out by them. How much is still

unknown, who knows? .and He has created (other) things of what ye have no knowledge.

(Al Quran - 16:8).

Who knows whether the portion of the universe which is beyond our reach is governed

by same set of laws or different ones and whether same elements are found there or not. Who

knows whether our understanding of the universe is right or we are under an illusion. Are we

such fools as to believe everything which is told to us by fellow human beings? Search on the net

and find how many forgeries and frauds have been committed by these people in the history of

the Science and gullible people simply accepting what they said.

The discovery of the god particle has implications for science and for the world. But one

fails to understand why the common Man or the religious Man equates the discovery with God.

There is no special connection, but just the same connection which other discoveries of the

physics havethat is to understanding of the creation of God in a better way and to appreciate

it in a better way. The discovery of the god particle represents a step forward in human


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knowledge and in our appreciation of Gods awe-inspiring universe. And realisation: that all this

has not been an accident; rather it is all planned. When it took so much efforts to learn only a

fraction of it, would not it be foolish to think that all this was unplanned, a simply accident or a

simple explosion?

It is He Who in His infinite wisdom decides as to at what time the knowledge of a

particular thing has to be dawned upon the human mind. It is the Creator Who decided as to how

the universe has to be created and of which constituent particles it has to be made and how the

mass has to be imparted to things and how the various constituents are to be arranged together.

He Who created the seven heavens one above another; no want of proportion wilt thou see in

the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious so turn thy vision again: Seest thou any flaw? Again turn

thy vision a second time; (thy) vision will come back to thee dull and discomfited in a state worn

out. (Al Quran - 67:3-4).

Comparing Allah with His creation:- Ignorant people compare everything with own

experience and rely on their imagination. Our mind has its limitation and cant go beyond that.

Allah cannot be understood according to our material experiences. Allah is not bound by the

laws of physics which are themselves created by Allah and these laws are not independent but

designed by Allah, so how can we compare Allah as per our own understanding. It is no surprise

that the mind cannot fully grasp the Creator, since the mind is itself created and subject to the

limitations of its created nature.

In Aqeeda Tahawi it is mentioned No imagination (Waham) can conceive of Him, and

no understanding (Faham) can fathom Him. We cant think of Allah as our imagination leads us

to nor should we enter into vain talk about Allah and say out of our own imagination whatever

strikes our minds: No vision can grasp Him but His grasp is over all vision: He is above all

comprehension yet is acquainted with all things. (Al Quran- 6:103)

Allah is too great and sublime to be compared with His creation. He created what He

wanted. Thinking that something is God is the worst form of ignorance and may lead one to

kufur. There is nothing whatever like unto Him (Al Quran- 42:11) Science or the philosophy is

not there to explain God. These two branches of knowledge are too small for great realities.

These two branches of knowledge may appear to be the ultimate knowledge to an atheist, but we


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Muslims know that the ultimate knowledge is with Allah only and we know only that much

which He wishes us to know. .they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He will.

(Al Quran 2:255) We should apply our mental efforts to matters our minds are capable of

engaging with the universe that Allah created and the vast horizons of knowledge that it

presents. Allah has given us the rational ability and the imaginative power to uncover and

conceptualize the physical laws of nature. Beyond that we should not let our imagination

venture. Mail at: [email protected]

god particle_a discourse

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