Where have you been for soooooo long? Chapter 76 Verses 1-3
With the name of Allah Most Kind, Most Merciful…
هَلْ أَتَى عَلَى الإنْسَانِ حِينٌ مِنَ الدَّهْرِ لَمْ يَكُنْ شَيْئًا مَذْكُورًا
Has there not been over Man a long period of Time, when he was nothing – (not even) mentioned?
إِنَّا خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ أَمْشَاجٍ نَبْتَلِيهِ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا
Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.
إِنَّا هَدَيْنَاهُ السَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِرًا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا
We showed him the Way: whether he be grateful or ungrateful (rests on his will).
Surah 76 Verses 1-3
The Cosmic Timeline
Astrophysicists have deduced the age of the Universe
(dated from the Big Bang) to be
13.7 BILLION YEARS!
Imagine that the entire history of the universe is compressed into one year – with the Big Bang corresponding to the first second of the New Year’s Day, and the present time to the last second of December 31st (midnight).
Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Here’s a closer look at when important events would occur when we imagine the universe in one year:
The Universe in One Year was inspired by the late astronomer, Carl Sagan (1934-1996). Sagan was the first person to explain the history of the universe in one year-as a “Cosmic Calendar”-in his television series, Cosmos.
Let us look at the calendar in a bit more detail:
Cosmic Calendar (From The Dragons of Eden – Carl Sagan)
Pre-December Dates
| Big Bang | January 1 |
| Origin of Milky Way Galaxy | May 1 |
| Origin of the solar system | September 9 |
| Formation of the Earth | September 14 |
| Origin of life on Earth | ~ September 25 |
| Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth | October 2 |
| Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae) | October 9 |
| Invention of sex (by microorganisms) | ~ November 1 |
| Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants | November 12 |
| Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish | November 15 |
December
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 1
Significant oxygen atmosphere begins to develop on Earth. |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Extensive vulcanism and channel formation on Mars. |
6 | |
| 7
|
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14
|
15 | 16
First Worms. |
17
Precambrian ends. Paleozoic Era and Cambrian Period begin. Invertebrates flourish. |
18
First oceanic plankton. Trilobites flourish. |
19
Ordovician Period. First fish, first vertebrates. |
20
Silurian Period. First vascular plants. Plants begin colonization of land. |
| 21
Devonian Period begins. First insects. Animals begin colonization of land.
|
22
First amphibians. First winged insects. |
23
Carboniferous Period. First trees. First reptiles. |
24
Permian Period begins. First dinosaurs. |
25
Paleozoic Era ends. Mesozoic Era Begins. |
26
Triassic Period. First mammals. |
27
Jurassic Period. First birds. |
| 28
Cretaceous Period. First flowers. Dinosaurs become extinct.
|
29
Mesozoic Era ends. Cenozoic Era and Tertiary Period begin. First cetaceans. First primates. |
30
First evolution of frontal lobes in the brains of primates. First hominids. Giant mammals flourish. |
31
End of Pliocene Period. Quaternary (Pleistocene and Holocene) Period.First humans. |
December 31
| Origin of Proconsul and Ramapithecus, probable ancestors of apes and men | ~ 1:30 p.m. |
| First humans | ~ 10:30 p.m. |
| Widespread use of stone tools | 11:00 p.m. |
| Domestication of fire by Peking man | 11:46 p.m. |
| Beginning of most recent glacial period | 11:56 p.m. |
| Seafarers settle Australia | 11:58 p.m. |
| Extensive cave painting in Europe | 11:59 p.m. |
| Invention of agriculture | 11:59:20 p.m. |
| Neolithic civilization; first cities | 11:59:35 p.m. |
| First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy | 11:59:50 p.m. |
| Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire | 11:59:51 p.m. |
| Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt | 11:59:52 p.m. |
| Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture; invention of the compass | 11:59:53 p.m. |
| Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by Phoenicia | 11:59:54 p.m. |
| Asokan India; Ch’in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha | 11:59:55 p.m. |
| Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire; birth of Christ | 11:59:56 p.m. |
| Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Birth of Islam and the Islamic Civilization | 11:59:57 p.m. |
| Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion; Crusades | 11:59:58 p.m. |
| Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China; emergence of the experimental method in science | 11:59:59 p.m. |
| Widespread development of science and technology; emergence of global culture; acquisition of the means of self-destruction of the human species; first steps in spacecraft planetary exploration and the search of extraterrestrial intelligence | Now: The first second of New Year’s Day |
Within the scheme of the Cosmic Calendar, an average human life of 70-80 years is equivalent to approximately 0.16 cosmic seconds!
