Appointed term for sun and moon V.39:5 - Scientific analysis

[Heba E. Husseyn]

As-Salam Alaikum dear everyone. 


“He has created the heavens and the earth with truth. He makes night to succeed day, and He makes day to succeed night, and He constrains the sun and the moon to give service, each running on for an appointed term.  Is not He the Mighty, the Forgiver?”  39:5 Surah Az-Zumar.


Here is the very interesting analysis by scientists that is summed up in the Noble Quran, Verse 39:5 quoted above.

First off, please know that the scientist observations as stated below are approximate figures and ideas.  Precise facts are known to Allah Almighty alone, The Only Creator. Also keep in mind, the changes expected to take place in the sun will be very gradual from our human perspective. That means, generations after generations will pass until the arrival of the generation to watch the final flare up and the end, the precise time of which is known to Allah Almighty alone.





According to scientists the total lifespan of the sun is roughly 10 billion years.  It has already completed nearly 5 billion – scientists presume 4,500,000,000 years to be a bit more exact perhaps - and thus has a little over 5 billion years more to go.  After completing approximately 5 to 6 billion years, the sun is expected to enter the “red giant” stage.  This means it will get bigger and cooler and not exactly like the hot sun it appears at present, essential for life on earth.  It will also expand in size approximately 2,000 times brighter than it is now.  The reason is that within 6 billion years the Sun is expected to exhaust the hydrogen fuel in its core and start burning helium, forcing its transition into a red giant star.  Getting that much larger in the ‘red giant’ stage, the sun will gradually consume the inner planets of the solar system.  The 4 planets closest to the sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.  Mercury and Venus will likely go first. When the sun in its red giant phase expands enough to engulf Earth, it’s all over for us here. 

As we know the sun is a star and the final days of a star are extremely complicated. Its helium and hydrogen burning shells don't burn at the same rate.  The hotter and faster burning helium shell tends to overtake the hydrogen burning shell.  When that happens there is no more helium left to burn, so the helium shell fizzles out.  But the star tends to quickly cook up more helium, which then collects on the white-dwarf core (waste products of the nuclear fusion reactions) until it suddenly flares.  The helium flare-up disrupts, rather turns off, the hydrogen burning for a short time and this process and goes on for a while .. a process many scientists presume may happen with the sun during its final stages. At the very end, the poor sun will literally cough itself to death as multiple and catastrophic fuel ignitions and fusion extinguishments rip through its atmosphere.  It will probably be left as a useless collection of dust and cloud, a nebula.





Similarly they presume moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago, approximately 60 million years after the solar system.  Though confusion persists in science, some claiming the moon is approximately 85 million years younger than the Earth.  The exact information is only with Allah Almighty alone.  Apart from helping in the calculation of months, the gravitational pull of the moon also moderates Earth's wobble, keeping the climate stable.  Subhan’Allah!  The moon appears to be changing its orbit, moving away from the Earth.  Observation shows the moon is currently moving about 3.8 cm away from the Earth every year.  Scientists are at a loss to understand why the moon is gradually being extracted from its orbit, probably driven by the effect of the moon’s gravity on the rotating Earth. It causes rise of tides in oceans which slows the Earth's spin-rate. This loss of momentum is compensated for by the Moon speeding up and thus moving further away.  This is cause is an opinion of science.   There could be other reasons.  Logically, as the moon keeps drifting away from the Earth (albeit very gradually), it will make the days longer as its influence on the Earth spinning around its axis will wan and thereby making days last longer.  Scientists opine that when the moon breaks away from the Earth it would end-up drawn into the sun in its red giant phase. 

Thus, Allah Almighty states about the sun and the moon “each running for an appointed term.”  SubhanAllah a million times!


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-  Ibn Sina on Pandemic
-  Awaiting the Day of Judgment
-  "Sun runs on unto a resting-place" ..

[N. Truth Seeker]

Endless praise to Allah alone.  V.39:5 is indeed a great summary of the observations of science. 


Some scientists, too afraid to die,  have guessed that when the sun reaches the red giant phase,  Earth may move to a more “sanguine orbit.”  That is total hogwash.  Moreover, that “sanguine orbit” will not help earthlings to survive either.  With the sun in its red giant phase getting much cooler and much, much bigger, and the Earth fleeing to a new orbit will mean almost no sunlight for inhabitants of Earth.  Life on Earth will be flatly destroyed in a frozen icy atmosphere and with  very high levels of radiation from the enlarged sun.

[Zainab_M]

Beautiful read. 

Also, the presumption is that when the sun turns into a red giant and loses nearly all its heat, the temperatures there will be equivalent to those in tropical locales of Earth today, such as Miami Beach.  Of course this is a very approximate presumption of science, and plenty of info in science consists of struggling to add 2+2 to get whatever answers they can find to provide suitable guesses.  Looking for precision?  That can only come from Allah.

[N. Truth Seeker]

Very correct sister.

[Ruhi_Rose]

  SubhanAllah ya Rabb, You and only You are the Greatest!


Therefore it seems that according to science, the end of times of the inner part of the solar system will come first (which includes Earth).  Farther planets, that is, Jupiter and beyond would likely survive one, two or three hundred million years longer which in the celestial world is not a very long time at all.  The two farthest ones – Neptune and Pluto – are expected to survive longest of this short period .. being dubbed as the “solar system’s most valuable real estate” during the sun’s red giant phase.

[N. Truth Seeker]

The other point is, when the sun expands and cools that much, its radiation will increase a lot too.  Thus, the more distant planets like Jupiter, Saturn and beyond will suffer erosion under the sun’s intense radiation. Their fate will be shorter and more gloomy. 

[Zainab_M]

According to NASA and other sources, at present there is a distant star that has reached this red giant stage and can be seen.  It was seen by Arab scientists in the Middle Ages and then its continued follow-up by modern scientists.  This star was named Mira by Muslim astronomers of the Arab world in the 7th or 8th centuries.  Modern instruments reveal that Mira is a vastly over-extended bag of deep-red gas that is cool and not even spherical.  Its atmosphere is “undergoing complex undulations and oscillations as the nuclear burning below it sputters and gasps.”  Hence, in as little as 500,000 years or less, Mira will be a planetary nebula, that is, an irregular bag of dust, cloud and gas.  Completely finished.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Thanks for the great comments, it expanded my knowledge on the topic.

Sister Zainab, yeah the star Mira is a good example.  This is Mira:

[Zainab_M]

Alhumdulilah ..

[N. Truth Seeker]

This write-up also provides some clarification to the query that will the Day of Judgement destroy only planet Earth or the entire solar system or entire universe.  Obviously a single destruction of sun and moon will gradually lead to other destructions at least within the solar system for sure.  It’s just that it will be a gradual one from human perspective.

[Zainab_M]

Exactly brother.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

This write-up also provides some clarification to the query that will the Day of Judgement destroy only planet Earth or the entire solar system or entire universe.  Obviously a single destruction of sun and moon will gradually lead to other destructions at least within the solar system for sure.  It’s just that it will be a gradual one from human perspective.

And it will be gradual in the sense that no one will feel or guess the end is coming.  Even after the change occurs (e.g. Mira getting into the red giant phase), these processes take millions of years, slowly inching toward the final destruction.  So, humans just don't notice it.  Scientists can, to some extent, read what's might be going on (with plenty of guesses and presumptions) but their readings give no confirmations of the distant future, let alone the near future.  If the earth starts getting engulfed by the sun, for generations people will take it as a change in the solar system causing change to the earth's climate.  And then when the final step occurs with all its fallout, it will all be terribly sudden.  Even if Mercury and Venus get consumed by the sun, the inhabitants of Earth wont' see it as a danger for themselves .. until it actually happens to them as well.   

[Zainab_M]

Very correct.  May Allah Almighty grant us a safe passage to the next world before the happening of the Final destruction as a final blow to the Earth.  The global generation which is destined to watch that final blow wont find it a smooth experience, except those whom Allah decides to protect with a safe passage.

With the average human lifespan being approximately 80 years, it's barely a pittance compared to those billions and millions of years of occurrences in the celestial realm as ordained by The Almighty.  Thus humans become too confident thinking the disaster is too far away, no need to worry.  They forget that when they pass away, earthly measuring of time will be naught.  Anyone who has passed away now or several years in the past will awaken on the Last Day feeling they were in a state of slumber for a day or two.   

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Very correct.  May Allah Almighty grant us a safe passage to the next world before the happening of the Final destruction as a final blow to the Earth.  The global generation which is destined to watch that final blow wont find it a smooth experience, except those whom Allah decides to protect with a safe passage.

With the average human lifespan being approximately 80 years, it's barely a pittance compared to those billions and millions of years of occurrences in the celestial realm as ordained by The Almighty.  Thus humans become too confident thinking the disaster is too far away, no need to worry.  They forget that when they pass away, earthly measuring of time will be naught.  Anyone who has passed away now or several years in the past will awaken on the Last Day feeling they were in a state of slumber for a day or two.  

Spot on!   I couldn't agree more sister.

[N. Truth Seeker]

Exactly .. and that post Awaiting the Day of Judgement helps to explain this matter a great deal.