We have received this question by email from Jihad Amr:

QUOTE:
I am in a discussion with some pseudo Islamic practioners who claim Eligah Muhammad to have certain knowledge of earths mesurements that I believe to be contradictory to the Criterion.

I am told that the univesres has definate and particular mesurements,but I am of the understanding that the universe is ever expandin according to Allah (S.W.A) Where in the Quran can I find proof of the universe'es measurements?

Jihad Amr

The verse that is often taken as a reference to the expansion of the universe is 51.47. This is one translation by Khalifa that clearly understands the verse to refer to this astronimical phenomenon:

QUOTE:
We constructed the sky with our hands, and we will continue to expand it.

However, other translations understand the verse differently. This, for instance, is Yusuf Ali's translation:

QUOTE:
With power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of pace.

The Arabic term that has been rendered differently by different translators is "lamusi'un."

Who would have thought a mathematical constant would make such an engaging character? God’s Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe, mathematician Amir Aczel’s tale of the search for a scientific explanation of the universe, features the cosmological constant in a role as complex asEinstein ’s. The great genius referred to it as his "greatest blunder," but recent events in the world of astrophysics have brought the prodigal term back into the fold as an important part of his field equation. Aczel is a powerful storyteller, and makes no secret of his admiration forEinstein ; much of the book revolves around his conquest of general relativity. Integrating relativity with gravitation was no easy task (even forEinstein), but the author deftly steers the reader away from the sticky stuff and focuses attention on concepts of importance.

Aczel shows Einstein’s aesthetic troubles with the cosmological constant, which preceded theoretical and experimental problems leading to its abandonment. The universe was caught in the act of expansion by Edwin Hubble, and the constant, originally invoked to maintain a steady-state universe, was unnecessary. Fortunately, though, the mathematics underlying the constant had become important tools forphysicists ; observations in 1997 and 1998 by Saul Perlmutter, Neta Bahcall, and others showed that the universe will continue expanding indefinitely and sent theorists back to the drawing board to revise their equations. The cosmological constant returned triumphant, and while its inventor might never have approved of it, today’s scientific community gives it an honored role in God’s Equation. –Rob Lightner