Questioner: What was there before heaven and earth or the universe? Where was Allah? And how was this place before that time? How was Allah? Yes. And what was earth? What did she say? Where was Allah? And how was the place before that time? This is from a 12 years old.
Huzoor (rh): You see the Holy Quran has answered this question very clearly. The Holy Quran says, this verse and many other verses of the subject give us a scenario which speaks of the creation, then winding up of the creation. What was the full verse? A time is about to come when we’ll wrap up the universe like the wrapping up of a scroll. So again, the Holy Quran speaks of the process of creation. God says that when there was nothing, no heaven or earth, we ripped them open from something and suddenly they began to be. So all these observations of the Quran speak of a very giant black hole which will suck the entire mass of the universe and it will appear to have disappeared completely. Then God would rip it open again and that mass will be freed and then you will begin to witness the phenomenon. How many of you were there? You’ll begin to witness the phenomenon of expanding universe and the creation of universe. Then it will be wrapped up once again. And if you study the phenomenon of black hole as it has been observed by the scientists, they tell us that when the matter around a highly charged gravitational source like a black hole attracts accretion from all around, when the matter begins to fall towards the black hole, as it approaches, it turns into a sheet. And because the black hole is revolving around itself, the sheet begins to revolve around the black hole until it disappears. The exact picture which has been painted in the Holy Quran 1400 years ago, a time would come when we’ll wrap up the entire universe like the rolling, wrapping of the scroll by those who pack up the scrolls, used to pack up scrolls in the old days, this is what they do, rolling it like the toilet paper rolls, you know, I’m telling the new generation what the old scrolls looked like. So this is very clear. But God does not say that this is the only universe he has created. Where has he said it? And God has not told us what happens to the universe when it disappears.
The scientists are beginning now to conjecture a new fascinating idea, that when the entire universe disappears into the hole of the black hole, it may emerge in a new dimension on the other side, which other side is only conceived through dimensions which are not known to us, but mathematically they can be worked out. So there is no period at all when there is no existence. Black hole finishes off the existence, the form of existence known to us and creates a new universe on the other side. What that other side would be, we do not know. But mathematicians can work some formulas out. But again, I would recall that this is not the only universe. God’s manifestation of God’s attributes never cease to be. While he’s wiping up and bringing life to death, or creation to nothingness, the attribute of creation also works simultaneously in some other form. So God is always occupied with something. You will never conceive any period in God’s existence without any work to do. Because his manifestations, his attributes are permanent. If they are not permanent, then God will cease to exist, partially at least. What is man? If you describe man, he’s a collection of some attributes. If one attribute fails him, he partially dies, like in paralysis, like in mental strokes, like in madness, like in losing sight, losing hearing, losing power to speak, losing power to feel. So he dies gradually or simultaneously, suddenly, but each death is a death in itself. So when you conceive of God having ceased to operate his attributes, that would be a sort of death for God, partial you may call it, but death is death. So we believe, and this is what Hazrat Masih Maud (as) has repeatedly emphasised, that no attribute of God would become inoperative. Somewhere, in some form, God is always operative. So what he did before, or that imagination of the lady, I can only tell in principle, nobody can reach out to God in detail and say what he was doing at that time, or not doing at that time. That is all? Thank you very much.
