The cause of the condition is unknown. There is growing evidence that OCD represents abnormal functioning of brain circuitry.

What is OCD?

Filth: fear of dirt and of contamination by germs, poisons, or body secretions
Harm: fear of acting on persistent impulses to harm other people or oneself
Lust: obsessive sexual thoughts
Blasphemy: religious obsessions, etc.

إِنَّمَا يَأۡمُرُكُم بِٱلسُّوٓءِ وَٱلۡفَحۡشَآءِ وَأَن تَقُولُواْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعۡلَمُون١٦٩
He (Satan)  keeping ordering  you to harmful (acts & things) , immodest acts, and that you ascribe to God what you do not know. (2:169)

In this verse, the Quran tells us, that Satan keeps ordering us, in the voice of our own thoughts, in an impulsive form, to do evil, immodest acts, and to say superstitious things.  So, Satan whispers and keeps the impulsiveness feeling and thoughts going.   As Sir Aubrey Lewis categorized these thoughts into  haram, filth, immodest acts, and blasphemy. Haram and filth are put into one category in the Quran. Instead of blashphamy, the Quran mentions “ascribe to God what you do not know.”   Some of the more recent scientists, just call it superstitious thoughts.    Either way it is impulsive thoughts about the unseen world.

The Quran gives a solution to this problem in the verse before.  So it reads

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ كُلُواْ مِمَّا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ حَلَـٰلاً۬ طَيِّبً۬ا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُواْ خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِ‌ۚ إِنَّهُ ۥ لَكُمۡ عَدُوٌّ۬ مُّبِينٌ (١٦٨) إِنَّمَا يَأۡمُرُكُم بِٱلسُّوٓءِ وَٱلۡفَحۡشَآءِ وَأَن تَقُولُواْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ (١٦٩)
O people, eat permissible pure things out of what lies in the earth, and do not follow the footsteps of Shaitan (Satan); 83 indeed, he is an open enemy for you. (168) He orders you only to (do) Haram and immodest acts, and that you ascribe to God what you do not know. (169)

The first solution is to eat of Good and pure things of the earth. Second solution is to stop following the ways of Satan. He is an enemy of humans, and wants to make things difficult for them. One way he does this is by putting a human in a state of OCD.  As mentioned earlier, fear is a trait common in OCD patients,  and the Quran  teach in many places fear is tool of the Satan.  In one particular place the Quran mentions, “Satan threatens (creates fear)  you with poverty and he commands you to immorality. But God promises you His forgiveness and bounty (QURAN, 2:268)

In fact, bulimia and anorexia are often associated with OCD because it normally starts as obsessive thoughts geared toward being thin and good looking? OCD can be a very debilitating disorder. Not only is the person bombarded by troublesome thoughts all of the time, but it can lead to serious behavioral problems such as cutting, eating disorders and the like. For example, kids may become obsessed with thoughts of becoming popular or staying thin. Although it is common for kids to go through generalized thoughts such as these, when the thoughts consume who they are, the issue is a deeper one and should be addressed. So, again with bulimia and anorexia we find a link between OCD and food.

Probably the most overlooked form of therapy for treating obsessive compulsive disorder, and many disorders like it is through whole food diet therapy as mentioned in the Quran. A diet rich in tryptophan, the amino acid precursor to serotonin, is essential to maintaining levels of serotonin. The following foods are rich in this amino acid and should be incorporated into your diet regularly. This list includes: oatmeal, rice bran, eggs, cottage and swiss cheeses, blueberries, bananas, and turkey, roast beef, chicken, whole grains, salmon, tofu, brown rice, baked beans, broccoli, avocado, mackerel, potatoes, nuts and sunflower seeds. It is also advisable that you choose organic, pesticide and hormone free meats and veggies.

Many parents who have used vitamin and other supplements for their children with OCD offer anecdotal reports of improved mood states and reduced symptoms. Among the nutritional supplements they (and some psychiatrists) recommend are B complex, omega 3 fish oil, and calcium/magnesium. The potential use of any vitamin supplements and herbal medicines for your child’s OCD should be discussed with your doctor.

If your child or adolescent is dealing with OCD, there are clear benefits to be gained from cutting down the amount of highly sugared and caffeinated products in his diet. This includes candy, cookies and cakes, sodas, coffee, tea and other “energy boosting” bars or drinks containing high amounts of sugar and caffeine. These products can increase anxiety and nervousness in a child with OCD, ADHD or social anxiety. A balanced diet with all food groups represented is an important element in the home care of a child with OCD. Also important is an adherence to a regular routine for three meals a day.

However, most important foods would be the foods mentioned in the Quran itself, and in the model we see in the Prophets.

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Here the prophet gave another characteristic of the layers, encirclement, by saying (will be encircled with it) and this is how the layers truly look like, they are concentric and each one encircles the one underneath it.”

The Seven “Earths” refer to the layers that literally make up the Earth
crust
lithosphere
upper mantle
astenoshpere
lower mantle
outer core
inner core

Seven heavens may refer to the 7 ozone layers:
troposphere
stratosphere
ozone layer
mesosphere
thermosphere
ionosphere
exosphere

Studies in geology have proven that the earth is composed of seven zones, identified from the inner to the outer layers as follows:

(1)  The Solid Inner Core of Earth: 1.7% of the Earth’s mass; depth of 5,150 – 6,370 kilometers (3,219 – 3,981 miles)

The inner core is solid and unattached to the mantle, suspended in the molten outer core.  It is believed to have solidified as a result of pressure-freezing which occurs to most liquids when temperature decreases or pressure increases.

(2)  The Liquid Outer core: 30.8% of Earth’s mass; depth of 2,890 – 5,150 kilometers (1,806 – 3,219 miles)

The outer core is a hot, electrically conducting liquid within which convective motion occurs.  This conductive layer combines with Earth’s rotation to create a dynamo effect that maintains a system of electrical currents known as the Earth’s magnetic field.  It is also responsible for the subtle jerking of Earth’s rotation.  This layer is not as dense as pure molten iron, which indicates the presence of lighter elements.  Scientists suspect that about 10% of the layer is composed of sulfur and/or oxygen because these elements are abundant in the cosmos and dissolve readily in molten iron.

(3)  The “D” Layer: 3% of Earth’s mass; depth of 2,700 – 2,890 kilometers (1,688 – 1,806 miles)

This layer is 200 to 300 kilometers (125 to 188 miles) thick and represents about 4% of the mantle-crust mass.  Although it is often identified as part of the lower mantle, seismic discontinuities suggest the “D” layer might differ chemically from the lower mantle lying above it.  Scientists theorize that the material either dissolved in the core, or was able to sink through the mantle but not into the core because of its density.

(4)  Lower Mantle: 49.2% of Earth’s mass; depth of 650 – 2,890 kilometers (406 -1,806 miles)

The lower mantle contains 72.9% of the mantle-crust mass and is probably composed mainly of silicon, magnesium, and oxygen.  It probably also contains some iron, calcium, and aluminum.  Scientists make these deductions by assuming the Earth has a similar abundance and proportion of cosmic elements as found in the Sun and primitive meteorites.

(5)  Middle Mantle (Transition region): 7.5% of Earth’s mass; depth of 400 – 650 kilometers (250-406 miles)

The transition region or mesosphere (for middle mantle), sometimes called the fertile layer, contains 11.1% of the mantle-crust mass and is the source of basaltic magmas.  It also contains calcium, aluminum, and garnet, which is a complex aluminum-bearing silicate mineral.  This layer is dense when cold because of the garnet.  It is buoyant when hot because these minerals melt easily to form basalt which can then rise through the upper layers as magma.

(6)  Upper Mantle: 10.3% of Earth’s mass; depth of 10 – 400 kilometers (6 – 250 miles)

The upper mantle contains 15.3% of the mantle-crust mass.  Fragments have been excavated for our observation by eroded mountain belts and volcanic eruptions.  Olivine (Mg,Fe)2SiO4 and pyroxene (Mg,Fe)SiO3 have been the primary minerals found in this way.  These and other minerals are refractory and crystalline at high temperatures; therefore, most settle out of rising magma, either forming new material or never leaving the mantle.  Part of the upper mantle called the asthenosphere might be partially molten.

(7)  Lithosphere

Oceanic crust: 0.099% of Earth’s mass; depth of 0-10 kilometers (0 – 6 miles)

The rigid, outermost layer of the Earth comprising the crust and upper mantle is called the lithosphere.  The oceanic crust contains 0.147% of the mantle-crust mass.  The majority of the Earth’s crust was made through volcanic activity.  The oceanic ridge system, a 40,000-kilometer (25,000 mile) network of volcanoes, generates new oceanic crust at the rate of 17 km3 per year, covering the ocean floor with basalt.  Hawaii and Iceland are two examples of the accumulation of basalt piles.

Conclusion

The layers of the earth coincide with the above mentioned hadith of the Prophet.  The miracle is in two matters:

(1)  The expression of the hadith, ‘He will sink down the seven earths on the Day of Resurrection,’ indicates the stratification of these “earths” around one center.

(2)  The accuracy with which the Prophet of Islam referred to the seven inner layers of earth.

The only way for a desert dweller to have known these facts 1400 years ago is through revelation from God.

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In this statement of the Quran by Abraham is a great scientific fact.  That is our food is directly related to our health and sickness.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Serious diseases that are linked to what we eat kill an estimated three out of four Americans each year. These diseases include heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, some types of cancer, and diabetes. Eating a diet that contains 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day as part of a healthy, active lifestyle lowers the risk for all of these diseases.

Most Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables to keep them healthy. Despite the fact that they are important for maintaining overall good health and preventing diseases, eating fruits and vegetables is not even on many people’s radar screens.

Taking multivitamins doesn’t solve the problem–it is impossible to capture all of the vitamins, minerals, disease-fighting phytochemicals, and fiber found in fruits and vegetables, in a pill. Only fruits and vegetables, not vitamin pills, can provide all of these health-protecting nutrients together.

WHO IS AT RISK?

Everyone has some degree of risk for developing diet-related chronic diseases, and this risk increases with age. Lifestyle factors that contribute to increased risk for these diseases include not eating enough fruits and vegetables, eating too many foods high in saturated fats (fried foods, full-fat dairy products, fatty cuts of meat) and not getting enough exercise. These behaviors begin in childhood and become habits that can carry into adulthood.

Heart disease, which is largely influenced by what we eat, remains the number one killer of both American men and women. And, high blood pressure, which can be reduced within a month by changing eating habits, will affect 90 percent of American men and women at some point in their lifetime.

In general, men get chronic diseases more often than women and die from them at earlier ages. African American men have even higher rates of these diseases than white men, including heart disease, high blood pressure, many cancers, and diabetes, and get them even earlier in life.

The number of servings of fruits and vegetables that is recommended depends on a person’s age and gender, ranging from five a day for children age 2 to 6 (as well as some women and some older adults) to nine a day for teenage boys and active men.

CAN IT BE PREVENTED?

Leading causes of death, which include heart disease, high blood pressure, many cancers, diabetes and stroke, are largely preventable through lifestyle choices such as eating more fruits and vegetables. Eating 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day is one of the easiest things everyone can do to lower their chances for all of the diet-related diseases.

This may sound like a lot, but in fact one serving size is actually quite small (it fits in the palm of your hand), and it’s easy to eat several servings during one meal in a vegetable or fruit salad, for instance. But remember, pills don’t count.

BOTTOM LINE

Simple lifestyle changes can save lives and improve your quality of life. A person does not have to drastically alter his or her diet to be healthier. Simply substituting an apple a day as a snack instead of a candy bar can make an important difference in lowering risk for disease and improving everyday performance. It is not necessary to make large changes in diet in order to improve health and avoid disease. Here are a few simple tips:

• Grab an apple, orange, banana, pear, or other piece of moderate-sized fruit to eat on-the-go.
• Snack on raw veggies like baby carrots, pepper strips, broccoli, and celery.
• Pick up ready-made salads from the produce shelf for a quick salad anytime.

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The video also contains the following topics:

1. A quick brief introduction to Islam
2. Refuting the claim that Allah is a moon god!
3. Refuting the claim that the circulation around the Kaabah is an act of paganism, and SHOWING its MIRACULOUS part.
4. Comparing four SAME TOPICS mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran. The topics are:
A. The descriptions of the earth, sun, and the stars in the Bible and the Quran

B. The shape of the earth in the Bible and the Quran. This includes some remarkable Quran descriptions regarding the earth. Does the Bible say the same?

C. Some of the earth’s attributes in the Bible and the Quran. In this section, the video shows you the Quran’s verse that mentions the DIRECTION of the earth’s rotation and more

D. The drowning of Pharaoh. Did you know that Pharaoh’s body has been found?
Which of the two books has predicted the safety of Pharaoh’s body? The Bible says that not one single man has escaped from the sea! See what the Quran has predicted!

The video also touches on topics like the black holes, the stages of creation, etc. in the Holy Quran.

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Exploring only a few of the millions of these delicate balances would be sufficient to show that the world we live in is specially designed for us.

One of the most important balances in our planet is revealed in the atmosphere that surrounds us.  The atmosphere of the earth holds the most appropriate gasses in the most appropriate ratio needed for the survival not only of human beings, but also of all the living beings on the earth.

The 77% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen and 1% of carbon dioxide as well as other gasses readily available in the atmosphere represent the ideal figures necessary for the survival of living beings.  Oxygen, a gas that is vital for living beings, helps to burn up food and convert it into energy in our bodies.

If the oxygen quantity in the atmosphere were greater than 21%, the cells in our body would soon start to suffer great damage.  The vegetation and hydrocarbon molecules needed for life would also be destroyed.  If this quantity were less, then this would cause difficulties in our respiration, and the food we eat would not be converted into energy.  Therefore, the 21% of oxygen in the atmosphere is the most ideal quantity determined for life.

No less than oxygen, other gasses like nitrogen and carbon dioxide are also arranged in the ideal quantity for the needs of living beings and the continuity of life.  The amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere has the ideal ratio to balance the harmful and burning effects of oxygen.  This ratio represents the most appropriate value required for photosynthesis, which is essential for life’s energy supply on the earth.  Moreover, the amount of carbon dioxide has the most appropriate value needed to maintain the stability of the surface temperature of the earth and to prevent heat loss especially at night time.  This gas, comprising 1% of the atmosphere, covers the earth like a quilt and prevents the loss of heat to space.  If this amount were greater, the temperature of the earth would increase excessively, causing climatic instability and posing a serious threat to the  living beings.

These proportions remain constant thanks to a perfect system.  The vegetation covering the earth converts carbon dioxide to oxygen, producing 190 billion tons of oxygen every day.  The proportion of other gasses is always kept constant on the earth by the help of interconnected complex systems.  Life is thus sustained.

In addition to the establishment of the ideal gas mixture required for life on earth, the mechanisms needed to preserve and maintain this order are created alongside with it.  Any break in the balance, though instantaneous, or any change in the ratios even for a very short time period, would mean the total destruction of life.  Yet, this does not happen.  The formation of these gasses in the atmosphere just in the amount people need, and the constant preservation of these ratios indicate a planned creation.

At the same time, the earth has the ideal size in terms of magnitude to possess an atmosphere.  If the mass of the earth were a little less, then its gravitational force would be insufficient and the atmosphere would be dispersed into space.  If its mass were a little greater, then the gravitational force would be too much and the earth would absorb all gasses in the atmosphere.  There is an incredibly high number of conditions required for the formation of an atmosphere such as the one our world currently has and all of these conditions should exist altogether to be able to talk of life.

The creation of these delicate proportions and balances in the sky is mentioned in the Quran:

“He erected heaven and established the balance.” (Quran 55:7)

The majority of people spend their lives without being aware of the delicate balances and subtle adjustments in the gas composition of the atmosphere, the distance of the world from the sun or the movements of planets.  They are ignorant of the great significance of these balances and adjustments to their own lives.  However, even a minor deviation in any one of these arrangements would create very severe problems regarding the existence and survival of humankind.

There are many other balances established on earth for the continuity of life:

For instance, if the surface gravity were stronger than its current value, the atmosphere would retain too much ammonia and methane gasses, which would mean the end of life.  If it were weaker, the planet’s atmosphere would lose too much water, and life on earth would be impossible.

The thickness of the earth’s crust constitutes another one of the delicate balances in the earth.  If the earth’s crust were thicker, too much oxygen would be transferred from the atmosphere to the crust and this would have severe effects on human life.

If the opposite were true, that is, if the earth’s crust were thinner, volcanic and tectonic activity would be too great to permit life on earth.

Another crucial balance for human life is the ozone level in the atmosphere.  If it were greater than its current value, the surface temperatures would be too low.  If it were less, surface temperatures would be too high, and there would be too much ultraviolet radiation at the surface.

In fact, the absence of even a single one of these balances would herald the end to life on earth.  However, God has created the universe with infinite wisdom and power and designed the earth especially for human life.  Despite this fact, the majority of people lead their lives in total ignorance of these events.  In the Quran, God reminds people of His:

“(God) makes night merge into day and day merge into night, and He has made the sun and moon subservient, each one running until a specified time.  That is God, your Lord.  The Kingdom is His.  Those you call on besides Him have no power over even the smallest speck.” (Quran 35:13)

It is sufficient to look at millions of dead planets in space in order to understand that the delicate balances required for life on earth is not a result of random coincidences.  The conditions essential for life are too complicated to have been formed “on their own” and at random, and these conditions are specially created for life alone.

These balances we have briefly described so far are only a few of the millions of intricate, interrelated balances and orders established so that people can live in peace and safety on the earth.

Examining only a part of the balances and harmony on the earth is enough to comprehend the superior being of God and grasp the existence of a planned creation in every detail of the universe.  It is no doubt impossible for a person or any other living being to build such an enormous balance and order.  Nor are the components of this order such as atoms, elements, molecules, and gasses, capable of establishing an order based on such intricate and extremely delicate calculations and measurements, and such fine tunings.  This is because activities like planning, ordering, arranging, calculating, and proportioning can only be realized by beings that possess wisdom, knowledge and power.  The Exalted Being Who orders, plans and balances the entire universe to be fit for life of human beings on a planet like earth and Who sustains it with dramatically delicate measures and balances is God, Who has Infinite Wisdom, Knowledge and Power.

In the Quran, it is stated that those people who are able to realize these facts are the only “people with intelligence”:

“Indeed in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are Signs for people with intelligence: those who remember God, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: [They say] ‘Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing.  Glory be to You!  So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Quran 3:190-191)

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Quran, the Miraculous Book calls our attention to the

multifarious phenomena of nature occurring around us. It keeps on diverting the attention of its reader from the day its revelation started to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) till present and future generations to the search for existence of God. It picks up examples and observations we have in our close environment. Here to quote one example for people who would know God from the phenomena of combustion and fire we kindle. The Quran reads and claims as;

“أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ النَّارَ الَّتِي تُورُونَ{71} أَأَنتُمْ أَنشَأْتُمْ شَجَرَتَهَا أَمْ نَحْنُ الْمُنشِؤُونَ{72}” (الواقعة : 21-72)

“See ye the fire which ye kindle? Is it ye who grow its tree or do We grow it” (56: 71-72).

Attention of the reader is diverted to the phenomena of fire burning in relation to a tree with a question that who created its tree that produce fire. What is the use of the word ‘tree’ Quran relates with the fire? Why not Quran choose the word ‘wood’ because fire burns dry wood as we observe in our daily life. What is the relation of tree with a fire to occur? Simpler, for a 7^th century reader is that fire burns dry wood and that is our common observation too. But a very close reading of the passage would mean something different for a person who is more specialized in science and would seek the existence of God in his/ her scientific discoveries. He/she would put the question why does Quran not explain the exact process of fire if it has taken it as something that would guide mankind to the existence of God. What all science knows is neither tree nor wood but ‘Oxygen’ that is released by plants during photosynthesis which means ”putting together with light.” The best known form of photosynthesis is the one carried out by higher plants and algae, and some cyanobacteria responsible for a major part of photosynthesis in oceans. All green plants on the surface of earth have green coloring chlorophyll which contains chloroplast in them. Chlorophyll absorbs the sunlight and combines carbon dioxide and water in a process called photosynthesis. The end products of this photosynthesis are carbohydrate (sugar) and oxygen (Figure Photosynthesis).

The carbohydrate or glucose which plants produce is utilized by the plants for making starch, fats, and proteins. The second product of this process is oxygen. All oxygen we have in the environment for respiration and combustion comes from this process of photosynthesis. And all this what science has found is correct. He/ she then would say ‘what is God and how would I perceive His existence if I were to take this example of fire?

The Quran answers this question in a more concise manner and shows its reader to know GOD from your scientific discoveries and read the verse below;

“الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ الشَّجَرِ الْأَخْضَرِ نَاراً فَإِذَا أَنتُم مِّنْهُ تُوقِدُونَ{80}” (يس : 80)

Know that “God is One Who produces for you fire out of the green tree, when behold! You kindle therewith”. (36:80).

More special in the verse above is the word ‘green trees’ which has challenged the 7^th century reader to contemplate and as an answer for the 21^st or later century readers. The second point that needs more attention is the Arabic word ‘Min’ meaning “from” or “out of”. What is that which the green trees produce for burning through which we kindle our fire? Is it not explaining the end process of photosynthesis in green trees with which we burn our fire? (Oxygen as one of the end product of photosynthesis is a common knowledge for today’s man but for a reader of 7^th century, the phenomenon was yet to be discovered). It is up to you the men of Science and knowledge. What name you choose for it. You call it element of life, fire or “Oxygen”. It is the property Almighty Allah has put in green trees for you as a sign and a lesson to understand God. If there were no green trees, there would have been no oxygen and no combustion. Nomadic people of desert had no knowledge of oxygen. All they knew was their observation of burning, either it was dry wood or a by-product of a green tree such as coal or oil. Oxygen was not known to them but they were challenged with the word ‘fire’ from green tree and were asked to uncover the knowledge that would lead you to the belief of existence of God after all their discoveries submit to the power of God who put such properties in green trees.

We notice here two remarkable features of the Quran. The first feature is that it expresses scientific truths that will be verified centuries later. The second feature is that the Quran expresses those truths using terms and expressions that would avoid co

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The Arabic word “alhubuki,” translated as “furnished with paths” in verse 7 of Surat adh-Dhariyat, comes from the verb “hubeke,” meaning “to weave closely, to knit, to bind together.” The use of this word in the verse is particularly wise and represents the current state of scientific knowledge in two aspects.

The first is this: The orbits and paths in the universe are so dense and intertwined that they constitute intersecting paths, just like the threads in a piece of fabric. The Solar System we live in is made up of the Sun, the planets and their satellites and heavenly objects in constant motion such as meteors and comets. The Solar System moves through the galaxy known as the Milky Way, which contains 400 billion stars.1 It is estimated that there are billions of galaxies. Celestial bodies and systems revolving at speeds of thousands of kilometers an hour move through space without colliding with one another.

The science of astronomy was developed with the aim of mapping the positions and courses of stars, while astro-mechanics was developed in order to determine these complex motions. Astronomers used to assume that orbits were perfectly spherical. The fact is, however, that heavenly bodies are known to follow mathematical shapes, such as spherical, elliptical, parabolic or hyperbolic orbits. Dr. Carlo Rovelli of the University of Pittsburgh says, “Our space in which we live is just this enormously complicated spin network.”2

left; the orbits of some of the bodies in the Solar System. Based on this picture and looking clockwise, it can be seen that the Solar System itself is part of even greater orbital movements.3

The second aspect is that the description in the Qur’an of the sky using a word meaning “woven” may be a reference to the String Theory of physics. (Allah knows the truth.) According to this theory, the basic elements that comprise the universe are not point-like particles, but strings resembling miniature violin strings. These tiny, identical and one dimensional strings oscillating in the form of filaments are regarded as being like loops in appearance. It is assumed that the origin of all the diversity in the universe lies in the way these strings vibrate at different vibrations, in the same way that violin strings produce different sounds with different vibrations.4

Visit this website to learn more about string theory.

Although it is not possible to see the size of the threads in the String Theory, the only theory to bring theories such as Einstein’s theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics together in a coherent way, it can still be calculated mathematically. These strings, which scientists regard as the material from which space and time are woven, are just 1.6×10-35 m (0.000000000000000000000000000000000016 meters) in size. This, known as Plank’s length, is the smallest known, being just 10-20 of the protons that make up the nucleus of that atom. If an atom were to be magnified to the size of the Solar System, each one of these strings would be no bigger than a tree. 7 Bearing in mind that an atom is 100,000 times smaller than the smallest thing that can be seen with the naked eye, the minute scale of these strings can be more easily grasped.

Professor of Physics Abhay Ashtekar from the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Physics Jerzy Lewandowski from the University of Warsaw interpret the woven appearance of space as follows in an article titled “Space and Time Beyond Einstein”:

In this theory, Einstein wove the gravitational field into the very fabric of space and time… The continuum we are all used to is only an approximation. Perhaps the simplest way to visualize these ideas is to look at a piece of fabric. For all practical purposes, it represents a 2-dimensional continuum; yet it is really woven by 1-dimensional threads. The same is true of the fabric of space-time. It is only because the “quantum threads” which weave this fabric are tightly woven in the region of the universe we inhabit that we perceive a continuum. Upon intersection with a surface, each thread, or polymer excitation, endows it with a tiny “Plank quantum” of area of about 10-66 cm2. So an area of 100 cm2 has about 1068 such intersections; because the number is so huge, the intersections are very closely spaced and we have the illusion of a continuum.

An Article in the New York Times seeking an answer to the question “How Was the Universe Built?” contained the following lines:

Even the tiny quarks that make up protons, neutrons and other particles are too big to feel the bumps that may exist on the Planck scale. More recently, though, physicists have suggested that quarks and everything else are made of far tinier objects: superstrings vibrating in 10 dimensions. At the Planck level, the weave of space-time would be as apparent as when the finest Egyptian cotton is viewed under a magnifying glass, exposing the warp and woof.

In his book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, the theoretical quantum physicist Lee Smolin devotes one chapter to “How to Weave a String” and says this on the subject:

… space may be ‘woven’ from a network of loops… just like a piece of cloth is ‘woven’ from a network of threads.

In his book Our Cosmic Habitat the cosmologist and astrophysicist Prof. Martin Rees says:

According to our present concepts, empty space is anything but simple… and on an even tinier scale, it may be a seething tangle of strings.

The way that Allah describes the universe as being woven paths and orbits in verse 7 of Surat adh-Dhariyat shows that the Qur’an is in extraordinary agreement with science. As can be seen in a great many other instances, the way that all the information revealed in the Qur’an 1400 years ago is confirmed by modern scientific data is highly thought provoking. This perfect harmony between the Qur’an and scientific developments clearly reveals that the Qur’an is the word of our Lord, the creator of and He who knows best about all things. In one verse Allah states:

“Will they not ponder the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found many inconsistencies in it.” (Surat an-Nisa, 82)

An interview with a scientist about “String Theory” back when it was still being tested

After writing a 400-page book on string theory and then helping NOVA translate that book into a three-hour documentary, would Brian Greene, we wondered, have anything more to say about string theory? We needn’t have worried. In this interview, Greene eloquently describes what it’s like to know something about the universe before anyone else does, how he wonders if there are aspects of nature that we humans will never be smart enough to comprehend, why he would prefer to find out today if string theory is wrong, and more.

Road to acceptance

NOVA: Is it an exciting time to be a string theorist?

Greene: It’s an amazing time to be a string theorist. The last few years have witnessed a tremendous amount of progress, so much so that I think no one in their wildest dreams would have imagined that we’d have gotten as far as we have.

NOVA: Do you think string theory will ever be accepted as widely as, say, the theory of general relativity? What would it take for that to happen?

Greene: Well, the real reason why general relativity is widely accepted is because it made predictions that were borne out by experimental observations. The primary one that put general relativity on the map was its prediction of the bending of starlight by the sun, which in 1919 was confirmed by observation during a solar eclipse. That was the moment when general relativity emerged from the realm of theory and entered the realm of being a piece of reality as we know it.

For string theory to have the kind of acceptance of general relativity, it’s got to do the same thing. It’s got to make a prediction that is borne out by some experiment. And as yet, we haven’t quite gotten to the stage where we can make definitive predictions which, if they’re found, the theory was right, and if they’re not found, the theory was wrong.

But we have gotten to the stage where we can make some rough predictions for things that might happen at the future accelerators that are now being built, in particular one in Geneva, Switzerland, called the Large Hadron Collider, which should be ready about 2007 or 2008. If some of the predictions that string theory says might happen are borne out through experiment at that accelerator, then I think it’s quite possible that string theory would be as accepted as general relativity.

NOVA: Can you give an example of a prediction that might be experimentally verified in coming years?

Greene: Sure. One of the strangest features of string theory is that it requires more than the three spatial dimensions that we see directly in the world around us. That sounds like science fiction, but it is an indisputable outcome of the mathematics of string theory. So the question is, where are these extra dimensions? One suggestion is that they’re all around us, but they’re small relative to the dimensions that we directly see and therefore are more difficult to detect.

What the theory also predicts—not necessarily but possibly—is that energy can escape from our known dimensions and leak into these extra dimensions under appropriate circumstances. Those appropriate circumstances might be generated in high-energy collisions that will take place at the new atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider.

So it’s possible that through these high-energy collisions we will find that there is less energy at the end of the collision than there was at the start. If the energy loss is of just the right sort, it could be very strong evidence that the energy has seeped off into these extra dimensions. If that were true, if that were the best explanation we could find, that would be strong evidence that the extra dimensions are real, and that in turn would be strong evidence that the framework of string theory is correct.

NOVA: What sort of experimental results that support string theory do you think would make even die-hard detractors like Sheldon Glashowstand up and take notice?

Greene: Well, one would be the one I just mentioned. The next, in fact, more likely experimental result in many people’s minds to be found is something called supersymmetry. The full name of string theory is really superstring theory. The “super” stands for this feature called supersymmetry, which, without getting into any details, predicts that for every known particle in the world, there should be a partner particle, the so-called supersymmetric partner. So for the electron, there should be the supersymmetric partner electron, or the selectron, as people call it. For quarks, there should be supersymmetric quarks, or squarks. For neutrinos, sneutrinos, and so forth.

“I’ve spent something like 17 years working on a theory for which there is essentially no direct experimental support.”

So there’s this whole spectrum of sparticles, if you will, that the theory predicts should exist, but as yet nobody has ever seen any one of these partner particles. We believe the reason is because they’re much heavier than the known particles, and the heavier something is, the more energy, the more oomph it takes to produce it in a collision. We hope that these new atom smashers, the Large Hadron Collider in particular, will have enough energy to start producing these particles that the theory predicts.

Now, if those particles are found, it will not prove string theory correct. It will prove this supersymmetric aspect of the theory to be correct. And it turns out that string theory is not the only theory that allows for supersymmetry, so this isn’t necessarily a smoking gun. But it would be a strong piece of circumstantial evidence that string theory is on the right track. So in many ways, I consider that to be the most likely experiment to have positive outcomes and to at least take us this particular distance down the path toward confirming string theory.

NOVA: Have you ever had doubts about string theory?

Greene: All the time! I mean, it is a very strange research career, in a way. So far I’ve spent something like 17 years working on a theory for which there is essentially no direct experimental support. It’s a very precarious way to live and to work.

The funny thing is, I sometimes get the impression that some people outside of the field think that there’s some element of security that we have in working on a theory that hasn’t made any predictions that can be proven false. In a sense, we’re working on something unfalsifiable. And there sometimes is a sense that we’re happy about that. But let me state categorically, if the theory is wrong, I’d like to know it today so I wouldn’t waste my time on it any longer.

We will have no certainty that it’s right until the experiments show that it’s right. However, I should say that in my mind there is a strong circumstantial case already that it’s correct, because it puts together general relativity and quantum mechanics, and each of those theories has already received a fantastic amount of experimental support. String theory is the most developed theory with the capacity to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics in a consistent manner. I do believe the universe is consistent, and therefore I do believe that general relativity and quantum mechanics should be put together in a manner that makes sense. That’s what string theory does, and to me, that’s pretty convincing.

Limits to understanding

NOVA: Is there any way you can make people who know little about mathematics understand the supreme elegance of string theory?

Greene: I think so. You know, when we talk about theories of physics being elegant, what we often mean is that a theory is able to explain a wide range of phenomena using a very small number of powerful ideas. The elegance comes from the tremendous reach of these few simple ideas.

“No matter how hard you try to teach your cat general relativity, you’re going to fail.”

And that really is a core characteristic of string theory. We have this idea that the basic constituents of nature are these vibrating strings, that their vibrational patterns dictate the properties of particles, and they dictate the kinds of forces at work in the world. If the theory is right, that simple notion will perhaps be able to explain, in principle, every physical phenomenon. That powerful reach is where the elegance resides.

NOVA: Do you think there are limits to how much we can know about the universe?

Greene: I don’t know. I’d like to think that there aren’t, but I suspect that’s a little optimistic. An analogy that’s used in the NOVA program that I’m quite fond of is: We are certainly aware of intelligent beings on this planet whose capacity to understand the deep laws of the universe is limited. No matter how hard you try to teach your cat general relativity, you’re going to fail. There we have an example of an intelligent living being that will never know this kind of truth about the way the world is put together. Why in the world should we be any different? We can certainly go further than cats, but why should it be that our brains are somehow so suited to the universe that our brains will be able to understand the deepest workings?

NOVA: Well, for example, most people have trouble envisioning a fourth spatial dimension. Can you?

Greene: No. I cannot envision anything beyond three dimensions. What I can do is I can make use of mathematics that describe those extra dimensions, and then I can try to translate what the mathematics tells me into lower dimensional analogies that help me gain a picture of what the math has told me. But the picture is certainly inadequate to the task of fully describing what’s going on, because it’s in lower dimensions, and in higher dimensions, things are definitely different.

To tell you the truth, I’ve never met anybody who can envision more than three dimensions. There are some who claim they can, and maybe they can; it’s hard to say. But it’s very hard, when your brain is involved in a world that appears to have three dimensions and is well suited to envisioning that world, to go beyond that and imagine more dimensions. [To give it a try, see Imagining Other Dimensions.]

Giant strings

NOVA: I’m glad to know it wasn’t just me. Getting back to strings, Ed Witten said in his interview that it’s conceivable that the big bang could have produced a string so large that it would be present in today’s universe and could be visible in telescopes. Do you agree, and if so, where would we look for it, and what might it look like?

Greene: I do agree that it’s a possibility. But as I think Ed Witten would agree, it’s a fairly unlikely scenario. It’s not, in anybody’s mind, the likely way that we’ll confirm the theory. But it is possible that the huge energies present at the time of the big bang could have produced a big string. The bigger a string is, the more energy it takes to create it. And you could have produced one that somehow hung around.

How would you see it? Well, if it floated by your telescope, or if it floated in the fields of vision of your satellite that’s observing the heavens, it could create, for instance, a disturbance to the microwave background radiation. It could change the temperature of that radiation along a linear defect, sort of like if you look at your reflection in a cracked mirror. You look fine on one side of the crack. You look fine on the other side of the crack. But at the crack itself, things will be kind of dislocated. A strong wafting by a telescope would kind of do a subtle version of that to the image.

NOVA: How is it that fundamental strings, which are by definition extremely tiny, could come in a size many orders of magnitude larger than normal?

Greene: When we say strings are tiny, we generally mean strings that haven’t had a huge amount of energy pumped into them. But the more energy you pump into a string, the more widely it will vibrate and, at some point, the longer it will grow. So it’s really a question of how much energy the string embodies. Typically they don’t embody that much, and therefore typically they are very small.

Eureka moments

NOVA: How does it feel to make a major discovery, like the time you and two colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study realized that the fabric of space can tear and reform in a new way?

Greene: Well, there’s nothing like it really. For a brief moment, you feel like you have seen the universe in a way that nobody previously has. You feel like you are privy to a deep truth of nature that no one has been aware of before. It’s a wonderful and remarkable feeling. It’s not one that I think one can expect to have occur many times in one’s career. You do often discover things that are useful and important, but I think it’s a rare privilege to find something fairly fundamental and really get a sense of connection to the universe that’s hard to achieve in any other way.

NOVA: Do you have a most exciting moment from your work with string theory, a sort of “eureka” moment?

Greene: That certainly was one. Another one was when I was working with a Harvard professor, Ronen Plesser—he’s now at Duke—and we came upon something called mirror symmetry, which was somewhat unexpected. Using Einstein’s general relativity, we found basically that the shape of the universe could differ in rather dramatic ways, but yet the physics that we would see wouldn’t bear any imprint of that different geometry.

“If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake.”

This is a very unusual thing, because Einstein taught us that geometry and physics are very tightly woven together. We found that sometimes they’re not as tightly woven as he might have thought. That was another eureka moment, in the sense of really feeling that we had uncovered something unexpected.

NOVA: What advice would you have for an aspiring string theorist? Go for it, or for God’s sake stay away?

Greene: I think ultimately you’ve got to follow your heart in these matters, and if these are the kinds of ideas and questions that are burning within you, and you just can’t imagine not having them at the forefront of what you do in day-to-day work, then yeah, you’ve got to go for it. On the other hand, this is a very speculative field, and it could turn out to all be wrong. And if that’s the case, and you would feel, after putting years of research into the subject, that those years were wasted because the theory was wrong, then it’s probably not the right field for you.

I and many others, however, would not feel it had been a waste of time if the theory turns out to be wrong, because we’ve developed a lot of important mathematics. We’ve developed connections to other, more well established areas of physics, which I think will be important in their own right. We will have done some very valuable work. To me, if the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake, but without that icing, to me the work will still have been incredibly interesting and useful.

Getting the word out

NOVA: What was it like making a documentary based on your book?

Greene: It was a lot of fun in many ways, and it was very hard in others. It takes a great deal of work to distill the essence of the ideas and find the right way to communicate them visually that’s both entertaining and accurate. Sometimes there can be a tension between wanting something to be more entertaining yet having to be well aware of what that might be doing to the accuracy of the science. For me, it was constantly keeping a watch out to make sure that the science ultimately was dictating what we could and couldn’t do.

NOVA: You’ve published a bestselling book. You’ve acted in musicals. You’ve won judo tournaments. You’ve even appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Do such pursuits bring new perspective to your work as a theoretical physicist, or are they just welcome relief from the mental grind?

Greene: Well, certainly they’re welcome relief. But my feeling is that the creative impulse, and the creative juices, are affected by everything in the life that you lead, sometimes in fairly intangible ways. When writing the book, for instance, I found myself—again, similar to working on the NOVA program—forcing myself to try to see to the heart of the science, so that I could communicate it in a way that would strip away the technical details that people don’t really want to hear much about, especially if one isn’t trained in these ideas. That helped me to get a clearer overview of where the field was and where it was going and what the important questions are. In that way, it did help set me on a particular course of scientific research that I’m now engaged in. I’m not sure if I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing right now were it not for writing The Elegant Universe.

NOVA: You’re just finishing up a new book. What’s that about?

Greene: That book is about space and time. The Elegant Universe was about the search for the unified theory, and space and time were supporting characters in that story. In this new book, space and time are the main characters. It’s really a discussion of our ever-changing grasp of what these seemingly simple notions of space and time actually are.

NOVA: You mentioned unified field theory. If string theory does lead to the so-called “theory of everything”—I know you don’t like that term much—where would theoretical physicists go from there?

Greene: Well, I think an analogy that I believe Richard Feynman once used is probably the best one to explain where we would be. If you are learning the game of chess, the first thing you have to do is learn the rules. But after you’ve learned the rules, the game of chess for you is not over. It’s just beginning, because now you can apply those rules to play all sorts of wonderful games that involve all kinds of strategy and allow you to explore the richness of that universe.

“A unified theory would put us at the doorstep of a vast universe of things that we could finally explore with precision.”

Similarly, if we did finally have the unified theory, if we did finally have the deep laws of the universe in hand, that in a very real sense would also be a beginning. It would be the beginning of our quest to use that deep understanding to fully explore this universe, to fully understand black holes and stars and galaxies and even the big bang, to fully understand how things got to be the way they are. So in many ways, it would just be the start. A unified theory would put us at the doorstep of a vast universe of things that we could finally explore with precision.

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The distance to the sun is not a constant; so as the distance to the sun increases the difference in energy causes the length of the lunar orbit to change. When the Earth-moon system exits the solar system 12000 Lunar Orbits / Earth Day becomes equal to the speed of light. Hence, if it is defined inside the gravitational field of the sun then this definition will be wrong with time; however since it is defined outside the gravitational field of the sun then this definition will be true for ever!

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