The Qur’an and Speed of Light

In the Name of Allah---the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

The Qur’an presents time not as an absolute, uniform flow but as a relative reality dependent on perspective, scale, and domain of existence. Through verses that describe a “day” equaling a thousand years, fifty thousand years, or the span of human perception, the Qur’an subtly disengages time from human clocks and anchors it to the framework in which events unfold. This Qur’anic portrayal anticipates a key insight of modern physics: that time is not universal but varies with motion, frame of reference, and level of existence. Rather than offering a technical theory, the Qur’an invites reflection on the elasticity of time, emphasizing that divine action operates beyond human temporal limits, while human experience of time remains bound to physical and biological constraints. These verses have also been used for deriving the speed of light.

Dr. Mansour Hasab El‑Naby al-Misri is known for proposing a theoretical correlation between Qur’anic time references and physical motion, particularly in relation to the speed of light, by interpreting verses that describe a “day” as equal to a thousand Earth years. In his work, he treats this “day” as a celestial or non-Earthly frame of reference and combines it with astronomical quantities such as Earth’s sidereal day and the Moon’s 12000 revolutions around the Earth, arguing that when these are expressed in consistent units, the resulting ratio closely approximates the measured value of the speed of light.

1. The Qur’anic verse used

He focuses on Surah As‑Sajdah (32:5):

“He regulates all affairs from the heavens to the earth; then they ascend to Him in a Day, the measure of which is a thousand years of your reckoning.”

2. Using the Moon’s orbital distance

Based on this method:

• A lunar year is taken as 12 lunar months (12 orbits of the Moon around Earth).
• The 12000 revolutions of the Moon around Earth are used as a measure of spatial distance.
• Multiply the distance of one lunar orbit × 12 × 1000 years to get a total distance.

If you do the following assumptions simultaneously:

1. Treat lunar orbits as linear distance
2. Ignore orbital curvature and acceleration
3. Choose sidereal day (not solar day)
4. Use average Moon distance
5. Select lunar years, not solar years

Then you compute:$$\frac{\mathrm{12,000}\times (2\pi R_{\text{Moon}})}{\mathrm{86,164}\text{ s}}\approx 3.0\times {10}^5\text{ km/s}$$86,164 s12,000×(2πRMoon​)​≈3.0×105 km/s

This is numerically close to the speed of light.

Why “12000 lunar orbits per Earth day”?

This comes from combining three known quantities:

1. One lunar orbit circumference$$C_{\text{Moon}}\approx \mathrm{2,415,000}\text{ km}$$CMoon​≈2,415,000 km
2. 1000 lunar years
   • 1 lunar year = 12 lunar orbits
   • 1000 years = 12,000 lunar orbits
3. One sidereal Earth day$$T_{\text{day}}=\mathrm{86,164}\text{ s}$$Tday​=86,164 s

Now compute:$$\frac{\mathrm{12,000}\times \mathrm{2,415,000}}{\mathrm{86,164}}\approx \mathrm{299,700}\text{ km/s}$$86,16412,000×2,415,000​≈299,700 km/s

Which is numerically close to:$$c=\mathrm{299,792}\text{ km/s}$$

This is where the statement originates.

Visit this page for technical details.

From an Islamic point of view, the significance of Dr. Mansour Hasab El‑Naby al-Misri’s work lies not in claiming the Qur’an as a physics textbook, but in demonstrating the depth and intellectual openness of Qur’anic reflection on the universe. By engaging Qur’anic verses about time and motion with modern astronomical concepts, his work revives the classical Islamic tradition of tadabbur—contemplative reasoning over divine signs (āyāt) in creation—while maintaining the Qur’an’s primary role as guidance rather than technical instruction. Such efforts strengthen confidence among Muslims that revelation and reason are not in conflict, encourage  scientific curiosity rooted in faith, and reaffirm the Qur’anic worldview in which cosmic laws themselves are manifestations of divine order (mīzān), inviting humans to explore them with humility and discipline.