Smaller Than Atom

Those who disbelieve say: The Hour will never come unto us. Say : Nay, by my Lord, but it is coming unto you surely. (He is) the Knower of the Unseen. Not an atom's weight, or less than that or greater, escapeth Him in the heavens or in the earth, but it is in a clear Record.

(Saba 3. Verse)

In ancient times, a well-known theory called the Theory of Atomicism was widely accepted. This theory was originally proposed by a scholar named Demokritos, who lived by the Greeks, especially about 23 centuries ago. Demokritos and the people who came after him assumed that the smallest unit of matter was atoms. Greek means "atomos", "indivisible". The Arabs used to believe that. The Arabic word "zarrah" meant atoms most commonly. Recently, modern science has discovered that it is possible to even separate an atom. It is a development of the 20th century that the atom could be split further. 14 centuries ago this concept seemed unusual even for an Arab. For him, the jot was an impenetrable border.

Quark

When scientists investigated the nuclei of atoms, they discovered smaller particles such as electrons, protons, and neutrons. They also discovered that protons and neutrons are made up of smaller particles called quarks. Quarks are considered the fundamental particles that make up matter. Even the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, cannot crack the quark. In the LHC, particles accelerating at speeds close to the speed of light 27 km around and in a tunnel collide with each other, and large energy is released (13.5 TeV) during these collisions. However, no quark splitting at this energy has been observed so far. There are plans to build larger accelerators with a circumference of 100 km, but it is unknown whether the energy they will generate will be enough to crack the quarks.

The miracle of this verse is that it speaks of what is smaller than an atom, and it occurs at a time when no one knows anything about atoms. In fact, a long time ago, the atom was thought to be the smallest object in the universe; smaller components are a very new discovery. But that's exactly what the Qur'an is talking about. God (c.c.) says, "Less than that."

Allah knows best in everything.