Spacetime - Papyrus Scroll

John A. Wheeler, one of the leading physicists of the 20th century, coined the term ‘Black Hole’ and helped develop the theory of nuclear fission. 

He co-authored the classic text ‘Gravitation’ with 2017 Nobel Prize winner Kip S. Thorne and Charles Misner. The book is considered by Science magazine as “a pedagogic masterpiece,” and is essential reading for every serious student and researcher in the field of relativity. 

In another of his books, ‘A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime, Wheeler writes, 

“Think of spacetime as a great record of all that was, is, and evermore shall be. Spacetime like a great unrolling papyrus scroll with densely sprinkled grains of sand glued to it, loaded throughout its vastness with microscopic events, the collision of particle with particle - or of particle with that bullet of light we call a photon. 

These events are connected by the straight-line tracks of particles and photons as one grain of sand on the scroll is connected to another by the faint strand of a spider’s web. We don’t need coordinates on the papyrus to be able to pick out and point our finger at an extra-bright ruby-red grain of sand. 

We don’t have to know how to measure space and time to point to the impact of a meteor on Arizona as an event. Space and time are loaded with events as surely as the scroll is sprinkled with grains of sand.” 

On the same page (p. 56), he cites the following Ayat of the Qur’ān.

“The Day, We shall roll up the heaven like the rolling up of the scroll for books. As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. [That is] a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it.” Qur’ān 21:104

Wheeler was amazed that the Qur’ān had described the rolling of the heavens (or spacetime) like the rolling up of scrolls and included the above picture to accompany the Ayat in his book.

Interestingly, there are three dominant theories held by physicists about the ultimate end of the universe; 

'A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime' by John Archibald Wheeler p. 56

‘The Big Rip’ - where the pull of the universe’s expansion gets stronger than the gravity it contains and this tears apart galaxies.

‘The Big Freeze’ - the universe ends due to a big freeze.

 ‘The Big Crunch’ - the expansion of the universe eventually reverses and the universe collapses, ultimately causing the cosmic scale factor to reach zero, an event potentially followed by a reformation of the universe starting with another Big Bang.

The aforementioned Ayat (21:103) lends support to the third theory, ‘The Big Crunch’, and is from the very same Surah (chapter) that includes the Ayat of the ‘Big Bang’ (21:30).