Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

I am a sleep specialist physician and have been studying sleep not only medically but also philosophically and theologically for decades. Given the dramatic success of science and technology in the last few centuries, all believers and atheists try to see their worldview through the lens of science. There is a very rich tradition of doing this in both Christianity and Islam.

To me, the correlation between the Quran and science means constant study of both and living in a world that is always in harmony with the best science and the best theology.

The Nobel prize of physics in 2022 has revealed that universe is full of mysteries, but few are as mind-bending as quantum mechanics. The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists—Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger—for their groundbreaking experiments in quantum entanglement. Their work challenges our fundamental understanding of reality and proves that the universe operates in ways stranger than even the most imaginative science fiction.

At the heart of the award-winning research is quantum entanglement—a bizarre phenomenon where two particles become linked in such a way that the state of one instantly affects the state of the other, no matter how far apart they are. This defies the classical notions of space and time, suggesting that the universe is interconnected in ways that we are only beginning to grasp.

The three laureates conducted crucial experiments testing Bell’s Theorem, a mathematical framework developed by physicist John Bell in the 1960s. Bell’s work proposed that if quantum mechanics were correct, certain correlations between entangled particles could not be explained by classical physics or local hidden variables.

• John Clauser provided the first experimental proof that quantum entanglement is real, ruling out local hidden variable theories.
• Alain Aspect refined these experiments, closing loopholes that skeptics used to argue against quantum mechanics.
• Anton Zeilinger pushed entanglement further, demonstrating quantum teleportation—the transfer of quantum information across vast distances.

Albert Einstein famously called entanglement “spooky action at a distance,” as it appeared to violate relativity’s principle that nothing can travel faster than light. Yet, the Nobel-winning experiments confirmed that entangled particles can influence each other instantaneously, no matter how far apart they are.

This suggests that our understanding of space and time is incomplete. Unlike in science fiction, where faster-than-light travel is often dismissed as fantasy, nature itself seems to allow for an invisible, faster-than-light connection between entangled particles. This has profound implications for physics and potentially even for future technologies like quantum computing and ultra-secure communication networks.

The results of these experiments force us to rethink what we consider “real.” In classical physics, objects exist in a definite state whether or not we observe them. However, quantum mechanics suggests that reality is observer-dependent—particles exist in a superposition of states until measured.

One of the most mind-bending interpretations of quantum mechanics, the Many-Worlds Interpretation, suggests that each quantum event spawns parallel universes, where every possible outcome happens in a separate reality. This theory, though speculative, aligns with the idea that reality is far stranger than fiction.

While entanglement may seem purely theoretical, it has practical applications that could transform technology.

• Quantum computing uses entanglement to perform complex calculations at speeds unimaginable with classical computers.
• Quantum cryptography could lead to unbreakable encryption, making hacking impossible.
• Quantum networks may enable instantaneous, ultra-secure communication across the globe.

These advances could make today’s science fiction a reality in the near future.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics confirms that the universe is weirder than we ever imagined. Quantum entanglement challenges our deepest assumptions about reality, space, and time. As we continue to explore these quantum frontiers, we may find that science fiction was only scratching the surface of what is truly possible.

A large majority of present-day scientists, including neurobiologists and academic philosophers, are atheists and, as such, are materialists or naturalists and are looking for consciousness only in brain activities confined within our skulls. The holy Quran in at least two verses, with a simple metaphor of sleep, reveals that the reality of human consciousness is much wealthier:

God takes the souls of the dead and the souls of the living while they sleep –– He keeps hold of those whose death He has ordained and sends the others back until their appointed time –– there truly are signs in this for those who reflect. (Al Quran 39:42)

has the keys to the unseen: no one knows them but Him. He knows all that is in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the earth, or anything, fresh or withered, that is not written in a clear Record. It is He who calls your souls back by night, knowing what you have done by day, then raises you up again in the daytime until your fixed term is fulfilled. It is to Him that you will return in the end, and He will tell you what you have done. (Al Quran 6:59-60)

Consciousness is also in additional dimensions and is not simply in our controls. Quantum entanglement reveals a metaphor that it is entangled with whatever the divine backup system is. The Quranic metaphor may have been difficult for medieval believers to understand, but these days, when each of us wants to back up our personal computers and our smartphones in the cloud, it is easy to imagine that the All-Knowing has a very elaborate and fail-safe back up system, as hinted in the above verses: “It is He who calls your souls back by night, knowing what you have done by day, then raises you up again in the daytime until your fixed term is fulfilled. It is to Him that you will return in the end, and He will tell you what you have done.”

Our consciousness and our souls survive the deaths of our brains, not in the three dimensions that we know but in the additional dimensions that we do not!