Question: All things are made in pairs? 51:49 And of every thing We have created pairs: That ye may receive instruction. Topics discussed in this Verse:[Record:of deeds]Wamin kulli shayin khalaqna zawjayni laAAallakum tathakkaroon
وَمِن كُلِّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقْنَا زَوْجَيْنِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Answer: The following information by brother John Wuurt; an American convert to Islam, may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him.
Here are three translations of Noble Verse 51:49:
YUSUF ALI: "And of every thing We have created pairs: That ye may receive instruction."
PICKTHAL: "And all things We have created by pairs, that haply ye may reflect."
SHAKIR: "And of everything We have created pairs that you may be mindful."
We know from elementary particle physics that EVERY THING,or EVERYTHING, depending on the translation used, that is visible or invisible to the naked eyes, is made up of matter (or antimatter), which is in turn made up of particles. We also know that for EVERY TYPE of particle there is an antiparticle. This is one possible explanation on how "OF every thing" or "OF everything", we get pairs: Particles and antiparticles.
"All things" or "everything" , can be seen as belonging to one those groups: Particles or their corresponding antiparticles, such as a proton and an antiproton (same mass but of opposite electric charge), an electron and a positron (same mass but of opposite electric charge), a neutron and an antineutron, and more recently scientists have known about quarks, and anti-quarks!
Here is a link for a proof of what i am saying (it is quite technical, from Stanford University):
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/antiquarks.html
In the Standard Model of elementary particles, the photon acts as its own antiparticle. The photon and its antiparticle cancel itself out when phase relations oppose (the wave form is opposite to that of another photon). Another example of a particle being the same as its antiparticle is the phi meson which consist of the antiquark and the quark. It is possible that in the future physicists will find new particles. There is research going on to discover the particles that make up dark matter. As much as 90%, if not more, of matter is believed to be invisible in the universe.
Another theory called Superstring theory, which incorporates the concept superpartners and supersymmetry, states that every particle has a corresponding partner particle. In that scenario, for example, the partner particle of the photon would be the photino, the partner particle of the electron would be the selectron, for the quark there would be the squark, and for the graviton (which mediates the force of gravity), there would be the gravitino.
Elementary particles would be made from two type of strings, open or closed. Physicists theorize that these superpartner particles are much more massive than their partner particles (up to 1,000 GeV (billion electron volts) compare to about 1 GeV for the proton). This could explain why no supersymmetric particles have been discovered, yet. Particle accelerators are presently not powerful enough to re-create the conditions that would allow us to produce such particles. Such conditions are thought to be similar to those which existed just after the Big Bang. A particle accelerator called Large Hadron Collider is now under construction in Geneva, Switzerland. It will not be operational until 2005, if everything goes well. Superpartner particles are also possible candidates for the composition of dark matter.
So, "every thing" or "everything" could refer to "matter"and "antimatter", or particle and their supersymmetric particles, as one possible explanation. There might be other explanations to this verse that we still have not thought about, or don't know about yet. Our knowledge today will not be similar to the knowledge we will have in the future. Of course, scientists, including physicists, are still doing a lot of research, and in the future, God willing, this verse will be fully explained in the light of our then newly acquired knowledge. Let us remember that in the 7th century, the Glorious Qur'an mentioned the expansion of the universe, a fact that was verified only some 1400 years after the Noble Qur'an was revealed. So, it could possibly take another 100 years, 1400 years, or maybe more, before this verse is fully understood.
As for gravity, here is an interesting link from Princeton University Press:
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/99/q2/0527-gravity.htm
There is still a lot to learn about the physical world, and to think otherwise is limiting oneself! I chose a scientific approach to try to explain this verse, and both the Standard Model, and the Superstring theory should not be considered as the only way of understanding this verse. As I said before, there might be other nonscientific explanation that are not known to us so far, and our scientific knowledge today is limiting our full comprehension of the meaning of this verse from the Glorious Qur'an.
The interpretation of the Qur'an by brother Yusuf Ali is not the ONLY interpretation. Nowhere in this verse does Allah Almighty say that "pairs" refers to animals or human beings, or other sexual beings, such as plants.
This verse present no contradictions. And God, the Most Wise, knows best.
