Tradition

هذِهِ النُّجُومُ الَّتى فِى السَّماءِ مَدائِنٌ مِثْلُ الْمَدائِنِ الَّتى فِى الاَرْضِ مَرْبُوطَةٌ كُلُّ مَدِينَة اِلى عَمُود مِنْ نُور

Imam ‘Ali (‘a) is narrated to have said: “These stars which are in the skies have cities much like the cities of the earth; each of their cities is connected with a column of light with other cities.”1

Brief Commentary

It is extremely selfish of us to imagine that all of the planets and all of the stars in the universe are completely void and empty of inhabitants. The scientists of today have done certain calculations where they have calculated that there should be at least millions, if not hundreds of millions of planets which contain inhabitants in the universe. There is a strong possibility that many of these planets have their own advanced civilizations, some of which may be even more advanced than what is found on earth. The reason behind this advanced state is due to the fact that life on those planets began many thousands or even millions of years before the earth. The tradition above is one of the scientific miracles of Imam ‘Ali (‘a), which was mentioned over fourteen centuries ago.

• 1. Safinat al-Bihar, vol. 3, p. 574, Tafseer Al-Qummi, vol. 2, p. 218.