Astronauts are people who feel the existence and might of Allah in the face of the magnificence of the completely dark outer space, and who appreciate the smallness of their own existence in comparison to the very big space. On the other hand, they realize that nothing scatters randomly in the outer space, and that the universe has an extraordinary order. For example, they notice that if planets moved faster on their orbits, they would be scattered across the outer space, but that they move in a very stable way due to Sun’s force of gravity. They also notice that the Earth has an exceptionally sensitive axial tilt, and in the absence of this tilt, the temperature difference between the polar region and the equator would increase extremely and that would make the atmosphere uninhabitable. They witness countless details like these and notice that there is a flawless working mechanism in each and every corner of the universe. That is the reason why most astronauts come back to Earth, as people who believe in Allah, after long space journeys.
However, some people can deviate afterwards they clearly see the evidences of Allah’s existence. In one verse, Allah reveals the condition of those who turn to faith at the moment of death after being surrounded by sea waves, and who then turn to denial again.
When the waves hang over them like canopies, they call on Allah, making their religion sincerely His. But then when He delivers them safely to the land, some of them are ambivalent. None but a treacherous, thankless man denies Our Signs. (Surah Luqman, 32)
People who wander among huge waves and come face to face with death, understand very well that there is no one but Allah Who can save them, that it is Allah alone Who creates the sea and the waves, that there is no one but Him Who can control the waves and therefore there is no one but Allah Who can save them from the difficult situation that they are in. They see their own ineffectualness in the face of Allah’s eternal might and power, intone Allah as One and Only and implore to Him humbly and sincerely. However, some of them forget what they went through after saving themselves and turn away from their faith.
In the same way, some people turn to Allah alone and pray to Allah with a sincere imploring, when they encounter a serious hardship such as a fatal disease. They understand that it is not the doctors or the medicine that will cure them, and that it is Allah alone who heals the person. They pray to Allah to get better with all their sincerity and make a promise to Allah that they will sincerely turn to Allah for as long as they live. But when Allah saves them, they go back from their words and continue to live in utter blindness. Allah reveals the condition of those people in one verse:
When they embark in ships, they call on Allah, making their religion sincerely His, but then when He delivers them safely to the land, they associate others with Him. Let them be ungrateful for what We have given them! Let them enjoy themselves – they will soon know! (Surat al-‘Ankabut, 65-66)
