Young Explorers · ages 7–11
What was before the first?
Young Explorers · What was before the first?
Next: Is anything perfectly clean? (children) →الْأَوَّلُ
al-Awwal · The First, before whom there was nothing
Everything has a beginning.
You had a first birthday. Before that, you were a tiny baby. Before that, you were growing inside your mum. And before that, you were not here at all.
Your house has a beginning. Someone built it. Before that, there was just a field.
The oak tree in the park has a beginning. It started as an acorn. Before that, the acorn grew on another oak tree. That tree grew from an acorn, and that one grew from another tree, back and back and back.
Even the Earth has a beginning. Scientists think it formed about four and a half billion years ago. It grew from dust and rock spinning round the young Sun.
And the Sun has a beginning. It was born from a huge cloud of gas.
And the whole universe has a beginning too. Scientists call it the Big Bang. They think everything, all the stars and all of space, started very hot and very small. That was about fourteen billion years ago, and it has been spreading out ever since.
So here is a question that scientists, grandparents and children have all asked: what was before the very first thing?
It is a very big question. Some people think it is the biggest question there is.
Muslims answer it with a Name of God. It is al-Awwal, the First. It means God was there before everything. Before the universe, before the stars, before the Earth, before you. He did not have a birthday. He did not grow from anything. Nobody built Him. Nothing came before Him.
The Qur’an says: “He is the First and the Last.” Jewish people read in the book of Isaiah that God says: “I am the first, and I am the last.” The last book of the Christian Bible says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.” Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, like our A.
So the next time you see a sunrise, think about beginnings. Every day has a first moment. Every person has a first breath. And before every first, there is the First.
Wonder with us
Everything we know started somewhere. What do you think it means to have no beginning at all?
Pick something in your house, like a wooden table or your breakfast toast. Ask: what was it before? Toast was bread. Bread was flour. Flour was wheat. Wheat was a seed. Keep going as far back as you can, and draw each step as a chain of pictures. Where does your chain stop?
Watch together
Children’s questions about the Big Bang and space, answered simply.
For grown-ups
Al-Awwal is in the Qur’an at 57:3: ’He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward; and He is Knower of all things.’ (Pickthall). The Jewish line is Isaiah 44:6 (JPS 1917) and the Christian line is Revelation 22:13 (WEB). Scientists date the Earth to about 4.5 billion years and the universe to about 13.8 billion years; the Big Bang theory was first proposed by Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest and physicist, who warned against using it as proof of God. Different schools of thought explain God’s relation to time in different ways; for children, ’God was there before everything, and nothing came before Him’ is common ground. A question to share: what is the oldest thing you have ever touched?
Watch more: What was before the first?
5 films and talks, chosen for this page. They play here.
How big is everything?
whoisallah.org.uk · 1 min
Highlights: First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope (Official NASA Video)
NASA · 3 min
The Known Universe by AMNH #datavisualization
American Museum of Natural History · 6 min
A journey out from Earth to the edge of the known universe.
What Are Stars?
SciShow Kids · 4 min
SciShow Kids: what are stars?
Euclid's first deep dive into the Universe
European Space Agency, ESA · 7 min
ESA's Euclid telescope looks deep into the universe.