Nouri Sardar (The Muslim Vibe)
Aliens in the Ahadith
It’s when we begin to look into the ahadith, of the Shia Muslim tradition specifically, that things start to become more interesting.
Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq, famous scholar and 6th Imam of Shia Islam, is quite specific when it comes to this topic. He says:
Maybe you see that God created only this single world and that God did not create humans besides you. Well I swear by God that God created thousands and thousands of other worlds and thousands and thousands of humankind.”
(Bihar Al-Anwar, Vol. 8, p. 375)
Another hadith I came across, also attributed to Imam Al-Sadiq, says:
Allah has created twelve thousand worlds and every one of them is bigger than the seven skies and seven earths together, none of the people of these worlds ever think that Allah has created any other worlds.”
(Khisal, vol. 2, pg. 639, hadith 14)
In another tradition, found in Safinatul Bahar, Imam Ali says:
These stars which are in the sky are like cities similar to the cities on earth, every city with another city (every star with another star) is connected by pillars of light.”
(Safinatul Bahar: Volume 2, Page 574)
While Imam Ali has often used metaphors that the Arabs of his time would understand to describe the Universe (see Nahjul Balagha), it could be said that he is literally referring to alien civilizations here.
Another hadith by the 5th Shia Imam, Imam Mohammed Al-Baqir, states:
Allah has Created this Domain of green aquamarine. It is from its greenery that the sky appears as such’. I said, ‘And what is the Domain?’ He said: ‘The veil. By Allah(azwj), behind that (veil) are seventy thousand worlds, more numerous that the number of the human beings, and the Jinn…”
(Basaair Al Darajaat, pg. 512)
However, while the Shia Muslim literature above seems to essentially confirm the existence of extraterrestrial beings, the authenticity of these narrations up for debate. And even if they are authentic, how one chooses to interpret these hadith is also based on what one is looking for. It could be that the Imams are referring to different dimensions or universes that we just do not (and cannot) understand. Other hadith references that there were peoples who existed before humankind as we know it, meaning the above hadith may fall into a similar category of discussion.
