Allah's Apostle (S.A.W) said, ‘You see that the people are of different natures. Those who were the best in the pre-lslamic period...
BITS ‘N’ PIECES
Narrated by Abu Huraira (R.A)
Allah's Apostle (S.A.W) said, ‘You see that the people are of different natures. Those who were the best in the pre-lslamic period, are also the best in Islam if they comprehend religious knowledge. You see that the best amongst the people in this respect (i.e. ambition of ruling) are those who hate it most. And you see that the worst among people is the double faced (person) who appears to these with one face and to the others with another face (i.e., a hypocrite).’
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 699
The mythical planet Vulcan was famously used as Mr. Spock’s home world in the Star Trek series.
The planet Vulcan is one of astronomy’s most fascinating mysteries—a world that once captured the imagination of scientists but was later proven not to exist. In the 19th century, astronomers believed that Vulcan orbited the Sun between Mercury and the Sun itself. Its existence was proposed to explain strange observations about Mercury’s orbit that didn’t match predictions made by Newtonian physics.
The story began in 1859 when French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier noticed that Mercury’s perihelion—the point where it is closest to the Sun—shifted slightly more than it should have according to classical physics. To solve this puzzle, Le Verrier suggested that another, unseen planet must be affecting Mercury’s motion. He named this hypothetical planet ‘Vulcan’ after the Roman god of fire, fitting for a planet so close to the Sun.
Soon after Le Verrier’s announcement, several astronomers claimed to have seen Vulcan. Some reported spotting small dark objects crossing the Sun’s face, which they interpreted as Vulcan’s silhouette. However, these sightings were inconsistent and often could not be confirmed by other observers. Despite the excitement, Vulcan was never officially discovered, and evidence for its existence remained weak.
The mystery of Mercury’s orbit continued to puzzle scientists until Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity in 1915. Einstein showed that the strange motion of Mercury could be explained by the curvature of space-time around the Sun, without the need for another planet. With this breakthrough, the search for Vulcan came to an end. There was no hidden planet disturbing Mercury’s path—Newton’s laws simply needed an update when dealing with extreme conditions near a massive object like the Sun.
Today, Vulcan is remembered as an important chapter in the history of science. It reminds us how science evolves: when observations don’t match theory, new ideas must be tested, and sometimes old beliefs must be abandoned. Interestingly, the name Vulcan has lived on in popular culture. It was famously used for the home planet of Mr. Spock in the ‘Star Trek’ series, giving the name a second life in science fiction.
