Quran on man�s venture into space.

my brother matt browne
peace be on you, peace be on me and on all knowledge seekers.
my brother i too once had this same confusion as yours, my brother your confusion is that heaven = paradise, right, but in the verses i have quoted i am explaining it in context of skies and space.
my brother when Quran uses the word "Jannat" it means "paradise", however when the word "samawat" is used it means "sky/space".
my brother heaven has 2 meanings - one which we generally use in our daily talk indicating paradise, second which means the sky, it can be used in a sentence for eg. "the astronomers observe the heavens in the night." in this sentence it does not mean they observe paradise but they observe the sky.
i know translators shouls not use the word heaven while translating "samawat" as it creates this confusion.
hope this will be of help my brother.
why dont you also go through my other posts in "quran and sunnah" and "world politics". i like your comments, shows you think......keep thinking :-)

For centuries human beings have been observing the sky in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the universe and his place in it. Astronomy has taken a giant leap in the past 50yrs as man now was not observing with naked eye or by a small telescope but with powerful radio telescopes on earth as well as in space, rockets, satellites, space crafts and space probes which ever and ever look deeper in universe and have discarded almost all the understanding and all the concepts that the man had for centuries proving them wrong with unprecedented proof. Quran was written 1,400yrs ago.
The picture we have of the universe today is of billions of galaxies composed of billions of stars many like our own sun in a massive universe that is expanding still endlessly.
It happened when man entered the space age, Quran happened in the days of ignorance telling those ignorant men "lo! in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day there are indeed signs for men of understanding" {3:190} asking those ignorant men to devote their life to learning and telling mankind that it will and it can penetrate the impossible seeming sky! giving mankind permission to go deep into sky and earth
Quran {55:33-34}-"O assembly of jinns and men penetrate you into the regions of the heavens and the earth, you will not be able to penetrate them but without power/authority. Then which of the verses of your lord will you deny ?"
Quran tells man that he would one day go into space after attaining power and authority and even tells the experience man would have...when a man goes into space he will find contradictions he can�t imagine
1-    he sees sun is shining but the stars are visible too at the same time!
2-    the round earth is surrounded by a bluish halo over a black starry background !
3-    half of the earth is in darkness and half is in light !
4-    man floats
5-     to quench his thirst has to BITE INTO WATER LIKE FOOD !!!
What would a man of that age say if suddenly is taken into sky??
Quran {15:14-15}-"yet even had we opened to them a gateway to heaven and they had ascended on and on in it, they would surely have said indeed our sights are spellbound/lit/intoxicated, nay we are a people under a magic spell/bewitched"
indeed a man of that time would have said he is bewitched after experiencing such weird dream like experience of existence.
Quran prophesized mans venture into space and his initial reactions to his first experience in space and informs humankind.....
Quran{38:87-88}-"of a truth this Quran is no other than an admonition to all created beings and after a time you shall certainly know its meaning"
Among all old religious books whose information is being proved outdated and wrong Quran is a weird book as its information and its claim only seem to be proved correct with modern developments {Quran is the only preserved book of God, other books of God which were revealed to every nation and tribe on earth were equally stunning but due to people not being able to preserve their true message completely, lost their beauty and grandeur and thus get proved wrong by science}
Quran yet goes on to claim....
Quran {41:53}-"We shall show them our signs/verses on the horizons and within themselves until it is manifest to them that this is the truth!"
and so this claim too is being proved by studying Quran in light of modern science.
Quran is the book of Our God O mankind, the only preserved book of Our good God O mankind.
Praise be to Allah who tells this for a purpose, and how beautiful is the purpose - the God�s cause. Desiring good even for your murderer.