[Quranic Reflection]: The universe is expanding

[WinterHold]

I think I know where you're going: you mean واسع is more related to fasee7 فسيح ?
i.e the verse spoke about God making the heavens vast or spacious; not "expanded".

But my defense is the word "وانا ل"; the "ل" doesn't refer to the past, but to an action that will happen in the future.

i.e, if God said "and the sky is wide" then your point is valid. But he said that the widening is going to happen, the letter "ل" turned the meaning of the word to something "that will happen".

The expansion of the universe is happening right now, but it will also keep happening in the future.
That takes away the relationship to the word "فسيح" because the letter "ل" just turned the word into a verb that will happen in the future.

I'm not much familiar with classic Arabic, so don't know what "la" indicates grammatically. Are you sure it's referring to the future, and not the present? That said, it is important to note the good possibility that, as others have said, this resembles a few verses from the Bible itself where also a clear distinction between the heaven and the earth is made. So it seems to me the cosmology implied is that the heaven (sky) is stretched wide (by the divine) and the earth (separate from heaven) is spread out.

Rereading the verse, I'm not convinced "mousi3oun" is a verb, it sounds to me like it's a noun meaning something like the "widener(s)". "la" seems to be a qualifier of some sort, but not clear if it renders the term right after to be "future". It seems to be an article of some form.

"la" in Arabic has more than 4 types, each type adding an extra meaning for a word or a sentence.
The one used in this verse is called "lam al-tawkeed لام التوكيد"; it gets added to the "verbal sentence" and doesn't affect the "future tense".

An example for it is "ان التاريخ ليعيد نفسه "
Or in franco-Arabic writing: "2n al taree5 la yo3eedo nafsah"
In English: "history repeat itself".

Yes I'm sure about the future; the "lam al tawkeed" never comes with the past or present; or else the whole sentence doesn't make any sense.

"Mouse3oon موسعون" is called "اسم فاعل" from the original verb "awsa3 اوسع".