Islam & Modern Science ( Part-3 )
Islam & Modern Science ( Part-3 )
Following are the topics included in PART-3 of this series....
11- MOUNTAINS ARE LIKE TENT PEGS
12- MOUNTAINS FIRMLY FIXED
13- BARRIER BETWEEN SWEET AND SALT WATERS
14- DARKNESS IN DEPTHS OF OCEAN
15- PLANTS HAVE MALE AND FEMALE
11- MOUNTAINS ARE LIKE TENT PEGS:
In geology, the phenomenon of ‘folding’, is a recently discovered fact. Folding is responsible for the formation of mountain ranges. The earth’s crust, on which we live, is like a solid shell, while the deeper layers are hot and fluid, and thus inhospitable to any form of life. It is also known that the stability of the mountains is linked to the phenomenon of folding, for it was the folds that were to provide foundations for the reliefs that constitute the mountains.
Geologists tell us that the radius of the Earth is about 6,035 km and the crust on which we live is very thin, ranging between 2 to 35 km. Since the crust is thin, it has a high possibility of shaking. Mountains act like stakes or tent pegs that hold the earth’s crust and give it stability.
The Qur’an contains exactly such a description:
“Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse, and the mountains as pegs?”
[Al-Qur’an 78:6-7]
The word awtaad means stakes or pegs (like those used to anchor a tent); they are the deep foundations of geological folds.
A book entitled ‘Earth’ is regarded as a basic reference textbook on geology in many universities around the world. One of the authors of this book is Dr. Frank Press, who was the President of the Academy of Sciences in the USA for 12 years and was the Science Advisor to former US President Jimmy Carter. In this book, he illustrates the mountain in a wedge-shape and the mountain itself as a small part of the whole, whose root is deeply entrenched in the ground.(1) According to Dr. Press, the mountains play an important role in stabilizing the crust of the earth.
The Qur’an clearly mentions the function of the mountains in preventing the earth from shaking:
“And We have set on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with them.”
[Al-Qur’an 21:31](2)
The Qur’anic descriptions are in perfect agreement with modern geological data.
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1 Earth, Press and Siever, p. 435. Also see Earth Science, Tarbuck and Lutgens, p. 157
2 A similar message is contained in the Qru'an in 31:10 and 16:15
12- MOUNTAINS FIRMLY FIXED:
The surface of the earth is broken into many rigid plates that are about 100 km in thickness. These plates float on a partially molten region called aesthenosphere.
Mountain formations occur at the boundary of the plates. The earth’s crust is 5 km thick below oceans, about 35 km thick below flat continental surfaces and almost 80 km thick below great mountain ranges. These are the strong foundations on which mountains stand.
The Qur’an refers to the strong mountain foundations in the following verse:
“And the mountains hath He firmly fixed.”
[Al-Qur’an 79:32]
Thus, the information contained in the Glorious Qur'an about the nature of mountains, is in perfect agreement with recent discoveries in geology.
13- BARRIER BETWEEN SWEET AND SALT WATERS:
“He has let free the two bodies of flowing water, meeting together: Between them is a Barrier which they do not transgress.”
[Al-Qur’an 55:19-20]
In the Arabic text the word barzakh means a barrier or a partition. This barrier, however, is not a physical partition. The Arabic word maraja literally means ‘they both meet and mix with each other’. Early commentators of the Qur’an were unable to explain the two opposite meanings for the two bodies of water, i.e. they meet and mix, and at the same time there is a barrier between them. Modern Science has discovered that in the places where two different seas meet, there is a barrier between them. This barrier divides the two seas so that each sea has its own temperature, salinity and density.(1)
Oceanologists are now in a better position to explain this verse. There is a slanted unseen water barrier between the two seas through which water from one sea passes to the other. But when the water from one sea enters the other sea, it loses its distinctive characteristic and becomes homogenized with the other water. In a way this barrier serves as a transitional homogenizing area for the two waters.
This phenomenon is also mentioned in the following verse of the Qur'an:
“And made a separating bar between the two bodies of flowing water?”
[Al-Qur’an 27:61]
This phenomenon occurs in several places, including the divider between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean at Gibralter. A white bar can also be clearly seen at Cape Point, Cape Peninsula, South Africa where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean.
But when the Qur’an speaks about the divider between fresh and salt water, it mentions the existence of “a forbidding partition” with the barrier.
“It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water: one palatable and sweet, and the other salty and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, and a partition that is forbidden to be passed.
[Al-Qur’an 25:53]
Modern science has discovered that in estuaries, where fresh (sweet) and salt water meet, the situation is somewhat different from that found in places where two salt water seas meet. It has been discovered that what distinguishes fresh water from salt water in estuaries is a “pycnocline zone with a marked density discontinuity separating the two layers.”(2) This partition (zone of separation) has a salinity different from both the fresh water and the salt water.(3)
This phenomenon occurs in several places, including Egypt, where the river Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea. These scientific phenomena mentioned in the Qur’an was also confirmed by Dr. William Hay, a wellknown marine scientist and Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado, U.S.A.
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1 Principles of Oceanography, Davis, pp. 92-93.
2 Oceanography, Gross, p. 242. Also see Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, pp. 300-301.
3 Oceanography, Gross, p. 244 and Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, pp. 300-301.
14- DARKNESS IN DEPTHS OF OCEAN:
Prof. Durga Rao is a world renowned expert in the field of Marine Geology and was a professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah. He was asked to comment on the following verse:
“Or (the Unbelievers’ state) is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean, overwhelmed with billow topped by billow, topped by (dark) clouds: depths of darkness, one above another: if a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it! For any to whom Allah giveth not light, there is no light!”
[Al-Qur’an 24:40]
Prof. Rao said that scientists have only now been able to confirm, with the help of modern equipment, that there is darkness in the depths of the ocean. Humans are unable to dive unaided underwater for more than 20 to 30 metres, and cannot survive in the deep oceanic regions at a depth of more than 200 metres. This verse does not refer to all seas because not every sea can be described as having accumulated darkness layered one over another. It refers especially to a deep sea or deep ocean, as the Qur’an says, “darkness in a vast deep ocean”. This layered darkness in a deep ocean is the result of two causes:
1. A light ray is composed of seven colours seen in the rainbow. These seven colours are Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red (VIBGYOR). The light ray undergoes refraction when it hits water. The upper 10 to 15 metres of water absorb the red colour. Therefore, if a diver is 25 metres under water and gets wounded, he would not be able to see the red colour of his blood, because the red colour does not reach this depth. Similarly, orange rays are absorbed at 30 to 50 metres, yellow at 50 to 100 metres, green at 100 to 200 metres, and finally, blue beyond 200 metres and violet and indigo above 200 metres. Due to successive disappearance of colour, one layer after another, the ocean progressively becomes darker, i.e. darkness takes place in layers of light. Below a depth of 1000 meters there is complete darkness.(1)
2. The sun’s rays are absorbed by clouds which in turn scatter light rays thus causing a layer of darkness under the clouds. This is the first layer of darkness. When light rays reach the surface of the ocean they are reflected by the wave surface giving it a shiny appearance. Therefore, it is the waves which reflect light and cause darkness. The unreflected light penetrates into the depths of the ocean. Thus, the ocean has two parts. The surface characterized by light and warmth and the depth characterized by darkness. The surface is further separated from the deep part of the ocean by waves. The internal waves cover the deep waters of seas and oceans because the deep waters have a higher density than the waters above them. The darkness begins below the internal waves. Even the fish in the depths of the ocean cannot see; their only source of light is from their own bodies.
The Qur’an describes this aptly:
“Darkness in a vast deep ocean overwhelmed with waves topped by waves”. In other words, above these waves there are more types of waves, i.e. those found on the surface of the ocean. The Qur’anic verse continues, “topped by (dark) clouds; depths of darkness, one above another.”
These clouds as explained are barriers one over the other that further cause darkness by absorption of colours at different levels. Prof. Durga Rao concluded by saying, “1400 years ago a normal human being could not explain this phenomenon in so much detail. Thus the information must have come from a supernatural source”.
“It is He Who has Created man from water: then has He established relationships of lineage and marriage: for thy Lord has power (over all things).”
[Al-Qur’an 25:54]
Was it possible 14 centuries ago for any human being to guess that every living being was made from water? Moreover would such a guess be conceivable by a human being in the deserts of Arabia where there has always been scarcity of water?
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1 Oceans, Elder and Pernetta, p. 27.
15- PLANTS HAVE MALE AND FEMALE:
Previously, humans did not know that plants too have male and female gender distinctions. Botany states that every plant has a male and female gender. Even the plants that are unisexual have distinct elements of both male and female.
“‘And has sent down water from the sky.’ With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants each separate from the others.”
[Al-Qur’an 20:53]
