(3) Al-E’jaz al-Elmy fee
al-Naseyah (The Scientific Miracles in the Front of the
Head), Moore and others, p. 41. 
E)
The Quran on Seas and Rivers:
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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 For
example, Mediterranean sea water is warm, saline, and less dense, compared to
Atlantic ocean water. When Mediterranean sea water enters the Atlantic over the
Gibraltar sill, it moves several hundred kilometers into the Atlantic at a depth
of about 1000 meters with its own warm, saline, and less dense characteristics.
The Mediterranean water stabilizes at this depth2
(see figure 13).
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Figure 13: The Mediterranean sea
water as it enters the Atlantic over the Gibraltar sill with its own warm,
saline, and less dense characteristics, because of the barrier that
distinguishes between them. Temperatures are in degrees Celsius
(C°). (Marine Geology, Kuenen, p. 43, with a slight enhancement.)
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)
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Although there are large waves, strong currents,
and tides in these seas, they do not mix or transgress this barrier.
The Holy Quran mentioned that there is a barrier
between two seas that meet and that they do not transgress. God has said:
He has set free the two seas meeting
together. There is a barrier between them. They do not transgress. 
(Quran, 55:19-20)
But when the Quran speaks about the divider
between fresh and salt water, it mentions the existence of “a forbidding
partition” with the barrier. God has said in the Quran:
He is the one who has set free the two
kinds of water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He
has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition.
(Quran, 25:53)
One may ask, why did the Quran mention the
partition when speaking about the divider between fresh and salt water, but did
not mention it when speaking about the divider between the two seas?
Modern science has discovered that in estuaries,
where fresh (sweet) and salt water meet, the situation is somewhat different
from what is found in places where two 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.”3
This partition (zone of separation) has a different salinity from
the fresh water and from the salt water4
(see
figure 14).
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Figure 14: Longitudinal section
showing salinity (parts per thousand ‰) in an estuary. We can see
here the partition (zone of separation) between the fresh and the salt
water. (Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, p. 301, with a slight
enhancement.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
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This information has been discovered only
recently, using advanced equipment to measure temperature, salinity, density,
oxygen dissolubility, etc. The human eye cannot see the difference between the
two seas that meet, rather the two seas appear to us as one homogeneous sea.
Likewise, the human eye cannot see the division of water in estuaries into the
three kinds: fresh water, salt water, and the partition (zone of separation).
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) Principles of
Oceanography, Davis, pp. 92-93.
(2) Principles of
Oceanography, Davis, p. 93.
(3) Oceanography,
Gross, p. 242. Also see Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, pp.
300-301.
(4) Oceanography,
Gross, p. 244, and Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, pp. 300-301.
F)
The Quran on Deep Seas and Internal Waves:
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God has said in the Quran:
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Or
(the unbelievers’ state) is like the darkness in a deep sea. It is covered by
waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darknesses, one above
another. If a man stretches out his hand, he cannot see it....
(Quran, 24:40)
This verse mentions the darkness found in deep seas and oceans, where if a man
stretches out his hand, he cannot see it. The darkness in deep seas and oceans
is found around a depth of 200 meters and below. At this depth, there is almost
no light (see figure 15). Below a depth of 1000 meters there is no light at
all.1 Human beings are not
able to dive more than forty meters without the aid of submarines or special
equipment. Human beings cannot survive unaided in the deep dark part of the
oceans, such as at a depth of 200 meters.
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Figure 15: Between 3 and 30 percent
of the sunlight is reflected at the sea surface. Then almost all of
the seven colors of the light spectrum are absorbed one after another in
the first 200 meters, except the blue light. (Oceans, Elder and
Pernetta, p. 27.)
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Scientists have recently discovered this darkness by means of special equipment
and submarines that have enabled them to dive into the depths of the oceans.
We can also understand from the following sentences in the previous verse,
“...in a deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above
which are clouds....”, that the deep waters of seas and oceans are covered
by waves, and above these waves are other waves. It is clear that the second set
of waves are the surface waves that we see, because the verse mentions that
above the second waves there are clouds. But what about the first waves?
Scientists have recently discovered that there are internal waves which “occur on density interfaces between layers of different
densities.”2
(see figure 16).
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Figure 16: Internal waves at
interface between two layers of water of different densities. One is
dense (the lower one), the other one is less dense (the upper one). (Oceanography,
Gross, p. 204.)
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The internal waves cover the deep waters of seas and oceans because the deep
waters have a higher density than the waters above them. Internal waves act like
surface waves. They can also break, just like surface waves. Internal waves
cannot be seen by the human eye, but they can be detected by studying
temperature or salinity changes at a given location.3
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) Oceans, Elder and
Pernetta, p. 27.
(2) Oceanography, Gross, p. 205.
(3) Oceanography,
Gross, p. 205.
G)
The Quran on Clouds:
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Scientists have studied cloud types and have
realized that rain clouds are formed and shaped according to definite systems
and certain steps connected with certain types of wind and clouds.
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One kind of rain cloud is the cumulonimbus
cloud. Meteorologists have studied how cumulonimbus clouds are formed and
how they produce rain, hail, and lightning.
They have found that cumulonimbus clouds go
through the following steps to produce rain:
1) The clouds are pushed by the wind:
Cumulonimbus clouds begin to form when wind pushes some small pieces of clouds
(cumulus clouds) to an area where these clouds converge (see figures 17 and 18).
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Figure 17: Satellite photo
showing the clouds moving towards the convergence areas B, C, and D.
The arrows indicate the directions of the wind. (The Use of Satellite
Pictures in Weather Analysis and Forecasting, Anderson and others, p.
188.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
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Figure 18: Small pieces of clouds
(cumulus clouds) moving towards a convergence zone near the horizon, where
we can see a large cumulonimbus cloud. (Clouds and Storms, Ludlam,
plate 7.4.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
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2) Joining: Then the small clouds
join together forming a larger cloud1
(see figures 18 and 19).
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Figure 19: (A) Isolated small pieces
of clouds (cumulus clouds). (B) When the small clouds join
together, updrafts within the larger cloud increase, so the cloud is
stacked up. Water drops are indicated by ·.
(The Atmosphere, Anthes and others, p. 269.) (Click on the
image to enlarge it.)
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3) Stacking: When the small clouds
join together, updrafts within the larger cloud increase. The updrafts
near the center of the cloud are stronger than those near the edges.2
These updrafts cause the cloud body to grow vertically, so the cloud is stacked
up (see figures 19 (B), 20, and 21). This vertical growth causes the cloud
body to stretch into cooler regions of the atmosphere, where drops of water and
hail formulate and begin to grow larger and larger. When these drops of
water and hail become too heavy for the updrafts to support them, they begin to
fall from the cloud as rain, hail, etc.3
Figure 20: A cumulonimbus cloud. After the
cloud is stacked up, rain comes out of it. (Weather and Climate,
Bodin, p.123.)
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Figure 21: A cumulonimbus cloud. (A
Colour Guide to Clouds, Scorer and Wexler, p. 23.)
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God has said in the Quran:
Have
you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together,
then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it....
(Quran, 24:43)
Meteorologists have only recently come to know
these details of cloud formation, structure, and function by using advanced
equipment like planes, satellites, computers, balloons, and other equipment, to
study wind and its direction, to measure humidity and its variations, and to
determine the levels and variations of atmospheric pressure.4
The preceding verse, after mentioning clouds and
rain, speaks about hail and lightning:
....And
He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky, and He strikes with it
whomever He wills, and turns it from whomever He wills. The vivid flash of its
lightning nearly blinds the sight.
(Quran, 24:43)
Meteorologists have found that these cumulonimbus
clouds, that shower hail, reach a height of 25,000 to 30,000 ft (4.7 to 5.7
miles),5 like mountains, as the Quran
said, “...And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky...”
(see figure 21 above).
This verse may raise a question. Why does
the verse say “its lightning” in a reference to the hail? Does this
mean that hail is the major factor in producing lightning? Let us see what
the book entitled Meteorology Today says about this. It says that a
cloud becomes electrified as hail falls through a region in the cloud of
supercooled droplets and ice crystals. 
As liquid droplets collide with a
hailstone, they freeze on contact and release latent heat. This keeps the
surface of the hailstone warmer than that of the surrounding ice crystals.
When the hailstone comes in contact with an ice crystal, an important phenomenon
occurs: electrons flow from the colder object toward the warmer object.
Hence, the hailstone becomes negatively charged. The same effect occurs
when supercooled droplets come in contact with a hailstone and tiny splinters of
positively charged ice break off. These lighter positively charged
particles are then carried to the upper part of the cloud by updrafts. The
hail, left with a negative charge, falls towards the bottom of the cloud, thus
the lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative
charges are then discharged as lightning.6
We conclude from this that hail is the major factor in producing lightning.
This information on lightning was discovered
recently. Until 1600 AD, Aristotle’s ideas on meteorology were
dominant. For example, he said that the atmosphere contains two kinds of
exhalation, moist and dry. He also said that thunder is the sound of the
collision of the dry exhalation with the neighboring clouds, and lightning is
the inflaming and burning of the dry exhalation with a thin and faint fire.7
These are some of the ideas on meteorology that were dominant at the time of the
Quran’s revelation, fourteen centuries ago.
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) See The Atmosphere,
Anthes and others, pp. 268-269, and Elements of Meteorology, Miller and
Thompson, p. 141.
(2) The updrafts near the
center are stronger, because they are protected from the cooling effects by the
outer portion of the cloud.
(3) See The Atmosphere,
Anthes and others, p. 269, and Elements of Meteorology, Miller and
Thompson, pp. 141-142.
(4) See Ee’jaz al-Quran
al-Kareem fee Wasf Anwa’ al-Riyah, al-Sohob, al-Matar, Makky and others,
p. 55.
(5) Elements of
Meteorology, Miller and Thompson, p. 141.
(6) Meteorology Today,
Ahrens, p. 437.
(7) The Works of
Aristotle Translated into English: Meteorologica, vol. 3, Ross and others,
pp. 369a-369b.
H)
Scientists’ Comments on the Scientific Miracles in the Holy Quran:
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The following are some comments of scientists1 on
the scientific miracles in the Holy Quran. All of these comments have been
taken from the videotape entitled This is the Truth. In this videotape, you can see and hear the scientists while they are giving the following
comments. (To view the RealPlayer video of a comment, click on the link at
the end of that comment. For a copy of this videotape, please visit this page.)
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1) Dr. T. V. N. Persaud is Professor
of Anatomy, Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health, and Professor of
Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. There, he was the Chairman of the Department
of Anatomy for 16 years. He is well-known in his field. He is the author
or editor of 22 textbooks and has published over 181 scientific papers. In
1991, he received the most distinguished award presented in the field of anatomy
in Canada, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of
Anatomists. When he was asked about the scientific miracles in the Quran
which he has researched, he stated the following:
“The way it was explained to me is that Muhammad was a very
ordinary man. He could not read, didn’t know [how] to write. In fact, he
was an illiterate. And we’re talking about twelve [actually about
fourteen] hundred years ago. You have someone illiterate making profound
pronouncements and statements and that are amazingly accurate about scientific
nature. And I personally can’t see how this could be a mere chance.
There are too many accuracies and, like Dr. Moore, I have no difficulty in my
mind that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which led him to these
statements.” (View the RealPlayer video of
this comment 
)
Professor Persaud has included some Quranic verses
and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad 
in some of his books. He has also presented these verses and sayings of
the Prophet Muhammad
at several conferences.
2) Dr.
Joe Leigh Simpson is the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Professor of Molecular
and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Formerly, he was Professor of Ob-Gyn and the Chairman of the Department of Ob-Gyn
at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was also the
President of the American Fertility Society. He has received many awards,
including the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology Public
Recognition Award in 1992. Professor Simpson studied the following two sayings
of the Prophet Muhammad :
{In every
one of you, all components of your creation are collected together in your
mother’s womb by forty days...}2
{If
forty-two nights have passed over the embryo, God sends an angel to it, who
shapes it and creates its hearing, vision, skin, flesh, and bones....}3
He studied
these two sayings of the Prophet Muhammad extensively, noting that the first forty days
constitute a clearly distinguishable stage of embryo-genesis. He was
particularly impressed by the absolute precision and accuracy of those sayings
of the Prophet Muhammad . Then,
during one conference, he gave the following opinion:
“So
that the two hadeeths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ) that have been noted provide us with a
specific time table for the main embryological development before forty days.
Again, the point has been made, I think, repeatedly by other speakers this
morning: these hadeeths could not have been obtained on the basis of
the scientific knowledge that was available [at] the time of their writing . . .
. It follows, I think, that not only there is no conflict between genetics and
religion but, in fact, religion can guide science by adding revelation to some
of the traditional scientific approaches, that there exist statements in the Quran
shown centuries later to be valid, which support knowledge in the Quran having
been derived from God.” (View the
RealPlayer video of this comment )
3) Dr.
E. Marshall Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Developmental Biology
at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. There, for 22
years he was Professor of Anatomy, the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy,
and the Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute. He was also the President of the
Teratology Society. He has authored more than 200 publications. In 1981, during
the Seventh Medical Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Professor Johnson said
in the presentation of his research paper:
“Summary:
The Quran describes not only the development of external form, but emphasizes
also the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and
development, emphasizing major events recognized by contemporary science.”
(View the RealPlayer video of this comment )
Also he said: “As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can
specifically see. I can understand embryology and developmental biology. I can
understand the words that are translated to me from the Quran. As I gave the
example before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I knew
today and describing things, I could not describe the things which were
described. I see no evidence for the fact to refute the concept that this
individual, Muhammad, had to be developing this information from some place. So
I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was
involved in what he was able to write.”4
(View the RealPlayer video of this comment )
4) Dr.
William W. Hay is a well-known marine scientist. He is Professor of Geological
Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA. He was formerly
the Dean of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the
University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA. After a discussion with Professor Hay
about the Quran’s mention of recently discovered facts on seas, he said:
“I
find it very interesting that this sort of information is in the ancient
scriptures of the Holy Quran, and I have no way of knowing where they would come
from, but I think it is extremely interesting that they are there and that this
work is going on to discover it, the meaning of some of the passages.” And
when he was asked about the source of the Quran, he replied: “Well, I would think
it must be the divine being.” (View the
RealPlayer video of this comment
)
5) Dr. Gerald
C. Goeringer is Course Director and Associate Professor of Medical Embryology at
the Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University,
Washington, DC, USA. During the Eighth Saudi Medical Conference in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, Professor Goeringer stated the following in the presentation of his
research paper:
“In
a relatively few aayahs (Quranic verses) is contained a rather
comprehensive description of human development from the time of commingling of
the gametes through organogenesis. No such distinct and complete record of human
development, such as classification, terminology, and description, existed
previously. In most, if not all, instances, this description antedates by many
centuries the recording of the various stages of human embryonic and fetal
development recorded in the traditional scientific literature.” (View
the RealPlayer video of this comment )
6) Dr.
Yoshihide Kozai is Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University, Hongo, Tokyo, Japan,
and was the Director of the National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo,
Japan. He said:
“I am
very much impressed by finding true astronomical facts in [the] Quran, and for
us the modern astronomers have been studying very small pieces of the universe.
We’ve concentrated our efforts for understanding of [a] very small part. Because
by using telescopes, we can see only very few parts [of] the sky without
thinking [about the] whole universe. So, by reading [the] Quran and by answering
to the questions, I think I can find my future way for investigation of the
universe.” (View the RealPlayer video of
this comment )
7) Professor
Tejatat Tejasen is the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai
University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Previously, he was the Dean of the Faculty of
Medicine at the same university. During the Eighth Saudi Medical Conference in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Professor Tejasen stood up and said:
“During
the last three years, I became interested in the Quran . . . . From my study and
what I have learned from this conference, I believe that everything that has
been recorded in the Quran fourteen hundred years ago must be the truth, that
can be proved by the scientific means. Since the Prophet Muhammad could neither
read nor write, Muhammad must be a messenger who relayed this truth, which was
revealed to him as an enlightenment by the one who is eligible [as the] creator.
This creator must be God. Therefore, I think this is the time to say La ilaha
illa Allah, there is no god to worship except Allah (God), Muhammadur
rasoolu Allah, Muhammad is Messenger (Prophet) of Allah (God). Lastly,
I must congratulate for the excellent and highly successful arrangement for this
conference . . . . I have gained not only from the scientific point of view and
religious point of view but also the great chance of meeting many well-known
scientists and making many new friends among the participants. The most precious
thing of all that I have gained by coming to this place is La ilaha illa Allah,
Muhammadur rasoolu Allah, and to have become a Muslim.” (View
the RealPlayer video of this comment )
After all these examples
we have seen about the scientific miracles in the Holy Quran and all these
scientists’ comments on this, let us ask ourselves these questions:
n Could it be
a coincidence that all this recently discovered scientific information from
different fields was mentioned in the Quran, which was revealed fourteen
centuries ago?
n Could
this Quran have been authored by Muhammad
or by any other human being?
The only
possible answer is that this Quran must be the literal word of God, revealed by
Him.
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) Note: The occupations of all the
scientists mentioned in this web site were last updated in 1997.
(2) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #2643,
and Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #3208.
Note: What is between these special
brackets {...} in this guide is a translation of what the Prophet Muhammad
said. Also note that this symbol # used in the
footnotes, indicates the number of the hadeeth. A hadeeth is a
reliably transmitted report by the Prophet Muhammad’s
companions of what he said, did, or approved
of.
(3) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #2645.
(4) The Prophet Muhammad
was illiterate. He could not read nor write,
but he dictated the Quran to his Companions and commanded some of them to write
it down
.
Could anyone imagine that the
solid massive mountain which he sees before him actually extends deep into the
earth and has a root, as scientists assert? A large number of books of
geology, when discussing mountains, only describe that part which is above the
surface of the earth. This is because these books were not written by
specialists in geology. However, modern geology has confirmed the truth of
the Quranic verses.
