AGAIN THE SIGNS OF GOD

      Here a series of God's signs in the system of the existence has been pointed to in brief:ِ

      ``Do the unbelievers not see that the skies and the earth were connected together as one mass, then We opened them?''

      Commentators have had a long discussion as to what the connection, and then the separation of the heavens and earth may mean. The most accepted view is that, the whole solar system has at first been one burning gaseous mass, and through its internal explosion it has been divided to huge parts, and then they have solidated to form the existing heavenly bodies, or the planets of the solar system that spin around themselves, and swim in their elliptical orbits.

      Another comment about it, is that; at the beginning, it did not rain, and the doors of the sky was closed. Then Allah opened it to rain down, and by that the earth began to grow its plant, and to produce its vegetation and fruit.

      The verses of Qurän are usually mainfold in meanings. Each verse may have a high meaning for a learned scholar, in spite of giving a lower meaning to a layman.

      Then reference is made to the importance of water:ِ

      ``And We have made everything alive of water.''

      Some commentators have understood this verse to mean that the main source of life is water, and that the first living creatures have been made in the oceans. Some other commentators have taken the water here to be the SPERMATOZOON which is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, able to fertilize a female ovum.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIFE

      Some details of the role of water in our life, and in the life of all the creatures, seems to be needed in order to clear the matter more. The verse here (NO.30) implies that everything is made alive of water. With reference to some biological books, we got some quotations to put light upon the matter as follows:ِ

      Water (H2O) is the world's most abundant chemical compound. It is one of the few ingredients necessary to sustain life. Man uses water to drink, to prepare food and fruit, and to keep cool in summer and warm in winter. Water is essential to growth of all living things. It is the medium in which all plant and animal cells exist, and by means of which they function. Life on earth began in the water of the oceans. Water is vital to animal and plant life. It is also a major factor in weather.

      Ancient cities developed where water was available for farming, transportation and other uses. Modern industrial civilizations use water in enormous quantities for purposes ranging from washing dishes, to making steam in atomic power plants. In early times, men believed water to be an element along with air, fire, and earth. However in 1783, the French Chemist, ANTOINE LAVOISIER found water to be composed of oxygen and hydrogen. The melting and boiling points of water is; 0³C and 100³C respectively. The density of water is the usual standard for specific gravity, the specific gravity (SG) of water being taken as one (1).

From the Encyclopedia International

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

      Then in the next verse (NO.31), the immediate reference is to the importance of mountains, and the role which they play in Man's life:ِ

      ``And We set on the earth, the firm mountains not to shake them, and set in it valleys to serve as ways that they may be guided.''

      Mountains are fixed in the earth, and have pierced down through it as a further source of safety to life against vibrations caused by winds or explosions. The mountains are also barriers to various invasions, and yet God has provided valleys and roads between them, to afford high ways in order to direct men in the way they should go.

SWIMMING IN THEIR ORBIT

      The next verse (NO.33) refers to the movements of the sun and the moon and other stars:ِ

      ``And He is who created the night and day, and the sun and the moon, each swimming in an orbit.''

      Like the other celestial bodies in the heavens, the sun seems to be constantly moving. Not only does it apparently rise and set each day, but it seems to be changing its position with respect to other stars. This apparent movement of the sun is because our earth is moving around the sun at a speed of about 18 miles a second. Its path around the sun is elliptical and it takes the earth about one year to complete its journey.

      Of course, the sun does have its own movements of spinning round itself as well as a simultaneous movement of the sun and its planets, (i.e. The whole solar system) around a polar star.

 

THE SKY IS A FIRM CEILING

      As we have already said elsewhere in this book, the Arabic word, ``SAMAA'' has been used with various meanings in Qurän, like; overhead, the whole universe, the solar system; and here it means the atmosphere, or the ocean of air, which surrounds our globe.

      Frank Alen, the professor of physic, has said that the atmosphere consists of gases which protect our life. The air has such a volume and height that can do as a chain mail in protecting the earth against the rush of some twenty millions pieces of deathful meteores everyday. These transient celestial bodies, large and small, enter the atmosphere with a great velocity of 50Km per second. They possibly may hit the earth in a collision and cause calamities by their clashes, but the sky is usually protected from such a danger wisely. When the meteore reach the atmosphere, through the power of friction with the particles of the air, they become enormously hot and then melt and finally turn to ashes and fine particles before coming down to the earth. However, there are occasions when a remainder or residue of them do reach the earth. As an instance of this, in 1908 one such great meteore hit the ground in Siberia in a part of Soviet Russia, the diameter of which covered a length of 40 miles and caused a great casualty:

      ``And We made the sky a protected ceiling, and they turn away from its signs.''

THE PROTECTING CEILING

      The verse NO.32, refers to the sky overhead, as a protected or protecting ceiling that we usually ignore its signs. This ceiling is nothing other than the huge ocean of air that we call it the ATMOSPHER, in the bottom of which we live and we die. It surrounds the more solid part of the earth, the land and water, but it is just as truly a part of the earth as they are.

      If we were to be removed from this airy envelope somehow, we should gasp and die, as fishes die when they are taken out of water. The sky or the atmosphere which seems blue consists of a mixture of different gases.... Nitrogen makes up almost four fifth of it, and oxygen a little more than one fifth. There are also small quantities of other gases like argon, neon, helium, krypton, xenon, carbon-dioxid, hydrogen and OZON, which is a form of heavy oxygen.

      The atmosphere also contains a considerable amount of water vapor. The earth holds the atmosphere by gravitational attraction.

      The oxygen in the atmosphere makes fire possible, because BURNING, chemically means combination of oxygen with carbon. Our breathing is also part of a burning process, that provides the heat or necessary temperature of our body.

      Nitrogen which is a gas chemically inactive, slows down the process of burning or oxidation. We cannot breath pure oxygen for long because the burning in pure oxygen will be too intensly hot and dangerous.

      Nitrogen is also necessary for the growth of plant life. It is also an essential element in all explosives.

 

      Plants absorb the carbon dioxide which is in the air and utilize it in the manufacture of food in the green leaf through PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

      Man and animal inhale oxygen and give off carbon dioxide as a waste product of breathing.

      About fifteen miles above the earth, there is a layer of OZONE which is a kind of supercharged oxygen. Each OZON molcule contains three atoms of oxygen instead of the two atoms in the ordinary one. This layer of ozone absorbs a great deal of the ultraviolet rays of the sun. If this layer of OZON was not to filter out the rays, the ultraviolet beams would sunborn us to death. This is one of the many purposes that the verse (NO.32) is driving at, by saying:ِ

      ``We made the sky a protecting ceiling for you.''

      The atmosphere moderates the extremes of heat and cold upon the earth, which is another protecting character of it.

      It also protects man from a steady hail of meteoric particles that would otherwise make his life upon earth a constant nightmare. Meteores range in size from small fragments to huge rocks. The vast majority are small. It is estimated that over a hundred billions of meteores strike the earth's atmosphere every twenty four hours, but as they come in contact with the air most of them are reduced to gas and dust through friction.

      It is probable that the atmosphere protects Man not only from the meteores, but also from certain types of electrically charged particles from the sun.

      Without the atmosphere, there would be no rain to fall upon the parched ground, and make plants grow. There would be no wind, and no clouds. If there was no air, there could be no sound, no hearing, and Man's ear would be useless and hence the verse:ِ

      ``And We made the sky a protected ceiling, and they turn away from its signs.''

QUOTED FROM:ِ ``THE BOOK OF POPULAR SCIENCE''

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE