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(Or
(the unbelievers' state) are like the darkness of a
fathomless sea which is covered by waves above which are
waves above which are clouds, layers of darkness, one upon
the other. If he puts out his hand, he can scarcely see it.
Those God gives no light to, they have no light.)
(The Qur'an, 24:40)
The general environment in deep
seas is described in the book named Oceans:
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. Below a depth of 1000 meters there is no
light at all.(1)
Today, we know about the general
structure of the sea, the characteristics of the living
things in it, its salinity, as well as the amount of water
it contains, its surface area and depth. Submarines and
special equipment, developed with modern technology, enable
scientists to obtain this information.
Human beings are not able to
dive more than 40 meters down without the aid of special
equipment. They cannot survive unaided in the deep, dark
parts of the oceans, such as at a depth of 200 meters. For
these reasons, scientists have only recently been able to
discover these detailed pieces of information about seas.
However, the statement of "darkness in a deep sea" was used
in Sura Nur 1,400 years ago. It is certainly one of the
miracles of the Qur'an that such information was given at a
time where no equipment to enable man to dive into the
depths of the oceans was available.
In addition, the statement in
verse 40 of Sura Nur "…like the
darkness of a fathomless sea which is covered by waves above
which are waves above which are clouds…" draws
our attention to another miracle of the Qur'an.
Scientists have recently discovered that
there are internal waves, which "occur on density interfaces
between layers of different densities." These internal waves
cover the deep waters of seas and oceans because deep water
has a higher density than the water above it. Internal waves
act like surface waves. They can 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.(2)
The statements in the Qur'an run
absolutely parallel to the above explanation. Without
research, one can only see the waves on the surface of the
sea. It is impossible for one to know about the internal
waves beneath the sea. Yet, in Sura Nur, God draws our
attention to another type of wave that occurs in the depths
of the oceans. Certainly, this fact, which scientists has
discovered very recently, shows once again that the Qur'an
is the word of God.
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Measurements made
with today's technology have revealed
that between 3 and 30 percent of the
sunlight is reflected at the surface of the sea.
Then, almost all of the seven colours of the light
spectrum are absorbed, one after another, in the
first 200 meters, except for blue light (picture at
left). Below a depth of 1,000 meters, there is no
light at all. (above picture). This scientific fact
was pointed out in the verse 40 of Sura Nur in
the Qur'an 1,400 years ago.
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The picture to
the left represents internal
waves at interface between two
layers of water of different
densities. The lower layer is
denser then the upper one. This
scientific fact, declared in
verse 40 of Sura Nur of the
Qur'an 14 centuries ago, has
been discovered by today's
scientists only very recently. |
Reference : "the miracles of the Quran" by
Harun Yahya.
(1)
Elder, Danny; and John Pernetta, 1991, Oceans,
London, Mitchell Beazley Publishers, p. 27
(2)
Gross, M. Grant; 1993, Oceanography, a View of Earth,
6. edition, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall Inc., p. 205 |
