"Such
as remember Allah, standing, sitting, and reclining, and consider the creation
of the heavens and the earth, (and say): Our Lord! Thou createst not this in
vain. Glory be to Thee! Preserve us from the doom of Fire." [Al-Qur'an 3:191]
Rain is indeed one of the most important factors for life on the earth.
Rain is a prerequisite for the permanence of life in a region. Rain, which
carries great importance for all living things including human beings, is
mentioned in various verses of the Qur'an where substantial
information is given about the formation of rain,
its proportion and effects. The fact that it was not possible for any of this
information to have been discovered at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an shows us that the Qur'an is the word of Allah. Now, let us
examine the information given in the Qur'an about rain.
The Proportion of Rain
In the eleventh verse of Surah az-Zukhruf, rain is
defined as water sent down in due measure. The verse is as follows:
"And
He who sends down (from time to time) water from the sky in due measure, and We
raise to life therewith a land that is dead. Even so will you be raised (from
the dead)." [Al-Qur'an 43:11]
This "measure" mentioned in the verse has to do with a couple of
characteristics of rain. First of all, the amount of rain that falls on the
earth is always the same. It is estimated that in one second, 16 million tones
of water evaporates from the earth. This number is equal to the amount of water
that drops on the earth in one second. This means that water continuously
circulates in a balanced cycle according to a "measure".
Another measure related with rain is about its falling speed. The minimum
altitude of rain clouds is 1,200 meters. When dropped from this height, an
object having the same weight and size as a rain drop, would continuously
accelerate and fall on the ground with a speed of 558 km/h. Certainly, any
object that hits the ground with that speed would cause big damage. If rain
happened to fall in the same way, all harvested lands would be destroyed,
residential areas, houses, and cars would be damaged, people would not be able
to walk around without taking necessary precautions. What is more, these
calculations are made just for clouds of 1,200 meters high, whereas there are
also rain clouds at an altitude of 10,000 meters. A rain drop falling from such
a height could normally reach a very destructive speed. But this is not how it
works; no matter from how high they fall, average speed of rain drops is only
8-10 km/h when they reach the ground. The reason for this is the special form
they take. This special form increases the friction effect of the atmosphere
and prevents acceleration when the rain drops reach a certain speed
"limit". (Today parachutes are designed by using this technique.)
This is not all about the "measures" of rain. For instance, in
the atmospheric layers where it starts to rain, the temperature may fall so low
as 400C degrees. Despite this, rain drops never turn into ice particles. (This
would certainly mean a fatal threat for the living things on the earth). The
reason is that the water in the atmosphere is pure water. As known, pure water
hardly freezes even in very low temperatures.
The Formation of Rain
How rain forms remained a great mystery for people for a long time. Only
after air radars were discovered, could it have been possible to learn by which
stages rain formed. The formation of rain takes place in three stages: First,
the "raw material" of rain rises up in the air. Later, clouds are
formed and lastly, rain drops appear. These stages are clearly defined in
the Qur'an in which precise information was given about the formation of rain centuries
in advance;
"It
is Allah Who sends the Winds, and they raise the Clouds: then does He spread
them in the sky as He wills, and break them into fragments, until you see
rain-drops issue from the midst thereof: then when He has made them reach such of
his servants as He wills behold, they do rejoice!"
Now, let us look at the three stages mentioned in the verse;
1st Stage: "It is Allah Who sends the winds ...
" Countless air bubbles formed by
the foaming in the oceans continuously burst and cause water particles to be
ejected towards the sky. These particles which are rich in salt, are then
carried away by winds and move upwards in the atmosphere.These particles which
are called aerosols form clouds by collecting around themselves the water vapor
-that again ascends from the seas - as tiny drops, by a mechanism called
"water trap".
2nd Stage : "
... and they raise the Clouds: then does He spread them in the sky as He wills,
and break them into fragments ... The
clouds form from the water vapor that condenses around the salt crystals or the
dust particles in the air. Because the water drops in these are very small
(with a diameter between 0.01 and 0.02mm), the clouds are suspended in the air
and they spread in the sky. Thus the sky is covered with clouds.
3rd Stage : "
... until you see rain-drops issue from the midst thereof." Water particles that surround salt crystals and dust particles
thicken and form rain drops. So, the drops which become heavier than air depart
from the clouds, and start to fall on the ground as rain.
The conclusion to be arrived here is that; Every stage in the formation of
rain is told in the verses of the Qur'an. Furthermore, these stages are explained in the order they take place ...
Just like in many other natural phenomena in the world, it is again the Qur'an that provides the most correct explanation about this phenomena as
well, and more, that has announced these facts to people centuries before they
were discovered by science.
Life Given to a Dead Land
In the Qur'an, a lot of verses call our attention to a particular function of rain,
which is "giving life to a dead land". It is stated in a verse as:
"We
send down pure water from the sky. That with it We may give life to a dead
land, and slake the thirst of things We have created, cattle and men in great
numbers." [Al-Qur'an 25:48- 49]
In addition to furnishing the earth with water, rain also has a
fertilization effect. Rain drops that reach the clouds after being evaporated
from the seas, contain certain substances "that will give life" to a
dead land. These "life-giving" drops are called "surface tension
drops". Surface tension drops form on the top level of the sea surface
which is called the micro layer by biologists. In this layer, which is thinner
than one tenth of a millimeter, there are many organic leftovers caused from
the pollution of microscopic algaes and zooplanktons. Some of these leftovers
select and collect within themselves some elements which are very rare in sea
water such as phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and some heavy metals like
copper, zinc, cobalt and lead. These "fertilizer" laden drops are
lifted up into the sky by the winds and after a while they drop on the ground
inside the rain drops. Seeds and plants on the earth find numerous metallic
salts and elements essential for their growth here in these rain drops. This
event is informed in another verse of the Qur'an as follows:
"And
We send down from the sky rain chartered with blessing, and We produce
therewith gardens and grain for harvests."[Al-Qur'an 50:9]
Salts that fall with rain are small examples of some fertilizers (calcium,
magnesium, potassium etc.) used for increasing fertility. The heavy metals
found in these types of aerosols, on the other hand, are other elements that increase
fertility in the development and production of plants. Forests also develop and
are fed with the help of these sea-originated aerosols. In this way, 150
million tons of fertilizer falls on the total surface of lands every year. If
there was not a natural fertilization like this, there would be very little
vegetation on the earth, and the ecological balance would be damaged. What is
more interesting is that this truth, which could only be discovered by modern
science, was informed by Allah in the Qur'an centuries ago.
