WATER CYCLE

 

Q25: 48-9 "And we send down pure watch from the sky that with it we may give life to a dead land"

Scientifically we know that at the early period of the earth, the earth was devoid of water (talk less of any form of life). It only constitutes Rocky Mountains and various gases. Water was formed originally on the primitive earth when a chemical reaction between Hydrogen and Oxygen took place as the earth cooled. This process produces H20 (water). As the gases that formed the earth cooled and became liquid particles a dense cloud blanketed the earth. When the temperature dropped, the cloud shed their water, a downpour that lasted for 60,000 years, filling the ocean and the lower land basins that were formed when the molten crust hardened. About 97.2% of the earth water lies in the ocean and 2.15% is held in ice caps and in the ancient glaciers of the high mountain zone. The reminder of the water is spread over an area ranging from 3 miles below the earth surface to 7 miles up in the atmosphere. Rivers and streams account for only 300 cubic miles. Other surface water totals some 55,000 cubic miles and is divided between inland seas and freshwater and saltwater lakes. The earth has a reserve supply of some 2 million cubic miles below the surface.

Lower-lying water, in what is called the saturation zone, feed swamps, rivers, lakes and wells. The Sahara desert has an underground reservoir of some 150,000 cubic miles. The atmosphere holds about 3,100 cubic a mile of water -which is enough to cover the whole earth with one inch of rain if it fell at one time. All in the entire entire downpour that lasted for 60,000 years at the beginning of the earth history shed an estimated 326 million cubic miles of water. The earth retains all the water ever created because water responds to a variety of powerful forces-. The heat of the sun, the pull of the earth gravity and the tidal forces of the sun and the moon-The result is a natural circle in which water has been used, purified and re-used for billion of years. This water, created by God, gave earth (which was a dead land) various forms of living matter. But it is not only a source. Of life but its sustainer because without water any form of life will cease to exist. So water "Gave life to a dead land (earth) "and "slake the thirst of thing (God) have created".

Q21: 30 "We made from water every living thing will they not then believe?"

This Quranic claim was long after its declaration proven by science. After the creation of water, the first form of life to have emerged on this planet was from the oceans. This first living cell (Adam) gave rise to all other forms of life here. There is also the fact that land animals like the higher vertebrates, including man shows, in their embryological history, organs like those of fishes indicating the watery origins of their original habitat.

Q25: 48-9 "And we send down water from the sky (to) slake the thirst of things we have created".

Water is essential in plants and animals nutrition. It finds extensive use in science and industry as a solvent, catalyst, as a standard for the concrete representation of certain physical units (Calorie, liter) it is also a conveying medium for the transport of materials and disposal of waste, a diluents or dipersive medium, a cooling agent, cleansing medium, in the distribution of heat and me generation of power and a lot of other uses. Plants and animals largely depend on it for their survival.

Q23: 18 "And we send down pure water from the sky according to due measure, and we cause it to soak in the soul. And we are certainly able to drain it off (with ease)".

Rainwater is known to be the second most pure water, next to snow. It is not only pure water distilled in the air and the sky but also it is the best purifying agent and sanitation agent on the largest scale known to man. Rainfall comes well distributed and it soaks into the soil. Moisture is retained for a long time in all high grounds, it soaks and penetrates through many layers of soil and forms the architecture of physical geography. The retentive powers of the higher soil enable rivers to flow perennially even where the rainfall is seasonal and confined to a few months. Water also came in the form of snow or hail. Were it not for snow and glaciers in the higher mountains regions, some of the rivers would fail in their abundant flow. As wonderful as the supply of rainfall and moisture, is its drainage. The air near the surface of the earth whether land or sea is rarely saturated.

If the temperature reached certain extent water molecules will evaporate from moist ground, growing vegetations, seas and rivers, snow and ice e.t.c. The water vapor formed is partly condensed at or near the surface as dew or fog. But in the main it is transported upwards. A cooling process upward formed the clouds and if the clouds are sufficiently developed they precipitated and condensed as rain, hail or snow which fed rivers, lakes, underground springs, seas or soaks into the soil again to nourish growth.

Q25: 53 "It is he who has let free the two bodies of water. One sweet and palatable, and the other salt and bitter. Yet he has made a barrier between them. A partition that is forbidden to be passed"

Water is distributed all over the world in two forms

i. The great salt oceans

ii. The sweet rivers, lakes and underground streams.

God has let free the two bodies of water to mingle for there is a continuous water circle. The source of all sweet water is one that is rainfall weather below or above the ground eventually to the oceans made them one. Rivers flow constantly to the sea, and tidal rivers get sea water for several miles up their estuaries at high tide. The river water with its silt remains distinct from seawater for a long distance out at sea. For example the Mississippi river in USA and Yangtze in the people's Republic of China. In spite of all this intermingling the laws of gravitation, are a partition set by God that the two bodies of water as a whole are always kept apart and distinct.

Q13: 17 "He sends down water from the skies, and the channels flow, each according to its measure"

The source of all water in this planet is rainfall. The oceans and the saltwater lakes were as a result of the first rainfall billions of years ago. And the rivers, lakes, underground streams were the product of subsequent rainfalls. Each channel in the world flow according to its capacity. For example there are some that is sluggish (like river Niger) some have swift current (like the Mississippi). Others formed great rivers that irrigate wide tract of country like the Nile and Amazon. There are also degrees among Brooks, Lakes, Streams, and Rivers and Seas. They all flow according to measure in order to maintain the economy of air and soil.