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"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:
Al-Imran,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 Surat 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) (Surat az -Zukhruf,
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 1200
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 1200 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 400 C 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 0.02 mm), 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. Surat al - Furqan, 48- 49)
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.
Harun Yahya
Harun Yahya is a well known writer from Istanbul who has
written numerous books and articles on Islam, which includes the marvels
of Allah's creation, the
evolution theory, and politics. His articles have been
published, not only in Turkey, but in other countries as well. His study
aims to convey the message of
the Qur'an, and to encourage people to think on issues
such as the existence and the unity of God, and the Hereafter.