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THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
In addition to certain statements specifically relating to the sky, examined in the preceding chapter, the Qur'an contains several passages dealing with the phenomena that occur in the atmosphere. Here again there is absolutely no contradiction between today's modern scientific knowledge and the phenomena described.
Altitude
A familiar feeling of discomfort and constriction experienced at high altitude, which increases the higher one climbs, is expressed as below:
Those whom God wills to guide, He opens their breast to Islam. Those whom He wills lose their way, He makes their breast narrow and constricted, as if they were climbing in the sky (125:6)
Some commentators think that the notion of discomfort at high altitude was unknown to the Arabs of the Prophet’s time. It does not seem to be true as rising over two miles high on the Arabian Peninsula of peaks made it very difficult forArabs to breathe at high altitude.
Electricity in the Atmosphere
Electricity in the atmosphere and the consequences of this, i.e., lightning and hail, are referred to in the following verses:
It is He Who doth show you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope: It is He Who doth raise up the clouds, heavy with (fertilizing) rain! The thunder glorifies His Praise and so do the angels for awe. He sends the thunderbolt and strikes with them who He wills while they are disputing about God. He is All Mighty in His Power (13:12-13)
Hast thou not seen that God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them a heap. And thou seest raindrops issuing from within it. He sends down from the sky mountains of hail, He strikes therewith whom He wills and He turns it away from whom He wills. The flashing of its lightning almost snatches away the sight (24:43)
In these two verses there is lucid expression of an obvious correlation between the formation of heavy rain clouds or clouds containing hail and the occurrence of lightning, the former, the subject of hope and covetousness on account of the benefit it represents and the latter, the subject of fear, because when it falls, it is likely to be damaging or devastating at the will of the Almighty.
When Sheikh Zindani presented to Prof. Rao, Professor of Marine Geology teaching at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia many a verse dealing with his area of specialization, and asked: "What do you think of the existence of the scientific information in the Qur'an? How could Prophet Muhammad have known about these facts fourteen centuries ago?, he replied:
"It is difficult to imagine that this type of knowledge was existing at that time, around 1400 years back. May be some of the things they have simple idea about, but to describe those things in great detail is very difficult. So this is definitely not simple human knowledge. A normal human being cannot explain this phenomenon in that much detail. So, I thought the information must have come from a supernatural source."
Shadows
The phenomenon of shadows and the fact that they move is very simply explained today. It forms the subject of the following observations:
It is God Who made out of the things He created, some things to give you shade. . (16:81)
Do they not look at God's creation, (even) among (inanimate) things; how their (very) shadows turn round, from the right and the left, prostrating themselves to God, and that in the humblest manner? (16:48)
Hast thou not turned thy vision to thy Lord? How He doth prolong the shadow! If He willed, He could make it stationary! Then do We make the sun its guide; Then We draw it in towards Ourselves, a contraction by easy stages (25:45-46)
Apart from the phrases dealing with the humility before God of all the things He created, including their shadow, and the fact that God can take back all manifestations of His Power, as He wills, the text of the Qur'an refers to the relationship between the Sun and the shadows. One must bear in mind at this point the fact that, in the Prophet’s times, it was believed that the way a shadow moved was governed by the movement of the sun from east to west. This principle was applied in the case of the sundial to measure the time between sunrise and sunset. In this instance, the Qur'an speaks of the phenomenon without referring to the explanation current at the time of the Revelation. The Qur'an only talks of the function the sun has as an indicator of shadow. Evidently there is no contradiction between the way the Qur'an describes shadow and what we know of this phenomenon in modern times.
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