Overview (Verses 53 - 54)

Separating Types of Water

The sūrah again portrays images from the world around us. Having spoken about winds heralding rain and its pure water, now it speaks of the great bodies of water, some of which are sweet and some salty, and how they do not mix. He it is who has brought the two bodies of water to meet; the one sweet and thirst- quenching, and the other salty and bitter. Yet between them He has made a barrier and a forbidding ban. (Verse 53)

It is God who created both types and left them to run their courses, meeting at certain points. Nevertheless, their waters do not mix because they have a natural barrier keeping them apart. In most cases, rivers run at a level higher than the sea, which means that at the meeting point, it is the river with its sweet water that runs into the salty sea. It is very rare that a river runs below sea level. Hence, the sea with its much greater body of water does not overpower the river whose water gives life to plants, animals and man. The fact that this is the natural order in practically all cases where a river meets the sea means that it is certainly not coincidental. It happens by the will of the Creator who made the universe in such a way as to fulfil His purpose and remain subject to His laws of nature.

Indeed the natural laws God has set in operation ensure that the salty waters of sea and ocean do not overrun dry land or overpower rivers. This remains so even during high tides caused by the moon’s gravity as it affects the earth’s surface water.

It is useful to cite here some scientific observations that stress the facts mentioned in the Qur’ān:

The moon is 240,000 miles away, and the tides twice a day are usually a gentle reminder of its presence. Tides of the ocean run as high as sixty feet in some places, and even the crust of the earth is twice a day bent outward several inches by the moon’s attraction. All seems so regular that we do not grasp to any degree the vast power that lifts the whole area of the sea several feet and bends the crust of the earth, seemingly so solid. Mars has a moon – a little one – only six thousand miles away from it. If our moon was, say, fifty thousand miles away instead of its present respectable distance, our tides would be so enormous that twice a day all the lowland of all the continents would be submerged by a rush of water so enormous that even the mountains would soon be eroded away, and probably no continent could have risen from the depths fast enough to exist today. The earth would crack with the turmoil and tides in the air would create daily hurricanes. If the continents were washed away, the average depth of water over the whole earth would be about a mile and a half and life could not exist except perhaps in the abysmal depth of the ocean, where it would feed upon itself till extinct.

But the hand that manages this universe has let the two bodies of water free, placing between them a barrier that prevents either from encroaching on the other. This barrier is erected between them through their very nature and the nature of the universe which demonstrates such balances that testify to the wisdom of its Maker.

As the sūrah proceeds, it refers to a fluid that is totally different from the water pouring down from the skies, or moving along in seas and rivers. It mentions the sperm that gives rise to human life: “And He it is who has created man from water and established for him bonds of lineage and marriage. All-Powerful is your Lord.” (Verse 54) It is from this particular fluid that a fetus takes form and becomes a male child related to its ancestors by lineage, or a female one that enables the marriage relationship to take place.

The human life that comes into existence through this fluid is far greater and more wonderful than life caused by rain. Just one cell, out of a countless number comprised in one drop of man’s semen, fertilizes the woman’s egg to initiate the formation of the greatly sophisticated creature, man, the most remarkable of all living creatures.

It is from practically identical sperms and female eggs that boys and girls come into existence, in a remarkable process that human knowledge has not yet fathomed. None of the many thousands of sperms shows any clear signs that makes it able to produce a male or a female. Similarly, no female egg shows such signs. Nevertheless, one eventually produces a man, while another produces a woman. “All powerful is your Lord.” This amazing phenomenon shows just one aspect of His power.

The Great Miracle of Life

If we were to look minutely into this fluid, we would be overawed as we look for a complete set of human characteristics in exceedingly minute components that carry the hereditary aspects of the human race, as also the parents and their immediate families, which are then transferred to the fetus, male or female, in accordance with God’s will. Here we quote from the chapter on genes in A.C. Morrison’s Man Does

Not Stand Alone

In every cell, male and female, are chromosomes and genes. Chromosomes form the darkened nucleus which contains the genes. The genes are the main deciding factor as to what every living thing or a human being shall be. The cytoplasm is the extraordinary chemical combinations which surround them both. The genes are so infinitesimal that if all of them which are responsible for all the human beings on earth today, with their individuality, psychology, colour, and race, could be collected and put in one place, there would be less than a thimbleful. These ultra-microscopic genes are the absolute keys to all human, animal, and vegetable characteristics. A thimble is a small place in which to put all the individual characteristics of two billions of human beings. However, the facts are beyond question... The embryo recapitulating in its progressive development from protoplasm to racial identity indicates recorded history retained and expressed by atomic arrangement in the genes and cytoplasm...

We have found that genes are recognized to be sub microscopic arrangements of the atoms in the sex cells of all things that have life. They hold the design, ancestral record and characteristics of each living thing. They control in detail root, trunk, leaf, flower and fruit of every plant as exactly as they determine the shape, scales, hair, wings of every animal, including man.

Such a glimpse into the marvels of life is sufficient as a pointer to the wise Creator’s great hand: “All powerful is your Lord.” (Verse 54)