Part 36

Crosssection of the earth

As the sketch shows, the inner temperature of the earth is as high as 4000 centigrade ! This is a main reason for making life possible on the earth.

One of the Lord’s wondrous signs is the air, suspended between the sky and the earth, perceived by contact when it moves, its physical existence sensed but not seen. It exists between the sky and the earth, with birds soaring in it, flapping their wings in it, in the same way as sea animals swim in water. Its waves sometimes roll violently the same way as a sea’s waves do. When the Lord wills, the air moves mercifully, a harbinger of favour, plenty, and auspicious portent for humans, an impregnating factor for clouds, causing them to bear water, in the same way as a male impregantes a female to beara child. Such mercybearing winds are called: heralds, winnowers and emissary winds. Winds of torture, on the other hand, are called tempestuous, hurricane (in the sea), fatal and fierce (in land). When the Lord wills, He causes the winds of torture to blow, bringing devastation and suffering, a scourge against whomever He wills of His servants. It may bring destruction, bad omen and havoc wherever it passes. Winds blow from different sources, east wind and zephyr, southern and northern; all vastly varied in their benefits and results — some winds are soft and humid, bringing revival and refreshment to plants and animals; others cause drying; some ruin and ravage; some strengthen and solidify, others weaken and enfeeble. It is for this reason that the Almighty speaks of the winds of mercy in the collective, because of their varied benefits and consequences: a certain wind drives clouds, another fertilizes them, another bears them, another nourishes plants. And since winds are varied in their directions and quality, He created for each its counterpart that softens its intensity and harshness, leaving its softness and mercy. The winds of mercy are multiple, while the wind of torture has a singular strength: it blows from a single direction to destroy whatever it is destined to destroy; there is no wind

to counter it, to soften it and resist its force. It is like a huge army that advances unresisted until it destroys all that is in its way.

Regard now the words of the Qur’an in that connection, how sublime and expressive, how they always refer to the wind of the land in the plural, while they refer to the wind of mercy of the sea in the singular. Here is an example from the Allah’s words:

“He it is Who makes you to go on the land and the sea till, when you are in the ships and they sail with them with a fair breeze and they are glad therein, a storm-wind reaches them and the waves comes unto them from every

That is because ships sail ina specific direction by the force of wind; if winds that push them were of varied and opposite directions, the ships would have difficulty going ahead. From this it would be clear that the purpose of winds in the sea is different from those in the land. In the former, an auspicious wind should be unified, unresisted by another wind, and so it is madea single wind, in contrast to the many winds of the land. It can be further observed that this ethereal creature, the wind, which the Almighty Lord has endowed mankind with, can be split and pierced by the weakest creature; notwithstanding its force and might that can weaken huge, solid invincible bodies; displacing them, fragmenting them, and bearing them on its surface. See for instance how a water-skin, when filled with water, may not be pushed down and sunk by even a strong man, despite its own weight, and the man’s weight and strength-

that in spite of all the water’s softness and lightness. This weak thing, the water skin, resists water, whereas water can overcome solid, strong bodies. By this wise arrangement, the Lord maintains ships on the surface of water, despite their great weight, and the huge loads they carry. Likewise, all hollow bodies, filled with air, resist sinking, because air resists sinking in water, and so it holds up weighty ships with all their freight. It gives onc food to think how this impressive, huge body, the ship, borrows its ability to float from the soft, ethereal body, the air, to save it from sinking. It behaves in the manner of a man who fell in a well, but catches the edge of the clothes of a strong man, and thus gets saved from falling. So glory be to Him who let this bulky vessel maintain its floating by the work of the soft air, without any visible link or attachment.

A simple food chain

Reflect now on the following verse from the Qur’an:

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“and the clouds obedient between heaven and

Have you observed how the Almighty Lord causes the cloud to form, by effect of the wind, at first still thin and fragmentary, then He brings together portions of it, gathers them, then causes winds, called fertilisers by the Lord, to fertilize them; He then moves that cloud, borne on other winds, to be above such land that is in need of it. Once it is above that land, it pours its load of water on it. Then the Lord sends the wind to scatter water and atomize it, lest it should cause harm if it descends in its bulk. Once the land has taken its fill, and what it needs, it stops falling, and departs from that spot. Such clouds are a quenching of the land’s thirst, borne on the winds. The Prophet # said regarding some clouds, as reported by AlTirmidhi and others:

“These clouds of the land are driven by Allah to people, though they fail to remember the Lord or thank Him.” Clouds, then are a bearer of provision for humans and others, and a supplier of their food.

When Al-Hassan Al-Basri saw the clouds he used to say: “By Allah, those clouds have provisions for you, but you prevent that provision by your sins and misdeeds.””

There is a tradition reported in Sahih Muslim, in which it is narrated

> Meaning that water is the germ of life, as described by a verse of the Quran

Baw, veers (%> els] CF AF IGS “and We made every living thing from water,” (21: 30). When Al-Imam Al-

Hassan Al-Basri describes water as men’s provision he means it is the basis of their life, since man cannot survive without water for more than three days.

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That once, while a man passed through a wilderness, he heard a voice coming from a cloud, which said: ‘discharge your rain on so and so’s orchard.’ So the man moved with the cloud, until it was over an orchard; and when it was just above it, it rained all the water it bore. Then he saw a man with a rake, directing the water with it. So he asked him: ‘What is your name, O servant of Allah?’ ‘It is soand-so,’ he replied (the same name the first man had heard from the sky.) *

You do well to observe the clouds when they are thick and black, overlaying a pure and bright sky! See how Allah causes the clouds to form whenever He wills, and not before! See how the clouds, though soft and light, carry heavy loads of water, suspended between heaven and earth, until the time Allah wills that they empty their loads of water on the ground! When it falls, it falls in drops, every drop measured accurately by destiny, controlled by the Lord’s mercy and judgement. Clouds sprinkle the water, letting it fall in separate drops, not a drop mixing with another, not a drop falling before its time, nor after it; each following the track predetermined for it, never swerving from it; until they reach the earth, each drop reaching the point determined for it, not any other spot. If all the creatures of Allah converged to create one drop of these, or to count the number of drops for just

, Reported by Muslim and Ahmad.

one moment, they would fail to do so. So think how the Lord sends clouds to nourish men, beasts, birds, tiny insects and ants: He drives the cloud assigned to supply the specific animal at its particular place, next to the determined mountain; and it would reach it at its time of dire need and thirst, at the precise moment.

Regard, too, how the Lord lodged water in the earth, and then by its action caused to grow a myriad of plants. Some plants nourish, some season the food; some are digestive, some enfeeble, some are lethal poison, some are sickening; some heal diseases, some cause a chill, some cause heat; a certain plant, as it reaches the stomach, suppresses bile at its source; another as it settles in the stomach turns to bile; another repels phlegm and black bile; another transforms to one of these; one stimulates blood to flow, another represses it; one causes sleep, another dismisses it; one causes elation, one causes its reverse, and soon and on. There is no end to the wonders of plants; there is not a leaf, a branch or a fruit but contains a miracle that beats the understanding of men to encompass or comprehend it in full.

Regulation of body water

Water intake and its disposal by the human body occur according to a meticulous system. Organs like skin, stomach, intestine and kidneys are obviously involved in this system. A very subtle role is also played by certain endocrine glands, most notably, pituitary, adrenal and thyroid. Like food, water goes first into the stomach. Afterward, it is distributed to the various body parts according to their need.

Archaeologists and geologists keep excavating and investigating plates of the earth in their search for any evidence that reveals the forms of life in ancient history

Water intake itself is controlled by a sophisticated nervous mechanism. As for the quantity of water retained in the body, it is controlled by the amounts of salts of sodium potassium, and calcium. There are three reservoirs where the body keeps the needed quantity of fluid. There are intercellular (in the cell), extracellular (outside the cell), and interstitial (inbetween the tissues).

So the water in the body is not pure but salty. Also, strange to say, the structure of the human and animal blood bears some resemblance to the structure of sea water. It is as if the animal, after appearing on the land, reserved in its body the memory of its earlier beginnings from water.