Part 39

Consider how much the wind has served the clouds until they rained! There is first the ‘raiser’, the wind that raises the cloud, which suspends it between the earth and

* Scientists say that if air of the atmosphere were liquefied, it would cover the earth to a depth of approximately ten and a half metres.

the sky. There is then the ‘transporter’, that transports the cloud, carrying it on its back the way a camel transports a water-bag. Another wind is ‘the collector’, the wind that gathers bits and pieces of cloud into a big mass. This is followed by the ‘fertilizer’ that acts in the way a male fertilizes a female, but it is with water that the wind fertilizes — without it, the cloud is dry, without water. The next wind is the ‘driver’, the wind that drives clouds wherever it is commanded to drive them, where they release their water. A different wind, the ‘disperser’, disperses the clouds, stretching them around the sky, so that when it rains, it does not pour the water in a mass; for if it does, it would destroy dwellings, plants and animals; so the ‘disperser’ is designed to keep clouds spread in a way that they rain in drops. There are winds that fertilize plants and trees, without which they would be barren; the winds that propel ships, without which ships would be immobile on the surface of the sea. Some other functions of the wind are that it cools water, helps people in kindling fire, and dries what people want to dry.

On the whole, all that lives on earth, plants and animals, can survive only because of the winds. If Allah had not put them in the service of His servants, plants would wilt and animals would die; edible things would go bad, and pollution and rotting would be unbearable. Do you not see that when the wind subsides for long, great distress and affliction are flagrant, to a point that people do not survive if this condition lasts too long? If this happens animals will be sick, healthy people will no longer be healthy, and sick people’s condition will deteriorate; fruits will go bad, plants will rot, and there will be contagion in the atmosphere. So glory be to Him Who made the blowing of wind a source of nourishment, mercy, blessing and a bounty from the Lord! It is as the Prophet % said of the wind that

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“Verily, it is of the Mercy of Allah that heralds mercy.” !

Note also a finer point about air in relation to sound, that sound results from the friction of bodies: it is not the friction itself, as some assume, but the outcome of friction once a certain object collides with another and then it moves away from it; so it results from collision and the following separation. Sound results from this, and air transmits it, delivering it to people’s hearing, and this serves them in so many ways in their lives day and night. Very loud noises happen as a result of people’s activities and dealings, so that if the sound that ensues from all of that were to stay in the air, there would be a great density of noises in the atmosphere, and the harm would be unbearable! People would have great difficulty trying to muffle the noises in the air to be able to hear badly needed sounds — in the same way as they wish used paper were blank to be used for useful writing. It is the mercy of the Most Mighty, the Wise, that willed that air should be like invisible paper that takes in as much voice as is needed, and then erases it with the will of the Lord, so that it becomes pure and blank, ready for receiving new information at all times.

' Reported by Ibn Majah (2/1228), Abu Dawood (5075), Ahmad (2/268), Al-

Shafi‘ee in his Musnad (47) and Baihagee in ‘Shu‘ab Al-Eeman’ (4/315). Rated as ‘fairly good’ by Al-Albanee in his commentary on Al-Kalim Al-Tayyeb (No. 135).

The heat radiating from the sun heats the earth. In its Rotating, the earth heats the atmosphere that touches it. Then the hot air rises, replaced by cold air.

his movement of the air is called the wind.

Movement of wind and air

If the atmosphere were a little thinner than it is, some meteors that now burn by the millions in the atmosphere would hit all parts of the earth, at a speed of anything from six to forty miles per second. ‘They would set on fire any combustible things.

The composition of Air

The air that we breathe consists of: oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, argon, neon, krypton and xenon.

Oxygen constitutes 21% of the atmosphere. Oxygen is a constituent of the compounds of which the earth crust consists; it constitutes 80 % of the world’s waters; if that rate increases to 90%, for instance, many of the living things on the earth will burn; if it decreases to 10%, all creatures will die.

Carbon dioxide constitutes .0003 of the atmosphere; it is a heavy gas and requires a lot of hard work to be separated from oxygen. Plants can, however, with the assistance of sunlight, separate oxygen from carbon dioxide in a process that is called photosynthesis. In this process, a plant lets off oxygen into the air, and retains carbon, which it unites with the water hydrogen; this latter it will have absorbed through its roots. Later, with the grace of the Lord, it manufactures sugar, cellulose and other compounds that we see in the form of fruits, vegetables or flowers. So I ask you, in the name of God, who commanded it to perform all that?

Nitrogen constitutes 78% of the atmosphere. It is hard to dissolve, and in this way it puts a limit to the spread of oxygen. Without nitrogen, no food can form anywhere; it is essential for the nourishment of plants and animals, and of course man. Nitrogen is made available to plants in one of two ways:

1With the help of bacteria in the ground and the plant: they take nitrogen from the atmosphere and transform it to one of the nitrogen compounds. After they die, they leave it dissolved in the ground.

2Through thunder storms and _ lightning flashes: these cause nitrogen to unite with oxygen in the air, then it falls in the form of rain to dissolve in the ground. That is why rain water is the best for irrigating plants, since it contains the nitrogen that plants need.

Idle gases, like krypton, argon, neon and xenon,

Regard also the outstanding mercy of cold and heat as vital things for the life of animals and plants! Observe how each displaces the other gradually and _ bit by bit until it completely dominates! If cold or heat were to displace each other in a sudden way, it would have been harmful and fatal for organisms and plants, the same as when a man comes out of an extremely hot bath to an extremely cold weather. The way heat and cold take place has no other reason but the care, wisdom and mercy of the Lord! If you say: The slow and slack way that heat and cold displace each other is a result of the sun’s slow motion in ascending and descending, you will be asked: And what causes the slow motion of the sun? If you answer: The reason is the great distance between its rise and its setting, you will have to deal with the next question: And why this great distance? And so on.. You will have to answer question after question every time you give a cause until you end up with one of two attitudes: either stubborn denial and claiming that it is mere coincidence, without a controller or maker; or recognition of the Lord of the Worlds, a submission to the Eternal Fount of all being, a resolve to be among the sensible and thinking humans. There is no mid-way place between the two camps at all! So do not let your mind be deluded with the raving of atheists, as such delusions are for the one who knows, no

more than the hallucination of devils and the fancies of deniers. When the dawn of guidance comes, and the sun of prophethood rises, the troops of those deluded are the first to take to their heels. Indeed Allah will bring to its fullest the glow of His light, in spite of the unbelievers.

The creation of fire

Reflect also on the creation of fire, how it is kept in waiting and how it is lighted. If it were ablaze all the time, like the continuity of water and air, it would burn the world; it would spread beyond conrol, and so much mischief and harm would result. If it remained a potentiality, never actually coming into existence, humans would miss many benefits that are realized because of the fire. The wisdom of the Most Mighty, the All Knowing, therefore, determined that fire should be potentially present in materials, that a human can bring it out whenever he needs, preserve it with fuel, like wood, and let it burn as long as he needs; when he no longer needs it, and ceases to supply it with fuel, it subsides with the will of its Lord, its Originator, which saves the trouble of its preservation and the harm of its continuity. So glory be to Him, who created it and put it in the control of humans in the most striking and admirable balance, combining enjoyment of its benefits, having control of it, and keeping secure from its dangers. Some of these meanings are referred to in the following verses from the Qur’an:

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“Have you observed the fire which you strike out; Was it you who made the tree thereof to grow, or were We the grower? We, even We, appointed it a memorial and a comfort for the dwellers in the wilderness. Therefore,

praise the Name of your Lord, the Tremendous.” (56: 7174)

We praise our Lord, the Tremendous! He acquainted us with Himself, with His signs, guided us with His marvels, and saved us the need for guidance from mortals. He reminds us with the fire of this world of the fire of the Hereafter, so that we may take caution, beware of it and take refuge in Him from the Fire. He adds that the fire is a provision for ‘muqween’, that is travellers who take rest in an uninhabited land, where the need is keen for fire, for lighting, cooking, baking, warming, dispelling loneliness and other functions.