The Mention of Water in the Holy Qur'an

By: Mahdi La'li, Tehran, Iran
H2O is a very familiar chemical formula to any high school student. We are so dependent on water that no one can deny its vital role in our life. Its importance in forming the creation in all of its aspects in general and the living-creatures in particular, as well as human kind, animals and plants is evident to all. However, the Quran mentions water’s magnificence in forming all creation and making life in every living thing in the following passages:
-And We have made of water everything living, will not they believe? 1 Chapter21: verse30
-And Allah has created from water every living creature 2. Chapter24: verse45
-He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days and His throne was over the water 3. Chapter11: verse7
By considering these inspirational verses of Holy Quran, the time of their revelation and also the newly discovered scientific facts regarding the water and its individual properties, it strikes a chord deep within us.
The fact that all life originated from water would not have been an easy thing to convince people of fourteen centuries ago. Indeed, if 1400 years ago you had stood in the desert and told someone, "All of this, you see (pointing to yourself), is made-up of mostly water, no one would have believed you. Proof of that was not available until the invention of the microscope. They had to wait to find out that cytoplasm, the basic substance of the cell, is made-up of 80% water. Nonetheless, the evidence did come, and once again, the Quran stood the test of time.
We offer you the scientific findings about the properties of water and their strong correlation with the Quranic viewpoints. At the end, you also, like us, will certainly feel compelled to admit the authenticity of Holy Quran as a wonderful miracle from God Almighty, being revealed to Muhammed, the prophet of Islam.

Scientific Viewpoint

What Is Water?
Hydrogen and oxygen atoms comprise the basis of the water molecule. When two hydrogen and one oxygen atom bind together, water is formed. One molecule of water has two atoms of hydrogen (abbreviated H) and one atom of oxygen (abbreviated 0). The chemical formula for water is H20.
Water covers almost three-quarters of earth's total surface-about 379 million square kilometers (146 million square miles). Water makes earth the "blue" planet; visually unique from all others in the solar system. Almost all plants, animals, and people need clean water to live a healthy life.

Three phases to a quick-change artist
Changes in temperature can change water from a solid to a liquid to a gas and back again. At 0*C (32*F) pure water freezes. At 100*C (212*F) water boils. Andres Celsius (1701-1744) based his units of temperature (Celsius, abbreviated *C) on the three phases of water. Water becomes ice - a solid - at low temperatures. At medium temperatures, water stays in its liquid state. Water forms steam or vapor (gas at high temperatures).
A frozen pond warming in the winter sun may show all three phases at once. Solid ice floating on the lake surface, liquid water below and rising steam where the sun warms the melting ice.

Forming the link to life
All three phases of water - solid, liquid, and gas - form vital links to life. Liquid water accounts for two-thirds of our body weight. To stay healthy, we need about one liter (about one quart) of water each day. Water helps blood and its components transport oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products through our circulatory system. Each time we exhale, water vapor leaves our bodies.
It is the main substance, which is imperative for living creatures especially plants to survive.
Among the earth's varied environments, animals and plants adapt to water (or the lack of water) in different ways. Some plants and animals contain a great amount of water - a jellfish is 95% water. In addition, watermelon aptly named contains 97% water. Most fishes and other aquatic creatures can only live when completed covered with water.
Some land animals, like amphibians, lay eggs in water. Others, like the desert kangaroo rat, seldom drank water but survive by eating seeds, plants, and metabolizing fat to produce water.
Green plants break down water (and carbon dioxide) during photosynthesis to produce oxygen and the simple sugars they require for energy.

Powerful Properties Shape Our World
When oxygen (0) and hydrogen (H) negative charge (OH-) atoms combine, they form a V-shaped, triangular molecule. While water molecules are electrically neutral, the oxygen atom holds a small negative charge and the two hydrogen atoms hold small positive charges. Scientists believe this unusual electrical balancing, called polarity, gives water some of its remarkable properties.

World's best dissolver
Scientists often call water the "universal solvent" because water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid. Why?
First, water molecules are very small and move easily around other atoms and molecules. Secondly, the negative charges on the oxygen atom and positive charges on the hydrogen atoms allow water molecules to interact with other molecules. Thirdly, water is very stable; at 2,000-C (3,632-F), only about 2% of water molecules break into parts. These parts are hydrogen ions with a positive charge (H+) and hydroxyl ions with a negative charge (OH-).
Some substances, like common table salt (sodium chloride), dissolve in water very easily. When placed in water, sodium chloride molecules fall apart. The positively charged sodium ion (Na+) binds to oxygen, while the negatively charged chloride ion (CI-) attaches to hydrogen. This makes a very stable "salty" water molecule.

Solid expansion
For most substances, solids are denser than liquids. But the special properties of water make it less dense as a solid - ice floats on water! Strong hydrogen bonds formed at freezing 0*C (32*F) lock water molecules away from each other. When ice melts, the structure collapses and molecules move closer together. Liquid water at 4*C (39.2*F) is about 9% denser than ice. This property plays an important role in lake and ocean ecosystems. Floating ice often isolates and protects animals and plants living in the water below.

A heated exchange
Pure water boils at 100'C (212'F), but extra energy is needed to push water molecules into the air. This is called latent heat-the heat required to change water from one phase to another.
Scientists have found one gram of water requires 2,500 joules of heat to change into gas at its boiling temperature. This extra energy is released when gas returns to liquid form.
It also takes a great deal of energy to raise the temperature of water from freezing (0*C or 32*F) to boiling (100*C or 212*F). This specific heat is the heat required to raise one gram of liquid water 1*C. One gram of water needs 4.18 joules of heat to warm 1*C. This is five times greater than the specific heat of sand. On a hot summer day, beach sand may quickly warm to the point that it's too hot to stand on while ocean water warms only a little.
Energy is also lost when water freezes. Water molecules release 334 joules of energy for every gram when moving from the high-energy phase of liquid water to the low-energy phase of ice. Nights when ice freezes often feel warmer than nights when ice melts.

Tension on top
Water molecules at the surface (next to air) are held closely together, forming an invisible film. Water's surface tension can hold weight that would normally sink. You can carefully float a sewing needle or paper clip on top of water in a glass.
Surface tension allows many aquatic insects, like water spiders and pod skaters, to "walk" across rivers and streams. Next to mercury, water has the highest surface tension of all commonly occurring liquids.

Sticky sides
The electrical attraction and surface tension of water molecules allow them to "hold on" or adhere to other substances such as glass, rocks, and soil. You can see this property when water creeps up the inside of a drinking glass. Water also clings to living things. Most plants have adapted to take advantage of water's adhesion that helps move water from the roots to the leaves.
One of the tallest plants is the redwood tree. Water moves its roots to its leaves, more than 95 m (310 ft.) above the ground. As a plant loses water through pores in the leaves, more water moves up from roots and stems to replace the lost water. The process of water loss by leaves is known as transpiration.

Global recycling
Water constantly moves between the earth and sky. When the sun warms the surface waters of lakes, streams, oceans, the water evaporates into vapor that rises upward in the sky. Plants and animals also lose water through leaves, sweat, excretion, or by exhaling.
As water vapor rises, it becomes cooler, losing energy and forming clouds. Water vapor condenses into rain or snow (precipitation). Rain falls from the sky, collecting in streams that flow into rivers that reach the sea. Surface water evaporates to rise as water vapor once again.
Scientists call this process the surface, less than water cycle. This global recycling of water creates weather (and water) in many forms- rain, snow, fog, floods, tornadoes, dew, clouds, sleet, frost, and hail.

Ocean Commotion
Oceans alone cover about 70% of the earth's surface. Winds blowing from high and low pressure regions in the tropics push surface water basins. Water currents traveling across the ocean meet continental landmasses, turning to flow along shorelines.
Generally, major water currents flow in United States flow in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The mightiest of all ocean currents, the Circumpolar Current, flows in a complete circle around Antarctica.
Sometimes major water currents change when winds weaken or blow in a different direction. One well-studied change is El Nino, the occurrence of warm water current off the coast of Ecuador and Peru. During some years, El Nino may raise water temperatures for 8,045 km (5,000 mi.) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
In addition to changing normal weather patterns, the warmer, nutrient-poor water affects animal life in the sea and on land. During the 1982-1983 El Nino event off South America, seabirds abandoned their nests, a fourth of the seal and sea lion population died, and the anchovy fisheries collapsed.
Every drop is precious. Even though water covers three-quarters of the earth's total surface, less than half of one percent is available fresh water. An estimated 97% is seawater, another 2% is locked in polar icecaps and glaciers, and the rest of the unavailable water is trapped deep below the earth's surface.
Available fresh water comes from many sources: surface rivers, streams, and lakes; underground water held in rock formations (aquifers); collected rainwater; and purified seawater 4.

Quranic Viewpoint
Considering these wonderful scientific facts about the life-giving properties of water in the nature clarifies the authenticity of this verse:
-...And We have made of water everything living...
This verse is one of the strongest proofs for Muhammed's prophecy. Since, none of these scientific facts about water were disclosed 1400 years ago, particularly to Muhammed as an illiterate man. Holy Quran simply exposed these facts to the atheists that they might be inclined to believe in Allah. Surely, this is considered the ultimate purpose of this verse, since it is remarked at the end: Will not they believe?
References
1. Holy Quran translated by M.H. Shakir, Ansarian Publication, Qom, the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1993.
2. ibid.
3. Holy Quran translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Dar Al Arabia, Beirut, 1968.
4. Sea World, Inc/Sea World Education Department, 1996.