FAULTS ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE
12-By the fractured earth.
86-The Knocker , 12
In the verse preceding the above Verse (The Knocker, verse 11) the returning property of the firmament was stressed that referred to the phenomena of whose existence men 1400 years ago had no inkling of (Ch 20 of the present book). In the above verse also there are indications about facts that the public during the Prophet’s time did not know. As faults, had not yet been discovered, the verse was believed to refer to the opening of the earth for the sprouting of vegetation.
In the post-Second World War years, scientists intensified the submarine research activity with a view to having access to precious metals and minerals. During this research work, they came across something quite unexpected; the bottom of seas was covered with fissures that came to be called ‘faults’ and ‘cracks’. The sky’s function of returning the water to the earth and of sending back to the space the harmful radiation (See verse 11) was just as important as the existence of faults upon the surface of the earth (See verse 12). If we draw an analogy between the period that has elapsed since the 2nd World War until today with the period that has elapsed from the time of descent of the Quran 1400 years ago, when there was reference to this information in the Quran, we can appreciate the value of this reference better.
EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED
The Quran draws our attention now to the sky now to the earth displaying the hidden mysteries and inciting us to inquire into them. As it is the case with the sky, so it is with the depths of the earth, endless mysteries waiting to be unraveled. The fault lines referred to in the verse are of towering importance from the point of view of establishing a connection of the magma under the ground with the surface. These cracks also play a decisive role in the formation of the submarine topography.
Information about the faults or cracks is also important as they provide us with detailed knowledge about earthquakes. Big earthquakes occur along the fault lines on the crust. Differentiated movements in the huge masses of substrata form a strain along the
Fault line. The rocks on each side of the cracks try to resist it before the crust gives way.
In any single earthquake, the amount of slip, in other words the relative displacement of the two fault surfaces, may be a few inches, it is so even in big earthquakes. Studies are made on faults to map out the regions likely to suffer greater damages, the requirements for the construction of edifices to resist the tremor.
The greatest fault upon the earth is the one that stretches from Greenland’s offshore to Antarctica. The second largest one stretches along the Pacific Ocean along the Western shore of North and South America. The third important fault lies in the depths of the Asian continent under the Himalayas and follows the South Asian direction. Along with these greater ones there are shorter ones as well.
The Quran directs our attention to places where earthquakes can be expected to take place so that we can deepen our studies. If we give up our custom of reciting the Quran merely for the souls of those who have departed, and take it as a guide for our life, we can reach the truth hidden in it.
89- …We have sent down to you a book explaining all things, a guide, a Mercy and glad tidings for those who submit.
16-The Honey Bees, 89
FORMATION OF PETROLEUM
1- He brings out the pasture
2- Then turns it into a blackish floodwater.
87-The Most High,1-2
Petroleum is the outcome of a long process during which herbage like algae and fern grown in the interstices of rocks exposed to the chemical effects of various bacteria. Today the origin of petroleum is believed to be organic material. Pastures created before man was created, were destined to turn in time to petroleum within the framework of the ecological balance of the world. Oily organic residues decomposed beneath the floor of the seas for millions of years. These matters immersed in slime penetrated the interstices of sedimentary rocks, the oily substance underlying being eventually transformed into petroleum.
Petroleum presents the properties of ‘floodwater’. Petroleum, more often than not, moved away from where it was originally formed. It had not the property of settling. The petroleum behaves like flood liquid, it travels long distances and collects at spots where it comes across hard rocks without pores. The petroleum beds were discovered at places where they were found as deposits that hindered them to continue their course.
In brief, petroleum, as described in the Verses, was
1. Made of organic matter;
2. Blackish and
3. Moved like floodwater.
PETROLEUM’S PLACE IN OUR LIFE
The crude petroleum was used to be collected at places where it had leaked to the surface until mid-nineteenth century. As it mixed with water where animals quenched their thirst and to wells drilled for obtaining water to drink, it was considered to be a nuisance. In the 1850s Ferris and Kier, who succeeded him, initiated studies that led to its use as fuel for lamps. Edwin L. Drake came across petroleum beds at a depth of 21 m on August 27, 1859. As petroleum was more reliable than whale fishing and much cheaper to be consumed as lamp oil there was a ready market, and the petroleum era had thus been ushered.
God had devised the composition of this substance in such a way that it served different purposes in many an aspect of our life. The derivatives of petroleum best known are fuel oil, petrol, paraffin oil. Derivatives less known find their usage in the manufacture of candle and wax, perfumes and cosmetics, even in substances used in cheese production wherein it prevents its decomposition. Still other petrol oils are used in the following products: insecticides, acetone used in nail polish, artificial rubber, plastic material, chemicals used in the production of detergents and certain drugs containing petroleum derivatives. Last but not least many textile products contain also petroleum in their composition.
The story, whose beginnings go back to the decomposition of pasture, continues with the petroleum beds in the depths of the soil, with the production of detergents, T-shirts and nail polish. In verses 4-5 of the sura The Most High, there are allusions to petroleum. The three verses that precede it mention that God said that everything was given in due order and proportion.
1-Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High
2- Who creates and proportions;
3- Who determines in due order and guides.
86-The Most High, 1-3
DIFFICULTY OF ASCENDING TO THE SKY
125- …And whomever He intends that he should go astray, He makes his bosom narrow and strained as if he was ascending upward into the sky.
6-The Cattle, 125
A person subject to spells of dejection and feels strained is likened to a person who is ascending to sky. We know today that during ascension atmospheric pressure gradually decreases, rising blood pressure causing strain on the functioning of heart and veins topped by lack of oxygen, which is turn influences the lungs making one feel constricted. If one persists going even higher there comes a moment when the individual loses his life.
There were no airships or aircrafts at the time of the Prophet. We remember that Torricelli was the person who invented in 1643 the mercury thermometer with which he demonstrated that the atmosphere exerted a pressure. To speak of a decrease of pressure at the time was out of question. Nor were there reliable information about lungs or blood circulation. One can guess that men climbed heights and had difficulty to breathe as they went higher and higher. In the verse, however, ascension is toward sky. A person experiencing difficulty of respiration on top of the mountain he has climbed may attribute this difficulty not to the lack of sufficient oxygen at the high altitude he has climbed. The verse speaks of a process that takes place as one rises to the sky. The question is not of the experience one has on the top of a hill. Ascension to skies has a much wider connotation. To experience this one should rise higher in the sky.
OPTIMUM PRESSURE AND OXYGEN FOR PERPETUATION OF LIFE
The oxygen and pressure ratio being ideal, from the sea level up to a height of 3000m a man’s bodily functions run across no difficulty. At altitudes ranging from 3000 to 5000m elevated blood pressure and difficulty to breathe are experienced. At an altitude of 7500m, the tissues are badly in need of oxygen and the fall of atmospheric pressure makes blood circulation difficult. Above this height, a person experiences a blackout; the blood circulation, the respiration and the nervous system begin to falter. Changes in atmospheric pressure affect the circulation increasing the pressure of the blood running through the veins and arteries. The balance of gases in the vacuums of the body and the distribution of gases in the blood and tissues (in particular of the nitrogen) is upset. The mechanical effect of sudden rise and fall in blood pressure results in the rupture of a blood vessel. Ill-effects of change in gas volumes may be grouped as follows: eardrum ruptures, inflammation of the middle ear, sinusoid due to change in the volume of air in sinuses, the hollow spaces filled with air in the bones of your face that have an opening in your nose; tooth aches (dental carries)) and difficulties of passing gases and colic…
The ideal proportion of oxygen varying in due measure as one rises higher in the atmosphere, in relation to man’s biological make-up is of perfect design. Thanks to this can we comfortably breathe and our circulation functions properly. Prof. Michael Denton says that the density of the air been a little higher the air resistance would reach great proportions and it would be impossible to design a respiratory system to supply enough oxygen for a breathing organism. If we establish an analogy between the possible atmospheric pressures and the possible oxygen proportions, looking for an optimum digital value for life, the bracket we come across is a highly limited one. Fulfillment of so many requirements for the survival within this narrow bracket filled with atmosphere is certainly perfectly designed.
The simile of the verse that describes the experience of one ascending upward into the sky is again a miraculous statement. The perfection of God’s creation becomes once more manifest in the course of our study of the atmospheric pressure in harmony with the oxygen content in the air suiting our biological makeup.
