Surah ar-Rahman, 19-20
Seas that do not mix
Surat ar-Rahman speaks of two seas that meet yet do not mix because of a barrier between them. Oceanographers discovered this fact only in the recent past.
One of the properties of seas that has only recently been discovered is related in a verse of the Qur'an as follows:
مَرَجَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ ١٩ بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌۭ لَّا يَبْغِيَانِ ٢٠
"He has let loose the two seas, converging together, with a barrier between them they do not break through."
This property of the seas, that they come together yet do not mingle with one another at all, has only very recently been discovered by oceanographers. Because of the physical force called "surface tension", the waters of neighboring seas do not mix. Caused by the difference in the density of their waters, surface tension prevents them from mingling with one another, just as if a thin wall were between them.1
The interesting side to this is that during a period when people had no knowledge of physics, surface tension, or oceanography; this was revealed in the Qur'an.
Footnotes
- Davis, Richard A., Jr. 1972, Principles of Oceanography, Don Mills, Ontario, Addison-Wesley Publishing, p. 92-93 ↩
