THE SEAS NOT MINGLING WITH ONE
ANOTHER
A satellite
photograph of the Strait of Gibraltar.
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Muslims claim that the
verses 55:19-20 are proof of the scientific miracle of the Quran
"He has let
loose the two seas, converging together, with a barrier between them
they do not break through."
The popular site of
Harunyahya claims
"This property of
the seas, that is, that they meet and yet do not intermix, has only very
recently been discovered by oceanographers. Because of the physical force
called "surface tension," the waters of neighbouring 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.
It is interesting that,
during a period when there was little knowledge of physics, and of surface
tension, or oceanography, this truth was revealed in the Qur'an."
Then they
show the above picture and comment:
"There
are large waves, strong currents, and tides in the Mediterranean
Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Mediterranean Sea water enters the
Atlantic by Gibraltar. But their temperature, salinity, and
densities do not change, because of the barrier that separates
them."
Was the
knowledge that waters of different salinity, density and
temperature do not mix unknown to anyone prior to Muhammad? Not
really. A thousand years before Muhammad Aristotle wrote the
following:
“The
drinkable, sweet water, then, is light and is all of it drawn
up: the salt water is heavy and remains behind,” Meteorology
Book 2 Chapter 2
It
is clear that at the time of Aristotle, people knew that waters
of different density and salinity do not mix.
The
following picture is from the red sea. Obviously the sailors
navigating in that sea must have noticed the difference of color
between the waters.
Also
it seems that Muslims do not understand the phenomenon at all.
The sill of Gibraltar, the barrier that separates the Atlantic
from Mediterranean is not responsible for not letting the two
waters to mix. The waters do not mix because of the difference
in their density, salinity and temperature.
Furthermore
the separation of these waters are not permanent. The waters of
various densities, salinities and temperatures eventually mix.
The phenomenon is short lived and is observerabe only when the
two bodies of water meet. It is like pouring milk in the cup of
coffee. At first one can see that milk creates a current inside
the coffee but eventually they mix.
Is
Muhammad talking about the Waters of Atlantic and Mediterranean
sea? No! There is no such mention in the Quran. It could be any
two bodies of water. Was this phenomenon unknown to people at
the time of Muhammad? No! This is quite an observable
phenomenon. Anyone who has seen a delta where rivers carrying
colored sediments enter the sea or where two rivers of different
colors or two seas meet, can see that for a long distance the
two waters keep apart. Muhammad had not been to many seas. But
there is no reason to believe that he had not heard of this curious
phenomenon from those who had been. The knowledge was known to
all seamen and people loved to share the stories of their adventures.
Therefore this verse is not a miracle. It is a casual statement
of a curious phenomenon that he had heard and was impressed by
it but without understanding the physics behind it. He thought
it is the work of a deity called Allah that keeps the waters
apart.
As
the verse 25:53 makes it clear, Muhammad is talking about two
seas one with sweet and palatable and the other with salty and
bitter water.
"And He it is Who hath
given independence to the two seas (though they meet); one
palatable, sweet, and the other saltish, bitter; and hath set
a bar and a forbidding ban between them." [Pickthal
translation].
The
water in both Atlantic and
Mediterranean
are salty. Therefore this verse does not refer to any two seas
but to the waters at estuary where an arm of the sea extends
inland to meet the river. In this case there is no “forbidding
partitions” between the waters as Muhammad said and they
eventually mix. On one side we have the fresh waters of the
river running into the sea and on the other side we have the
salty water of the sea being pushed away. In between the two we
have a mixture of the two waters. The Islamic sites claim this
water in between, acts as the barrier. This statement is simply
asinine to say the least. The waters eventually keep mixing
until all the salt water and sweet water become one. The mixed
water between the two waters is not the barrier but the reverse.
It is the mixture of the two.
One
Muslim
insisted that despite the fact that the phenomenon was known, at
that time it is still a miracle because Muhammad was illiterate
and he could not have known this and he insisted that I prove
that Muhammad had heard this from someone.
I
find this quite absurd. If
I write the theory of relativity and claim this is revealed to
me and I never heard of Einstein, it is not up to you to prove I
have heard of him. It is up to me to prove I have not.
Here
what we did is prove that this knowledge existed prior to
Muhammad. People knew that waters of different density do not
mix and they could observer it. Despite that Muhammad assumes
that the waters never mix. Which is obviously incorrect. De
states that there
is a barrier between the waters, which is of course untrue. These
verses point to Muhammad’s ignorance and they are no miracles
at all.
More Miracles in the Quran
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