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Consider the following Quraanic verses:
He has let free the two
bodies Of flowing water, Meeting together: Between them is a Barrier Which
they do not transgress. [Al-Quraan 55:19-20]
In the Arabic
text the word barzakh means a barrier or a partition. This barrier is not a
physical partition. The Arabic word maraja literally means they both meet
and mix with each other. Early commentators of the Quraan were unable to
explain the two opposite meanings for the two bodies of water, i.e. they
meet and mix, and at the same time, there is a barrier between them. Modern
Science has discovered that in the places where two different seas meet,
there is a barrier between them. This barrier divides the two seas so that
each sea has its own temperature, salinity and density. Oceanologists are
now in a better position to explain this verse. There is a slanted unseen
water barrier between the two seas through which water from one sea passes
to the other.
But when the water
from one sea enters the other sea, it loses its distinctive characteristic
and becomes homogenized with the other water. In a way this barrier serves
as a transitional homogenizing area for the two waters. This scientific
phenomenon mentioned in the Quraan was also confirmed by Dr. William Hay
who is a well-known marine scientist and Professor of Geological Sciences
at the University of Colorado, U.S.A. The Quraan mentions this phenomenon
also in the following verse:
And made a
separating bar between the two bodies Of flowing water? [Al-Quraan 27:61]
This phenomenon
occurs in several places, including the divider between the Mediterranean
and the Atlantic Ocean at Gibralter. But when the Quraan speaks about the
divider between fresh and salt water, it mentions the existence of a
forbidding partition with the barrier.
It is He Who
has Let free the two bodies Of flowing water: One palatable and sweet, And
the other salty and bitter; Yet has He Made a barrier between them, And a
partition that is forbidden To be passed. [Al-Quraan 25:53]
Modern science
has discovered that in estuaries, where fresh (sweet) and salt-water meet,
the situation is somewhat different from that found in places where two
seas meet. It has been discovered that what distinguishes fresh water from
salt water in estuaries is a pycnocline zone with a marked density
discontinuity separating the two layers. This partition (zone of
separation) has salinity different from both the fresh water and the salt
water.
This phenomenon
occurs in several places, including Egypt, where the river Nile flows into
the Mediterranean Sea.
(Principles of Oceanography, Davis, pp. 92-93.)
(Oceanography, Gross, p. 242. Also see Introductory
Oceanography, Thurman, pp. 300-301.)
(Oceanography, Gross, p. 244 and Introductory Oceanography,
Thurman, pp. 300-301.)
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