Let us look now at verse 5 of Surah Hajj in the Noble Quran: “Look at the earth: first it is dry and devoid of vegetation, the We send rain down upon it and it begins to stir and to swell and all kinds of beautiful plants start growing in it.” This forms another example of the agreement of the Quran with modern science. Eight, the Quran also mentions the role and operation of another factor in the bringing of things to fruition, the wind. “We have sent the winds as a means of insemination and impregnation and then sent down rain from the heavens.” (15:22). In this verse, the Quran unveils another great mystery of creation, the fundamental role played by the wind in the fertilization of clouds.
Using complex instruments and electrical means, civilized man has made great progress in recent years resulting in the establishment of the discipline known as meteorology. Specialists in this discipline point out the following: “It must be recognized that the obtaining of two conditions-the existence of steam in the air and its distillation to the point of saturating the air is not enough to cause the formation of clouds and the occurrence of rainfall. A third condition is also necessary, which we may call fertilization.”
Science confirms that wind is also a contributory factor in the fertilization of plants. In the appearance of natural phenomena, a kind of friction and delay always exists. For example, if water is pure and stationary, it is possible that its temperature is reduced to below zero without its solidifying and that it not begins to boil until its temperature is much higher than 100 degrees.
Also steam may not begin to distil even though it has reached a point of saturation, and once it has distilled, its globules may be so minute that they do not fall, remaining instead suspended in the air so that no rainfalls occurs. It is necessary for the wind to provide invisible particles of salt, picked up from the surface of the oceans that then form nuclei of attraction and inflation. More importantly, the moisture in the air has to accumulate around the crystallized snowflakes that have formed at higher altitudes and are then scattered by the wind. Finally, the minute initial drops of rain merge with each other as a result of the collision and intermingling of the winds until they gradually grow in size and fall through cloud masses as a result of their relatively great weight. As a result of their friction with features of the earth and with bodies suspended in the air, cloud masses acquire opposing electrical forces. The release of this electricity is accompanied by intense friction of the particles in the air and the formation of nitrogen. This process contributes considerably to the merging and growing of raindrops and the occurrence of rainfall.
In short, the formation and strengthening of clouds and the occurrence of rainfall and snow, cannot take place without s form of fertilization, accomplished through the intervention of an outside factor. Artificial rainfall likewise depends on artificial fertilization, carried out in the following way: an airplane scatters “water dust” (pulverized and crystallized ice) in air that has the potentially of cloud formation but is in a state of delayed equilibrium. Discussing the rich treasury of knowledge contained in the Quran, Dr.Bucaille writes: “Whereas monumental errors are to be found in the Bible, I could not find a single error in the Quran. I had to stop and ask myself: if a man was the author of the Quran, how could he have written facts in the seventh century A.D that today are shown to be in keeping with modern scientific knowledge? There was absolutely no doubt about it: the text of the Quran we have today is most definitely a text of the period, if I may be allowed to put it in these terms (in the next chapter of the present section of the book I shall be dealing with this problem). What human explanation; there is no special reason why an inhabitant of the Arabian Peninsula should, at a time when King Dagobert was reigning in France (629-639 A.D), have had scientific knowledge on certain subjects that was ten centuries ahead of our own.”
PREDICTION OF THE DEFEAT OF A GREAT POWER
The beginning of the mission of the Most Noble Messenger came in the year 611 AD, and thus fell in the reign of Khusrau Parviz. At that time, two great and powerful states, Eastern Rome or Byzantium and Iran, ruled over the greater part of the civilized world. They had for long been going to war with each other in order to expand the area under their control. These lengthy battles between the Byzantines and the Iranians had begun in the reign of Anushirvan and had continued into the reign of Khusrau Parviz.
Encouraged and egged on by his advisors, Anushirvan had disregarded the peace treaty existing with Byzantines and attacked them. Within a short period, the Iranians succeeded in conquering Syria and Antioch, advancing as far as Asia Minor itself. Antioch was burned to the ground and Asia Minor was plundered.
Twenty years later, when the military power of both sides was crumbling, a new peace agreement was signed, and the forces of both states returned to their previous borders. After the death of Anushirvan and its aftermath, Khusrau Parviz ultimately came to the throne. In 614 AD he attacked the Greeks again, gaining control of Syria, Palestine and North Africa. He sacked Jerusalem, set fire to the Holy Sepulchre, and destroyed numerous cities. The war ended in a clear victory for Iran.
News of the defeat of the Byzantine worshippers of God, at the hands of the fire-worshipping Iranians, was received with satisfaction by the idolators of Mecca and with grief and sadness by the Muslims. In the course of this bloody, struggle, Jerusalem had come into the possession of the Iranians, which was taken by the polytheists as a good omen for their own struggle against the Muslims, foretelling victory and triumph over them.
This interpretation made by the Meccans was grievous to the Muslims and caused them much anxiety about the future course of events. It was then that a revelation came foretelling the renewed triumph of the Byzantines, worshippers of God, over the Iranians; it disclosed the secret that the Byzantines would make good their defeat in less than ten years and carry off a definitive victory. These are the relevant verses of the Quran: “The Byzantines have been defeated in a land near the Hijaz, but in the future they will triumph over their enemies, in a period of less than years.
All affairs, both earlier and later are in the hands of God, and on the day when the Byzantines triumph the believers and the followers of Islam will rejoice. God assists whomsoever He wills, and His is powerful and compassionate. This is the promise of God, a promise which cannot be violated but most of the people know not.
To be continued
