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THE MARVEL OF GOD’S POWER IN THE SEAS

Among the famous states of the United States of America is Florida, the state
where Kennedy Space Center is located, from
where Neil Armstrong along with his
Visit musarhad.blogspot.com for
companions had gone for the (dubious) moon
more articles on Islam.
voyage on 20 July 1969 (according to dubitable
media reports). In the suburbs of one of its
cities “Orlando” is located the tourist site of Disneyland spread over several square miles.
It is said that more than one hundred thousand people come to visit it daily. Certainly,
Disneyland is one of the wonders of the world. On entering it, a person can virtually tour
the entire world and get acquainted with the different civilizations, cultures and societies.
The tourists also tour the space and the stars in their simulated environs which have been
artificially created. If somebody wishes to see Disneyland completely, he would need at
least one week’s time.

THE WONDER OF HUMAN INGENUITY

Other than these tourist sites, the writer had the opportunity to visit several cities
of the state, especially the coastal city of Miami, well-known for its exotic charm,
heavenly solendour and moderate climate. With our hosts Miami-resident Haji Iqbal
Lagan and his father-in-law Maulana Hakeem Mir Bahauddin Saleem (of Hyderabad), we
visited quite a number of cities of Florida state by car. For every trip, we had to cross
over the sea and it was really enchanting to travel on long and lofty bridges constructed
by tearing apart the breast of the sea. These great manifestations of Allah’s might and
human art leave a tourist spell-bound and awe-struck.

EYE-OPENING VERSES OF QURAN, THE BOOK OF WISDOM

On such occasions, a student of the Holy Quran finds delight in those verses of
the Book in which Allah has described the significance and glory of the sea. In fact such
verses serve as vision-enhancer for the student. The 31st verse of Sura Luqman1 asks the
eyes witnessing the sea and its wide expanse of the sea, its unfathomable depth,
mountain-like waves arising in it, whirlpools at every step and amidst all these, a ship
carrying thousands of people on its back and loads weighing hundreds of thousands of
ton sails towards its destination as it plays hide and seek with the furious waves and skirts
the maelstroms: are they not miraculous manifestations of God’s might? A little thought
into it makes it clear that even in the sea, the Meena Bazar2 of divine miracles has been
set up and each and every drop of sea-water holds many worlds of wonder in it and
numerous forms of power and energy lie dormant in it. But the above mentioned verse of

ٍ ‫ ََ ََت َ َّن ْم ُلْم َ َ ْم ِ ِ ْم ْم ِ ِِ ْم ِ لَّن ِ ِ ِآ ُ ِّم آ ِِ ِ َّن ِ َِ َ َ آ‬1

○‫ا ِّم ُ ِّم َ َّن ٍا َ ُ ٍا‬ َ َ ‫ْم‬ َُ َ َ َ ‫ْم‬
Don’t you see that the ships sail through the sea by Allah’s Grace so that He may show you (some) of His
Signs? Truly, there are signs in this for every patient and grateful person. (Quran 31:31)
2
Meena Bazar: in ancient times, the market that was set up for the king’s excursion, to amuse the
royalty.
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Allah’s Book tell us that these splendours of divine might unveil themselves only for men
who have the attribute of forbearance (sabr), are in the habit of thinking and analyzing,
do not get discouraged by constant faiklures but remain spirited with the obsession of
marching ahead with firmness of purpose. Such courageous men only get showered with
the rains of bounty prosperity. The Holy Book here uses the words sabbaar shakoor
( ‫ش ُكوْ ر‬
َ ‫صبَّار‬
َ ) which themselves are sufficient for lighting the frozen spirits of our youth
with the fire of zeal and ardour, thus awakening them from the sleep of heedlessness and
bringing them out of the chamber of laziness and indolence. Only if the Muslims had
turned to the Book with the attention and respect it deserves, they would not have been
lamenting upon their decline and degradation with cold sighs, and watching dumbstruck
the fast-paced progress of others.
‫ ﺗﻭ ﻛُﺟا ﺑﮩ ِر ﺗﻤاشﮧ ﻤﻰ رﻭﻯ‬ ‫ﺍﮮ ﺗﻤاﺸﮧ ﮔاﻩِ ﻋاﻠﻡ رﻭﮰ ﺗﻭ‬
O you, whose face is the spectacle for the world
Where are you going to watch the spectacle?

AN INTERESTING DIALOGUE BETWEEN A FRENCH

RESEARCHER AND AN EGYPTIAN SCHOLAR
The oceanic scenery and the Quranic verses dealing with it had me completely in
its grips when on 9 April 1992, I met Janab Syed Ali Kazmi (b. 1947), the son of noted
scholar and litterateur late Tamkeen Kazmi (d. 1961) and himself a connoisseur of art and
literature, at Miami. When during our meeting, the talk turned towards the grandeur and
glory of the ocean, he narrated a story about reputed French oceanographer, Jack Cousto.
Two years back in the course of his sea-study, when Jack Cousto along with his
colleagues reached a certain place in the ocean, he took some fish out of water but, to his
surprise, he discovered that they, unlike the normal marine fish, were not salty and
brackish, but were, in fact, fresh like the ones found in rivers and ponds. He was
completely astonished and could not guess the why and how of it. After some research
and experimentations, he found out that the area from which he had taken the fish was the
mouth of a certain river which goes on flowing in the sea to a long distance, lengthwise
as well as breadthwise. In spite of mixing with the sea water, the river water had retained
its freshness. Though there is no tangible partition, yet if water is taken out of the sea side
of the divide, it is found to be brackish and if water is taken out of the river side from the
same place, it comes out to be fresh and sweet. The fish which he had hunted, in fact,
belonged to the river side of the water body and hence were fresh.

Calling his research-finding an “astonishing discovery”, Jack Cousto described it

to an Egyptian scholar. The Egyptian commented, “Maybe, this finding is astonishing for
you, but for the Quranic people, there is nothing surprising in it. Many verses of the Holy
Book clearly describe what you have discovered on your sea-tour.” According to Kazmi
Sahib, when the Egyptian scholar explained the relevant Quranic verses to him in deatail,
he was deeply impressed and according to a report, he later converted to Islam. Presently,
he spends eleven months of the year in the study of marine creatures and objects and lives
on the land for only one month. The US television Channel 11 telecasts his oceanic
findings and discoveries which are enthusiastically watched by the connoisseurs.
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SOME QURANIC VERSES DEALING WITH THE FRESH AND

THE SALTY WATER
The study of the verse of Sura Furqan and other verses of the Quran which the
Egyptian intellectual had put before Jack Cousto will be quite interesting for people with
curious mind, eager to gather information particularly about the Quran. First, the verses
are mentioned with their translations and then explanatory notes will follow.

The verse of Sura Furqan says:

○ ‫ُج ٌ َ َج َ َ ََت ْمَتََت ُه َ ََت ْم َز ًخ َ ِح ْم ً َّن ْم ُ ًا‬
َ ‫ْمح‬
ِ
ٌ ‫ا َََ ل‬
ِ
ٌ ‫َ ُ َ َّن َ َ َ ْمَ ْم َآْم ِ َ َ َع ْم‬
ٌ َ ‫ب َُت‬
It is He Who has let free the two water-bodies, one palatable and sweet, and the other
salty and bitter, and He has set a barrier and complete partition between them. (Quran
25:53)

In Sura Faatir, Allah says:

ِ ِ ٌ ‫ب َُت‬ ِ
. ٌ ‫ُج‬
َ ‫ْمح‬
ٌ ‫ا َس ئ ٌغ َ َ ُ ُ َ َ َ ل‬ َ ٌ ‫َ َ آَ ْمستَ ِ ْمَ ْم َ َ َ َع ْم‬
The two water-bodies are not alike. This is fresh, sweet and pleasant to drink, and that is
saltish and bitter. (Quran 35:12)

The famous verse of Sura Rahmaan reads:

○ ِ َ ِ ‫َ َ َ ْمَ ْم َآْم ِ آََتلْمتَ ِ َ ِ ○ ََت ْمَتََت ُه َ ََت ْم َز ٌ َّن آََت ْم‬
He has let loose the two water-bodies (the river and the sea) meeting together. Between
them is a barrier which none of them can transgress. (Quran 55:19-20)

EXPLANATION AND ELUCIDATION

In Urdu translations3 of the Holy Quran, albahrain has generally been translated
with two seas or two rivers whereas all the seas are salty, none is sweet and all the rivers
are sweet, none is salty. So unless the word albahr is analysed lexically, the difficulty
does not get solved. Explaining the word, Allama Ibn Manzoor writes ُ ‫ ﺍَ ْ َﻤا ُء ﺍ ْكَََ ثِ ْي‬: ُ ْ َ‫ﺍَ ْب‬
‫ ِ ْﻠ ا ًا َﻭْ َﻋ ْ ﺑا ًا‬i.e., a large quantity of water is called albahr whether it is salty or fresh. The
reason for calling bahr as bahr is that the word suggests expanse and spread, for example
if a person is very generous, he is described as “he is albahr ( ْ ‫”)إِنَّهُ ﺍ ْ َب‬. It is true that
normally bahr is used for sea but the Arabs call wide sweet water-bodies also as bahr.
Allama Ibn Manzoor has also mentioned a verse of Ibn Muqbil as evidence. After this
lexical analysis, if we study the above mentioned verses, we come to know that there are
two kinds of water: sweet and palatable, and salty and bitter, and that each kind of water
is held at its place. God’s providence has created barriers to keep them apart so that they
do not mix. At times, these barriers are so intangible that man is amazed on seeing it. It
has been observed that if a pipe is placed at one point of the water-body, the water

3
The author had written the article in Urdu, and hence had referred the Urdu translations. It is the
same case with most of the English translations as well.
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coming through it is sweet and if another pipe is placed at a distance of a few feet, the
water coming out is salty. Sometimes, the water flowing inside the barrier is sweet and
that outside is salty. Even more amazing is the fact that at high tide, the brackish water of
the sea enters the rivers and streams of the land and flows into them to a long distance,
yet the freshwater of these rivers continues to flow as before. Even its taste does not
change. When river Nile falls into the Mediterranean Sea, its water goes on flowing in the
sea to several kilometres without any change in its properties. Neither the colour of the
Nile water changes nor does its taste. And the most astonishing of all is the discovery of
the pools of sweet water right in the midst of the salty water of the sea, as described in the
book, Al Bahrul Muheet. This is also confirmed by the following extract of Tafheemul
Quran:
Syed Ali Raees (Kaatib Roomi), the 16th century author of the book
Mir’aatul Mamaalik, noticed such a site in the Persian Gulf. He writes that
there are fresh water springs beneath the brackish water of the sea, from
which I used to procure potable water for my crew. In recent times, when a
US petroleum company began the oil extraction work in Saudi Arabia, it
used to obtain its water supplies from those springs only. Later, water wells
were dug near Zahran to meet the company's water needs. (Tafheemul
Quran, Vol. 3, p. 458)

Commenting upon the above mentioned verse of Sura Rahmaan, Maulana Abdul
Majid Daryabadi writes:
According to the experts in the field, there are two streams of water
flowing under the earth independently: one is brackish which comes to the
surface in the seas, and the other is fresh water which generally appears to
us in wells, rivers and lakes. For human existence, both have their own
importance. The said verse sheds light upon the fact that both the water
systems continue to be in existence, yet never mingle. (Tafseer e Majidi)

Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanavi writes in his scholarly notes upon the 53 rd verse of
Sura Furqan:
"The two water-bodies" refer to those sites where sweet water rivers
and stream fall into the sea. Despite the two water surfaces appearing to be
a continuous whole, there is a barrier placed between the two by God's
Providence. If water is taken out from one side of the meeting point, it is
found to be sweet whereas the water on the other side, in spite of being
quite close to the first one, is brackish and unpalatable. (Bayaanul Quran)

Commenting upon the creation of sweet and salty water, the renowned scholar,
Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafee' Sb writes that Allah, by His Grace and infinite
wisdom, has created two kinds of water-bodies on the earth: one is the Great Ocean,
which surrounds all the sides of the Land. Only one-fourth of the earth's surface is not
covered by this Ocean, on which all the non-marine creatures live and thrive. This great
Ocean, for some reasons, is highly salty, bitter and foul in taste. On the other hand, on the
other hand, we have springs, streams, canals and big rivers on the inhabited part of the
earth, which are filled with rain-water which is (generally) sweet and palatable. As
humans need such sweet water for drinking and other daily needs, Allah has supplied this
water in various forms. But if the Great Ocean, too, had contained sweet water, then it
would have been a big problem because sweet water has the property of decaying and
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rotting very soon. In particular the sea, as we know, houses zillions of marine fish and
animals that outnumber the land creatures. These marine organisms die, decay and
dissipate in the sea itself. Moreover, all the land-water along with its waste-materials,
garbage and scraps finally reaches the sea only. If this sea-water had been sweet, it would
have decayed in just a few days, its foul smell making life unbearable for the people on
land. Therefore, the Divine Providence made this water so salty and bitter that even
though all the refuse and waste of the land ultimately lands in it and all the marine
creatures die and rot in it, yet the water does not decay.
In the said verse of Sura Al Furqan, first the great favour and bounty of Allah that
he created two kinds of water-bodies because of human-needs, is referred to; and
secondly the All-Encompassing Might of Allah is mentioned, which manifests itself at
the mouth of the rivers. There the fresh water falls into the brackish sea-water, thus sweet
and salty water come together. At those places it is observed that the two kinds of water
go on flowing side-by-side for several miles such that on one side there is sweet water
while on the other, there is salty water. And there is no barrier between the two, yet the
two never mix. (Ma'ariful Quran, vol. 6, page 486)

Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani writes in his side-notes on Shaikhul Hind

Maulana Mahmood Hasan's translation of the Holy Quran:
The author of Bayanul Quran has recorded the testimonies of two
Bangladeshi clerics. They reported that between Arkaan and Chatgam, water
flows in such a way two distinct kinds of water are clearly visible flowing
side-by-side. The water of one is whitish while the other is dark in colour. In
the dark part, the water soars and billows like stormy sea-water whereas
the whitish water remains calm all the time, s boats and ships sail on this
part of the water. Between the two types of water, there is a lengthways
streak on the water which is the confluence of the two kinds of water. It is
said that the whitish water is sweet whereas the dark one is bitter.
Some students belonging to Baarisaal have informed me that there
are two distributaries in Baarisaal district which originate from a single river,
yet the water of one is extremely brackish while the other is quite sweet and
palatable.
From the place (Dabhel Samlak, Surat district) where the writer
(Maulana Usmani) presently resides, the sea lies at a distance of nearly 10-
12 miles (18-20 km). In the water on the seaside, there are frequent high
and low tides. On many occasions, reliable sources have reported to me that
when the sea-water gets into the river at the time of high tide, the brackish
water rides over the fresh river water in full spate, yet the two kinds of
water do not mingle. On the top the water is brackish while in the bottom,
the water is sweet. At the time of low tide, the salty water gets down while
the sweet water continues to flow as before.

Some commentators have stated another implication for the 53rd verse of Sura
Furqan. According to them, the sweet water denotes Truth while the salty water stands
for Falsehood which in spite of its great material strength and worldly splaendour cannot
obliterate the Truth. The lamps of Truth and Guidance will certainly light up even inside
the grim darkness of Deviance. Even the strongest storms and the gloomiest darkness will
not be able to stop the flag of the Truth from fluttering over its mast. Similarly making
use of this metaphor, some Sufi saints have declared that there are two figurative seas as
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well: the first sea is the Soul (Rooh) which is endowed with all the good attributes and the
second is the Spirit (Nafs) which has all the evil attributes attached to it. They claim that
superficially, the two appear to be mixed and mingled with each other (inside the human
body) but in reality the two are distinctly apart but only a visionary seer can perceive this.
(Tafseer e Majidi)

O MUSLIM! DELVE DEEP INTO THE QURAN

It is an undeniable fact that innumerable amazing and wonderful signs of the
Creator are scattered in this creation (universe). The holy Quran, whose own wonders
continue to reveal themselves endlessly, points towards those wonderful signs of Allah.
Highly courageous and blessed are the wise people who get to know of their Lord and
Creator through these Divine signs. This is the praiseworthy Knowledge which brings out
a man from the quagmire of doubts and suspicions and familiarizes him with the station
of Faith and Belief. Such people get the fundamental answers to all their queries in the
Everlasting God's Book, the Glorious Quran which is straightforward and full of wisdom.
Therefore, the Lover of Allah's Book and Poet of the East, Allama Iqbal has said:
‫ ﺍﷲ ﻛ ﮮ ﺘﺠﮬ كو ﻋﻃا ﺠِﺪَّﺕِ ﻛِرﺪﺍر‬ ‫ﺩِ ﻤﺳﻠ اﮞ‬ ‫ ﺍﮮ‬،‫ﻗ ﺁﻥ ﻳﮞ ﮨﻭ ﻏوﻁﮧ ﺯﻥ‬
Dip into the Quran, O Muslim man!
May Allah bestow you with the novelty of character.