Water: A blessing from Allah

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18 Febbraio, 2018

Morality of the Qur'an and Deep Thinking

One of the great blessings that human beings cannot manufacture, despite having all the raw materials available, is water. This, the greatest requirement for life, is provided readymade for us by God. We cannot watch water forming in a laboratory nor produce it ourselves. Water came into being one time only during the creation of the Earth; the same water has been allowing living things to survive ever since.

It is impossible for life to exist without water. Water is a substance specially created by God as the basis for life, and with all its physical and chemical properties created in such a way as to support life. Millions of different life forms on Earth survive by means of water, and all the balances necessary for life are maintained by means of its presence.

Water is a molecule that results from two hydrogen atoms bonding to one oxygen atom. Oxygen and hydrogen atoms are abundant in nature, but they don’t just bind together to form water; these atoms need to collide in order to produce water. The bonds that form the hydrogen and oxygen atoms weaken and these atoms come together to produce a new molecule — water — during such collisions. This collision essential for the formation of water is only possible at a very high temperature and at a very high level of energy.

The high temperatures needed to produce water are not currently present on Earth. It is therefore impossible for new water molecules to form. The water on Earth which we drink and use, and that constitutes the seas and oceans, is the water that formed as the result of the high temperatures during the creation of the Earth. However, that is by no means the end of the miraculous properties of water.

There is no water, the precondition for life, on any of the other 63 celestial bodies in the Solar System. Yet a large part of the Earth is covered in water; indeed, the seas and oceans represent three quarters of the surface of the Earth. There are also countless lakes and rivers on the land. The glaciers on the peaks of mountains are the frozen form of water and a significant amount of the Earth’s water is also in the sky. A cloud contains tens of thousands and sometimes even millions of tons of water. Part of that water sometimes descends in the form of droplets, rain. There is also a certain amount of water vapour in the air you are breathing now.

Rains, seas, rivers, streams, oceans, the drinkable water that appears when you open the faucet: Most people are so familiar with the idea of water that they may never think of the importance of much of the world being covered with it. Yet water is a very rare compound in space. The fact that of all the known celestial bodies only the Earth has water - and the fact that this water is drinkable - is a most miraculous state of affairs.

Although human beings can survive for one or two weeks without food, they cannot go any more than three or four days without water. The body consists of 55 per cent to 75 per cent water, and can lose up to two to three litres of water per day through activities such as perspiration and respiration. The water lost is made up by the water drunk in the wake of feelings of thirst.