Oceanography in the Holy Qur'an

By: Mahdi La'li, Tehran, Iran
One of the newest discoveries in the field of oceanography is the existence of internal waves in the deep seas and oceans. However, the Quran speaks of this phenomenon in the deep seas:
-Or like utter darkness in the deep sea. There covers it a wave above which is another wave, above which is a cloud, (layers of) utter darkness one above another; when he holds out his hand, he is almost unable to see it; and to whomsoever Allah does not give light, he has no light 1. Chapter24: verse40
This verse points out to the oceans' internal and superficial waves. The most roaring and horrible waves are those which move surreptitiously underneath the oceans. In the past, the ships, which voyaged to the North Pole, encountered grave difficulties. Now, it is discovered that those problems have been because of the internal waves. In 1900, the Scandinavian mariners set forth the theory of oceans' underneath waves.
Some years ago, a story came out of Toronto about a man who was in the merchant marine and made his living on the sea. A Muslim gave him a translation of the Quran to read. The merchant marine knew nothing about the history of Islam but was interested in reading the Quran. When he finished reading it, he brought it back to the Muslim and asked, "This Muhammed was he a sailor?" He was impressed at how accurately the Quran describes a storm on a sea. When he was told, "No, as a matter of fact, Muhammed lived in the desert" that was enough for him. He embraced Islam on the spot. He was so impressed with the Quran's description because he had been in a storm on the sea, and he knew that whoever had written that description had also been in a storm on the sea.
Internal waves at interface between two layers of water of different densities. One is dense (the lower one), the other one is less dense (the upper one).
The description of "a wave, over it a wave, over it clouds” was not what someone imagining a storm on a sea to be like would have written; rather, it was written by someone who knew what a storm on the sea was like. This is one example of how the Quran is not tied to certain place and time. Certainly, the scientific ideas expressed in it also do not seem to originate from the desert fourteen centuries ago 2.

Scientific Viewpoint

Internal Waves
Although hidden from sight, the interior of the ocean is just as turbulent as its surface. Roughly, 40 meters below the surface, there is an abrupt change in both water density and temperature, respectively called the pycnocline and the thermocline. The pycnocline, therefore, is a gradual interface between two fluids of different density. Disturbances travel along fluid interfaces, and disturbances, which travel along the pycnocline, are called internal waves. Since internal waves are not directly visible, they can only be detected by their surface signature and by direct measurements of the pycnocline or thermocline.
Where the density interface is shallow enough to permit the internal wave crests to interact with the sea surface, the waves can be detected by the resulting increased roughness of the surface ocean. Internal waves are believed to be responsible for a great deal of damage. Large amplitude internal waves can create enormous bending moments in offshore structures, and have been reported to displace oil platforms as much a 200 meters in the horizontal direction and 10 meters in the vertical direction. Also, there has been speculation that the loss of the submarine USS Thresher in 1969 came from an internal soliton carrying the submarine rapidly deeper than its crush depth. There is no direct evidence for that theory, however.
The evolution of internal waves and interaction of internal waves with other waves and structures in the horizontal plane is not understood and has been studied to only a small degree.

Quranic Viewpoint
Now, let us pay attention to the verse:
-…There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud. Layer upon layer of darkness.
This part of the verse explicitly indicates the superficial and internal waves and the evidence of this description is the "deep sea" i.e. the oceans not the ordinary seas.
The other noticeable subject is the utter darkness mentioned in the verse. We know that the sunlight is weakened underneath the oceans, because of the refraction and absorption of light, so that in the depth of 1000 m, there scarcely is a light. In the case of cloudy sky, surely its utter darkness is enhanced. Thus, the purport of the verse is clarified while saying:
-When he (the person inside the ocean) holdeth out his hand he scarcely can see it!
Professor Dorja Rao, a specialist in Marine Geology and currently teaching at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah spoke with Sheik Abdul Majid Zendani, a Professor of Islamic Studies in King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The sheik relates about his meeting with the professor Rao and that he presented a number of Quranic verses containing scientific signs in the Quran. He was astonished with what he saw and heard. He has read the interpretations of the Quran and its verses in some specialized books. Among these verses, he discussed what Allah said in the Quran:
-Or (the unbelievers state) is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean, overwhelmed with billow topped by billow, topped by (dark) clouds: Depths of darkness, one above another: If a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it! For any to whom Allah does not give light, there is no light.
Professor Rao confirmed that scientists now know darkness by means of submarines that have enabled them to dive into the depths of the ocean, where human beings are not able to dive unaided for more than twenty to thirty meters.
Those who dive for pearls do so in shallow waters and cannot dive any deeper than this. Human beings cannot survive in the deep dark part of the oceans, such as at a depth of 200 meters. However, this verse speaks about a phenomenon found in very deep oceans. Hence, the statement of Allah: The darkness in a vast deep sea does not refer to just any sea, because not every sea can be described as having accumulated darkness layered one over another. This sort of layered darkness in deep seas has two causes out of which are the results of the successive disappearances of color, one layer after the other. The light ray is composed of seven colors, and when the light ray hits water, it is scattered into these seven colors.
Between 3 and 30 percent of the sunlight is reflected at the sea surface. Then almost all of the seven colors of the light spectrum are absorbed one after another in the first 200 meters, except the blue light.
If a diver would dive to a depth of 30 meters and gets wounded there, he would not be able to see his blood, because the red color does not reach this depth. In the same way, orange rays are absorbed next. Then at the depth of 50 meters, yellow rays are absorbed. At the depth of 100 meters, green rays are absorbed. At depths beyond 200 meters, blue rays are absorbed, and so on. From this, we can see that the ocean becomes progressively darker, that is darkness takes place in layers of light. As for the second reason, darkness originates because of barriers, which conceal light.
The light rays originate from the sun and absorbed by clouds, which in turn scatter some of the light rays, thus resulting in a layer of darkness under the clouds. This is the first layer of darkness. Then when light rays reach the surface of the ocean, they are reflected by the wave surface, thus giving it a shiny appearance. It is for this reason that when there are waves, the intensity of this reflection depends on the angle of the waves. Therefore, it is the waves that reflect light and therefore cause darkness. The unreflected light rays penetrate into the depth of the ocean, and thus we divide the ocean into two main layers, the surface, and the deep part. The surface of the ocean is characterized by the light and warmth, whereas the deep is characterized by darkness.
These two parts of the ocean differ with respect to their properties and characteristics, and the surface is further separated from the deep part by waves. These internal waves were only discovered in the year 1900. Scientists have recently discovered that there are internal waves, which "occur on dense interfaces between layers of different densities. The internal waves cover the deep waters of seas and oceans because the deep waters have a higher density than the waters above them. Internal waves act like surface waves. They can also break just like surface waves. Internal waves cannot be seen by the human eye, but they can be detected by studying temperature or salinity changes at a given location.
Underneath these waves, which separate the two parts of the ocean, the darkness begins. Fish at these depths cannot see. Their only source of light is from their bodies. This darkness, which is layered or tiered one over the other is what is referred to in the Quran:
-Darkness in a vast deep ocean, overwhelmed by billow topped by billow. Chapter24: verse40
In other words, above those waves there are still more tiers of waves. The latter being found on the surface of the ocean. The Quran then informs us that darkness is:
-Topped by clouds: Depths of darkness, one above another. Chapter24: verse40
This darkness is caused by the barriers explained, in addition to the darkness caused by the absorption of colors at the different levels that are layered one over the other. The Quran goes on to say:
-When a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it! For any to whom Allah gives not light, there is no light. Chapter24: verse40
Here is total darkness, submarines must bring their source of light with them, so who could have informed Prophet Muhammed of this?
Professor Rao when was presented with many verses dealing with his area of specialization was asked: “What do you think of the existence of scientific information in the Quran? How could Prophet Muhammed have known about these facts 14 centuries ago?”
Professor Rao replied: “It is difficult to imagine that this type of knowledge existed at the time around 1400 years back. Maybe some of the things they have simple ideas about such, but to describe those things in great detail is very difficult. So, this is definitely not a simple human knowledge. A normal human being cannot explain this phenomenon in that much detail. So I thought the information must have come from a supernatural source.”
Yes, the source of such knowledge must be from a level beyond that of man. It cannot be from nature, as Professor Rao said, but this is far beyond nature, and far beyond human capability. What Professor Rao was trying to say is that this is something, which cannot be attributed to a natural being, for it is truly the speech of the one who knows nature, the universe, and its secrets, as the Quran tells us:
-Say: The (Quran) was sent down by Him who knows the secrets (that is) in the heavens and the earth Chapter25: verse6
It is from Allah. In this way, the testimonies of the scientists are concentrated one after the other in order to prove that this guidance and light contains in it the indisputable evidence of its truth, for the Quran is the source of guidance until the Last Hour.
The miracle of the Quran is an everlasting one, which is renewed until the Last Hour, and which may be known to all people in spite of their different cultural levels and historical times. The Bedouin in the desert as well as the university Professor will find in the Quran that which will suffice him 3.
The land in which Holy Quran was revealed had no resources or inclinations to explore the depths of the oceans. If we assume that Muhammed had seen the seas in his adolescence, (this never happened), the domain of his perceptions would have never been beyond the red sea or the Mediterranean seaside and this also does not adapt to what Quran has described about the deep seas. Certainly, these are all vivid proofs for divinity of Quran as a revelation from God Almighty for those who ponder.
References
1. Holy Quran translated by M.H. Shakir, Ansarian Publication, Qom, the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1993.
2. The Amazing Quran, by Dr. Gary Miller, http://www.users.erols.com/.
3. Quran on the seas and Internal Waves, http://www.islam-guide.com/.