When Evils Spread On Land...
By Ahmad Wahaj Siddiqui
16 August 2013
The earth today stands in imminent danger and nothing will save it from environmental catastrophe. Six scientists from some of the leading institutions in the United States have issued an unambiguous warning to the world: Civilization itself is threatened by global warming. They also implicitly criticized UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for underestimating the scale of rise in sea levels seen this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets. Instead of sea level rising about 40cm, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computerized forecasts, the true rise might be as big as several meters by 2100. That is why, they say, planet earth today is in imminent danger.
However, if we look into Qur’an, it gave the warning of ‘Earth is in danger’ in 7th century CE: “See they not that We gradually reduce the earth from its outlying borders. (Qur’an, 13:41)
Another verse says: “See they not that We gradually reduce the earth from its outlying borders. Is it then they who will overcome?” (Qur’an, 21:44)
The outlying borders of the earth are being narrowed by sea floor spreading. The theory of lithospheric evolution holds that the ocean floors are spreading outward from vast underwater ridges. The theory was first propounded in the early 1960s by American geologist Harray H. Hess. (Columbia Encyclopedia)
The first reason given for the sea floor spreading is the process when the ocean floor is extended the two plates move apart, the rocks break and earth-quake occurs along the plate boundary. Under a volcanic eruption the magma piles up along the crack forming a long chain of mountains on the ocean floor.
This chain is called an oceanic ridge. On the whole sea floor spreading is basically volcanic. (Columbia Encyclopedia)
The Qur’an has described this phenomenon when nobody could dream of it in 7th Century. It said: “When the oceans boil over with a swell.” (Qur’an, 81:6)
Commentary in ‘The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an,’ which has been revised and republished by The Presidency of the Islamic Research, Ifta and Call Guidance of Saudi Arabia in 1989, in its explanatory note 5975 says: “It is expressed to be Arabic ‘Sujjarat.’ The oceans which now keep their bounds will surge and boil over and overwhelm all land marks.” Famous commentator ‘Ibn Kathir’ wrote about the ocean, “When it would be like blazing fire.”
In those pre-scientific times no one could have understood the possibility of the boiling sea water. But now science has upheld the truth of the Qur’an and found volcanic eruptions under seawater.
They are now on a limited scale but may cause an outburst of volcanic magma that will see ocean waters boil up and drown the earth. We already have a bad experience of tsunami which brought disaster and took hundreds of thousands of lives.
The other reason involving imminent peril to our planet earth, advanced by the scientists is global warming. Scientists have found that the Creator has surrounded this earth with an atmosphere having several layers.
The lowest region, the troposphere, extends from the earth’s surface up to about 10 km in altitude. Virtually all the human activities occur in the troposphere.
The next layer, the stratosphere stretches from 10 km to about 50 km. Ozone is concentrated in a layer in the stratosphere about 15 to 30 km above the earth’s surface. Ozone is a molecule containing three oxygen atoms. Out of each 10 million molecules about two million are normal oxygen. It plays a key role in the atmosphere. The ozone layer absorbs a portion of the radiation i.e. ultraviolet rays from the sun, preventing it from reaching the planet’s surface.
Scientists have found depletion of ozone because of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The CFCs compounds have atmospheric lifetimes long enough to allow them to be transported by winds into the stratosphere. The CFC’s are so stable that exposure to strong ultraviolet radiation breaks them down. When that happens, the CFCs molecule releases atomic chlorine. One chlorine atom can destroy over 100,000 ozone molecules. That is causing ozone depletion.
An example of the ozone depletion is the annual ozone hole over Antarctica that has occurred since the early 1980s. In addition, researches have shown ozone depletion occurs over the latitudes that include North America, Europe, Asia and much of Africa, Australia and South America. That has given rise to global warming and dangerous climate change triggering a rapid melting of the polar ice sheets.
The glaciers and ice sheets of Greenland in the Northern Hemisphere and the western Antarctic ice sheet in the south both show signs of the rapid changes predicted by rising temperatures.
Allah Almighty says: “Evil has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned.” (Qur’an, 30:41)
The CFCs, or CO2 emissions, are “what the hands of men have earned.” These are damaging ozone on the one hand and causing warming of the globe on the other.
James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies observes: “Recent greenhouse gas emissions place the earth perilously close to dramatic climate change that could run out of control, with great dangers for humans and other creatures, only intense efforts to curb man-made emissions of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases can keep the climate within or near the range of the past one million years.”
Would our scientists be able to control the phenomenon that is endangering mankind? We find in the Qur’an: “On the day when the earth will be changed to another earth and so will be the heavens.” (Qur’an, 14:48)
There are many other Qur’anic verses that point to the destruction of the universe, but what is not known is when it will happen.
Source: http://www.arabnews.com/news/461392
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-science/when-evils-spread-land.../d/13149