Present-Day Radar Technology
We gave David great favor from Us: 'O mountains and birds! Echo with him in his praise!' And We made iron malleablefor him: (Surah Saba', 10)
We gave Solomon understanding of it. We gave each of them judgment and knowledge. We subjected the mountains to David, glorifying, and the birds as well. This is something We are well able to do. (Surat al-Anbiya', 79)
So We subjected the wind to him to blow at his command, softly, wherever he directed. (Surah Sâd, 36)
The above verses refer to the superior attributes bestowed on the Prophets David (as) and Solomon (as), and inform us that each was given knowledge from the Presence of Allah. The words chosen may refer to present-day radar technology, which works by the reflection of electromagnetic waves. (Allah knows the truth.) The word "awwibee" in verse 10 of Surah Saba', translated as "echoing" in the verse and meaning "the return or reiteration of sound,"is reminiscent of echo-based radar technology as well as radio receivers mentioned in previous pages.
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| An image of Warsaw in Poland obtained using radar. | A radar image taken by satellite. This image, formed using microwaves, shows a mountainous region of Salt Lake City, Utah. |
Radar is a location device used to determine the location, speed and direction of mobile or stationary objects, and works by reflecting micro-waves.42 The operating principle of radar bears a close similarity to the reflection of sound. For example, someone shouting in a valley or a cave hears his own voice being reflected back to him. If we know how fast sound travels through the air, we can calculate the distance and general direction of the object it bounces off.
In the radar system, electromagnetic energy signals are used in very much the same way. Signals with a microwave frequency are emitted toward an object and then return after being reflected by it. This part of the signal returning to the radar is called an "echo." Radar devices use this echo to determine the direction and distance of the object doing the reflecting.43 Since they also use electromagnetic energy, radio, television and the human eye all bear a close resemblance to radar systems, though their frequencies are ultimately different. In addition, radar uses the reflected energy known as the "echo," rather than directly transmitted energy as in these examples.44 Reflected signals are converted into numerical values by the radar receiver and recorded as data on "echo stores." Finally, the data is processed and converted into images.45
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The use of the Arabic verb "alanna," meaning "We have made malleable," in the tenth verse of Surah Saba' is again exceedingly wise. Iron is still described as soft, or malleable, despite being physically very hard. This form of iron, known as "soft magnetic iron" because of its magnetic properties is used greatly in radar and satellite technology.46 Soft iron is used because it strengthens the magnetic field and can be opened and closed as desired.
"The wind being told to blow at his command" is how the Qur’an describes the power given to the Prophet Solomon (as). Verse 36 of Sura Sad may very well be a reference to electromagnetic signals being transmitted as desired in the air—thanks to the use of soft iron. (Allah knows the truth.)
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| This radar facility, constructed in Florida in the 1960s, was used to identify ballistic missiles launched from submarines. | This satellite photograph (above) taken on 2 March, 1999, shows the clouds over Ohio, USA. "Soft iron" is frequently used in satellite and radar technologies because of its magnetic properties. Soft iron strengthens the magnetic field. The expression "We made iron malleable for him..." in verse 10 of Surah Saba' may be a reference to the soft iron used in satellite and radio technologies. (Allah knows the truth.) |
The radar imaging used today scans the world at every moment and developments taking place anywhere on the earth can thus be constantly monitored. In addition, data can be collected about physical features on earth, such as mountains, glaciers and the oceans—and also about man-made objects, such as houses, bridges and cars. This operating principle, as well as the materials used in this advanced technology, can be found in the Qur’an. Could anybody have know these facts in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century AD? This information can only have come from our Lord, Who created past and future as a single moment and Who is unfettered by time.
The Expanding Earth
It is He Who stretched out the earth and placed firmly embedded mountains and rivers in it and made two types of every kind of fruit. He covers over day with night. There are signs in that for people who reflect. (Surat Ar-Ra‘d, 3)
The Arabic term “madda al-arda” translated “as stretched out” in the above verse, means “to be covered, spread out, stretched, pulled out, expanded or opened.” The use of this word in the context of the earth in referring to the formation of mountains and rivers is exceedingly wise, because looking at the scientific explanation of the formation of the earth, it does indeed appear that mountains and rivers formed through the stretching and expansion of the earth.
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| This photograph taken by NASA from space shows the Gulf of Aqaba and the Suez Canal, to the east of the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai Peninsula, the Dead Sea and the River Jordan constitute the northern part of the Great Rift Valley. |
Present day science says that the earth had a very different appearance in the very earliest times compared to what it is now. In his book Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of the Continents and Oceans) printed in 1915, the famous German scientist Alfred Lothar Wegener proposed that all the continents had originally been one single land mass. This great land mass later came to be known by the Greek name Pangaea, meaning “all continents.47 According to Alfred Wegener's theory of “continental drift,” put forward in 1912, the continents at the two ends of the Atlantic Ocean are still moving away from one another. This theory assumed its latest, present-day state with the development of the scientific theory known as plate tectonics. Continents do not move away from one another by sliding over the ocean floor, rather the ocean floor and the continents drift together over a layer of liquid magma under great heat and pressure and known as the “astenosphere” or “upper crust.” Therefore, both the land continents on earth visible from the outside and also the crust under the sea are both in motion together.48
Because the plates that bear the continents move in a manner described as contraction and expansion, or stretching, the continents are today moving away from one another at a rate of approximately three centimeters per year.49 The most evident expansion taking place on the sea bed is that between Arabia and Africa, where the continents are moving away from one another three or four times faster. When the expansion takes place on the continent, rather than on the sea bed, the result is constantly widening valleys such as the Great Rift Valley in the East Africa-Arabia regions.
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The Great Rift Valley is a geographical and geological formation stretching some 6000 kilometers, from Sudan in North Africa to Mozambique in the east. The valley ranges from 30-100 kilometers in width and is several thousand kilometers deep.50 This deep valley brought such formations as Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya into being as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula moved away from one another over a process lasting millions of years. The eastern part of valley consists of the River Jordan, the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. It then extends southward along the Red Sea and various lakes in Kenya. Most of these lakes are very deep and below sea-level.51
The book The Expanding Earth describes how it is not only mountains, but also certain river beds that formed due to the “expansion” of the earth:
In all cases the greatest stress occurred at the location of the earth's major rivers. This development suggests that the major riverbeds came into existence as a result of expansion rather than random erosion. Since the continents were fixed on an expanding surface, it may be logically deduced that expansion caused the land masses to stretch and, at the points of greatest tension, to break, thus forming the rivers.52
In statements regarding the continent of North America, the Utah Geological Research Center says:
The ranges and basins have been forming for the past 10 to 20 million years in response to east-west stretching of the earth's crust. Stretchingcreates tension that is released by slow continuous movement or sudden movement along a fault (a break in the earth's crust), which causes earthquakes. During an earthquake, the mountains rise while the valleys drop along the faults. The stretching continues today.53
Facts such as the expansion of the earth can only be established by comprehensive research and common data from various contemporary branches of science. For example, photographs taken by satellite, the product of 20th century technology, have confirmed the view that the continents were once complementary to one another. Highly accurate measurements have revealed that the expansion in the earth’s crust is continuing at a slow but specific rate. The presence of such special information in the Qur’an, at a time when nobody could determine anything about the continents and, what is more, about formations that took millions of years to develop, once again shows that it is the word of Allah. The way that the Qur’an, revealed 1,400 years ago, contains such profound information about the formation of the earth, is one of its scientific miracles.
