The Fecundating Winds
In one verse of the Qur'an, the "fecundating"
characteristic of the winds, and the formation of rain as a result
are mentioned.
"And We send the fecundating winds, then cause
water to descend from the sky, therewith providing you with water
in abundance."
(The Qur'an, 15:22)
In this verse, it is pointed out that the first stage
in the formation of rain is wind. Until the beginning of the 20th
century, the only relationship between the wind and the rain that
was known, was that the wind drove the clouds. However, modern
meteorological findings have demonstrated the "fecundating"
role of the wind in the formation of rain.
This fecundating function of the wind works in the
following way:
On the surface of oceans and seas, countless air bubbles
form because of the water's foaming action. The moment these bubbles
burst, thousands of tiny particles, with a diameter of just one
hundredth of a millimeter, are thrown up into the air. These particles,
known as "aerosols", mix with dust carried from the
land by the wind, and are carried to the upper layers of the atmosphere.
These particles carried to higher altitudes by winds come into
contact with water vapour up there. Water vapour condenses around
these particles and turns into water droplets. These water droplets
first come together and form clouds, and then fall to the Earth
in the form of rain.
As seen, winds "fecundate" the water vapour
floating in the air with the particles they carry from the sea,
and eventually help the formation of rain clouds.
If winds did not possess this property, water droplets
in the upper atmosphere would never form, and there would be no
such thing as rain.
The most important point here is that this critical
role of the wind in the formation of rain was stated centuries
ago in a verse of the Qur'an, at a time when people knew very
little about natural phenomena…
The
picture above shows the stages in the formation of a wave.
Waves are formed by the wind blowing above the surface of
the water. With the wind, water particles start to move in
a circular motion. This movement soon forms waves, one after
the other, and bubbles formed by the waves spread in the air.
This is the first stage in the formation of rain. This process
is declared in the verse as "We send the fecundating
winds and then cause water to descend from the sky."
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