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. (Qur'an 24:40).
The Qur'an 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. (Qur'an 24:40)
We present to you Professor Dorja Rao, he is a specialist in Marine Geology and he is currently teaching at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah.
To make a long story short, the "miracle" in this chapter is that light disappears as we go deeper into the ocean.
Professor Rao replied: It is difficult to imagine that this type of knowledge was existing 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.
Is the Qur'an telling us anything new? There are many poetic references to the darkness of the depths of the seas that were written many centuries before Muhammad received this "revelation". For example:
"..when in your ship you have now crossed the stream of Oceanus, where is a level shore and the groves of Persephone...beach your boat there by Ocean's swirling streams and march on into Hades' dark house." [Circe to Odysseus]
"Child, lying in the cradle, make haste and tell me of my cattle, or we two will soon fall out angrily. For I will take and cast you into dusky Tartarus [River] and awful hopeless darkness, and neither your mother nor your father shall free you." [Apollo to Hermes]
So, in this case only Allah, Circe, and Apollo knew this! Honestly, this is something that is easily observable and has been common knowledge since ancient times.
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