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Clouds.. Modern Science and the Quran

 

 

lol.. i know it’s a bit lame putting science facts in my site, but can’t help it... because reading it, makes me so amazed that what was told by a man over 1400 years ago, proven 1400 years later.. cool huh.. (btw, please pay attention to the part i bold-ed).. and yeah, i know it looks long.. but hey, for the sake of knowledge lew...

so here's what modern scientist have to say about clouds [
From "The Atmosphere" p. 269 and "Elements of Meteorology" pp. 141-142] 

"Water vaporizes from the oceans and rivers forming tiny clouds. The small clouds join together and the updrafts within the larger cloud increase. The updrafts closer to the center are stronger, because they are protected from the cooling effects by the outer portion of the cloud. These updrafts cause the cloud body to grow vertically, so the cloud is stacked up. This vertical growth causes the cloud body to stretch into cooler regions of the atmosphere where drops of water and hail formulate and begin to grow larger and larger. When these drops of water and hail become too heavy for the updrafts to support them, they begin to fall from the cloud as rain, hail, etc."



Now just for the sake of argument, let us see what the "Muslim scientists" used to formulate their understandings centuries ago based on the revelation of the Quran (revealed 1400 years ago): 

Muhsin Khan: See you not that Allah drives the clouds gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a heap of layers, and you see the rain comes forth from between them. And He sends down from the sky hail (like) mountains, (or there are in the heaven mountains of hail from where He sends down hail), and strike therewith whom He will, and averts it from whom He wills. The vivid flash of its (clouds) lightning nearly blinds the sight. [Tafsir At-Tabari].

Yusuf Ali: Seest thou not that Allah makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a heap? - then wilt thou see rain issue forth from their midst. And He sends down from the sky mountain masses (of clouds) wherein is hail: He strikes therewith whom He pleases and He turns it away from whom He pleases, the vivid flash of His lightning well-nigh blinds the sight.

Pickthal: Hast thou not seen how Allah wafteth the clouds, then gathereth them, thenmaketh them layers, and thou seest the rain come forth from between them; He sendeth down from the heaven mountains wherein is hail, and smiteth therewith whom He will, and averteth it from whom He will. The flashing of His lightning all but snatcheth away the sight.

Sahih International: Do you not see that Allah drives clouds? Then He brings them together, then He makes them into a mass, and you see the rain emerge from within it. And He sends down from the sky, mountains [of clouds] within which is hail, and He strikes with it whom He wills and averts it from whom He wills. The flash of its lightening almost takes away the eyesight.



The preceding verse, after mentioning clouds and rain, Quran speaks about hail and lightning:

Meteorologists have found that these cumulonimbus clouds, that shower hail, reach a height of 25,000 to 30,000 ft. (4.7 to 5.7 miles) 
like mountains.

Now this verse may raise the question: "Why does the verse say "its lightning" while referring to hail? This seems to indicate that hail is a major factor in producing lightning. Looking to a book on the subject we find that it says:


"Clouds become electrified as hail falls through a region in the cloud of super cooled droplets and ice crystals. As liquid droplets collide with the hail they freeze on contact and release latent heat. This keeps the surface of the hail warmer than that of the surrounding ice crystals. When the hail comes in contact with an ice crystal, an important phenomenon occurs: electrons flow from the colder object toward the warmer object. So, the hail becomes negatively charged. The same effect occurs when super cooled droplets come in contact with a piece of hail and tiny splinters of positively charged ice break off. These lighter, positively charged particles are then carried to the upper part of the cloud by updrafts. The hail, left with a negative charge, falls toward the bottom of the cloud, so the lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative charges are then discharged to the ground as lightning. 
[Meteorology Today p. 437]



So now you know.. hehe… 
ps: for those who are too thick to get it, grows vertically = stacked up = heap = layer = mass (sort of)

references :
http://www.scienceislam.com/quran_clouds.php
http://www.allahsquran.com/read/verses.php?ch=24&vid=
http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/15472/mountain.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_cloud
(lol.. i noe wiki is not too reliable... but hey, it fairly accurate..)

Wallahualam…. For Allah knows best…

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