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30-04-2024
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Scientific Topics from Sermons- Lesson (96): Water and the property of expansion and contraction
   
 
 
In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful  
 

The importance of the special property of water: 

Dear believing brothers, pay attention to the following Noble Ayah: 

(…And We have made from water every living thing.)

[Al-Anbiya', 30]

In fact, volumes of the interpretation of this Ayah will not be enough to give its meaning, but let us try to explain one small part of it. Scientists say that water, which Allah the Almighty has made the essence of life, has an odd property without which life on earth would be impossible, so what is this property? 

When water becomes colder, it contracts, like any other elements on the surface of the earth, such as gases, liquids, or solids. Regardless of one or two exceptions, all of the elements which Allah the Almighty has created expand as temperature rises and contract as temperature falls. Water is one of the liquids that follow the same physical Divine Law of contraction and expansion so long as it is above the critical temperature of +4°C. In other words, when water gets colder, it contracts, which is ordinary behavior, until it reaches the temperature of +4°C. After that, as water gets colder, it expands, i.e. its volume increases.

The foregoing fact is something that can be noticed in our daily life. If we have a bottle filled with water, and we put it in a fridge where it is very cold, so that water freezes, we notice that the bottle breaks. This is because the water in the bottle expands, i.e. its volume increases when it freezes, and therefore, it needs more space. This is a well-known piece of information, but the question is: what is the relationship between water's odd property and existence of life on the earth?

If water went on contracting down to the freezing point, the colder water on the surface of the seas and oceans would shrink, its volume would become smaller, and it would sink down. This process would go on until the seas and oceans became solid blocks of ice in the end, and evaporation would stop.  If evaporation of water stopped, there would be no more rain, and, consequently, all of the plants, animals and human beings would cease to exist. 

Dear brothers, if water were as all other elements Allah, Exalted and Sublime be He, has created on the earth regarding  expansion and contraction, life on earth would be impossible. Well, the increase in the volume of water and its expansion as it gets colder at the critical temperature of +4°C, which is the special  property Allah the Almighty has given to water, stands behind the continuity of life on earth. 

What actually happens is that in cold climates, when it is very old, the water on top of the seas and oceans freezes, and when it freezes, it expands. When the frozen water on top expands, its volume increases, but its density decreases; therefore, the frozen water becomes lighter than the water underneath, and it remains on top and forms a kind of heat insulator between the water underneath and the cold winter weather. In the frozen polar regions, if you break the surface layer of ice, you find lots and lots of sea creatures living in the cold water beneath. 

Do these Divine Sign in the universe indicate absurdism?  

Dear believing brothers, does this odd property, which Allah the Almighty has given to water indicate coincidence?! I repeat once again: without such an odd property of water, life on earth would be impossible!

Dear believing brothers, the more we reflect upon Allah's Divine Signs, which He the Almighty has created on earth, the more we know that this universe must necessarily have Omnipotent Great Creator,  Almighty Maker, All Wise Disposer, All-Seeing and All-Hearing Lord, and Most Powerful, Merciful  and Kind. This universe manifests this Great Creator. 

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