The Gift of Water

God has mentioned water and its creation over 35 times in the Quran. I was wondering why God has repeated this so many times. By the grace of God, water is easily available to us and in sufficient quantity in our city, hence we may fail to realize its importance and value. For us water means just turning the faucet. We don’t need to put in much effort to get palatable water. It is really due to immense mercy of God that we have easy access to water. But this water reaches us through a well-planned system of God. Right from driving the clouds to a particular place, to sending water down in the form of rain.

[7:57] He is the One who sends the wind with good omen, as a mercy from His hands. Once they gather heavy clouds, we drive them to dead lands, and send down water therefrom, to produce with it all kinds of fruits. We thus resurrect the dead, that you may take heed.

[6:99] He is the One who sends down from the sky water….

We cannot imagine life without water. Critical for the creation of a human life, water further plays an important role in the creation of almost all food.

An adult human body contains around 60% of water. Thus, water becomes the inseparable part of our life. The more we understand how important water is, the more we must thank God for it. It is well known that the limited fresh water supply is becoming an increasingly important issue for many countries. For centuries, access to clean drinking water has been hard for many people, especially the poor. In some areas, water may be available, but it’s disease-ridden or contains harmful chemicals, and drinking it can be harmful. In other areas, a viable water supply is simply not available within reasonable distance. A 2006 United Nations report estimated that as much as 20 percent of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water.

We may wonder: God has given us humans intelligence so why can’t we produce water? We know full well that when two atoms of hydrogen link with one oxygen atom, water is produced. This is what we learn in basic chemistry. So why don’t we just combine them together and produce water? Well, although we know the chemical formula of water, it is very difficult and dangerous to join these two elements.

To create water, oxygen and hydrogen atoms must be present. It is more than simply mixing them together. Since hydrogen is extremely flammable and oxygen supports combustion, a small spark is sufficient to start the reaction to get hydrogen and oxygen to form water. But this action results in the release of large amounts of energy, and you can easily end up with an explosion which is very dangerous!

Consider an example from history. The Hindenburg, a passenger air ship, began its voyage from Germany to America in May of 1937, with 97 people aboard. This air ship was filled with hydrogen gas to keep it afloat. On 6th May 1937, while landing in New Jersey it exploded and was destroyed in a huge fire ball. This disaster took the lives of over 30 people. Later investigations suggest a small leakage of hydrogen from one of its upper fins which came into contact with the oxygen gas in the atmosphere and through an electro static charge at the air field it caught fire. There was water created in the explosion, however, look at the cost.

To make enough drinking water to sustain the world, a very dangerous and

Cont’d on page 2