User:CPO675/Sandbox 1: Difference between revisions

In answer to your questions, no-one had been planning to bring it back. I think it was deleted and left in the archive during a clear out of scientific miracle articles (there used to be an excessive number with lots of very minor topics). This one may be worth a redo with some of the old content, but probably best to check with ASmith first who was involved in that process. Lightyears (talk) 01:11, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

A barrier between two seas

Order

1. Intro
2. What they Quran says - short paragraph on the science
3. Apologist claim? here or above the science?
4. Why is it incorrect - the science and refutation of apologist claim.
5. refutation of apologist claim
6. Why is it incorrect
7. Other groups that have the same mythology
8. Who knew that salt and fresh water didn't mix - Archimides
9. The historical context

Introduction

The Quran refers to two different bodies of water, emphasising there is one sweet and one fresh, that there is a batter between them. Both early (and medieval Muslims) (cite), and modern Academic scholarship^[1], have identified this with an ancient belief of there being a cosmic ocean of water surrounding the world. (Also Tommaso Tesei Some Cosmological Notions from Late Antiquity in Q 18:60–65: The Quran in Light of Its Cultural Context https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7817/jameroriesoci.135.1.19) Other classical scholars have attributed it to the way fresh water bodies of water are separate to the salty seas and oceans in general.^[2][3]

Some modern Muslims have tried to reconcile the relevant verses with natural phenomena, including estuaries meeting the sea, and different seas having different salt levels. However critics do not believe the verses accurately describe this, and many actually conflict with the description.

When a fresh water river flows into the sea or ocean, there is a transition region in between. This transition region is called an estuary where the fresh water remains temporarily separated from the salt water. However, this separation is not absolute, is not permanent, and the different salinity levels between the two bodies of water eventually homogenize. The Qur'an, by contrast, suggests that there is a separation between two seas, one salty and one fresh water, maintained by some sort of divine barrier placed between them.

The Qur'an

We are told that there are two seas(l-baḥrayni), one freshwater (palatable and sweet), and one seawater (salt and bitter), and that there is a barrier that it is forbidden to be pass, implying that they will never be passed.

Quran 55:22 quoted below states that coral emerge from both seas. However, coral are found only in salt water oceans, and exposure to freshwater leads to coral bleaching.

(يَبْغِيَانِ yabghiyāni - they transgress) (بَيْنَهُمَا baynahumā - Between both of them) (l-baḥrayni - the two seas)

Again, there is a barrier between the two seas "al-bahrain, ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ". l-baḥrayni

Another reference to "the two seas" (l-baḥrayni) is found in the story of Moses and his servant, where he meets a man (Al-Khidr) who has special knowledge of events that have not yet happened from god, and tests Moses to carry out seemingly immoral tasks without asking him why:

The full story of Moses ad Al-Khidr can be found at the bottom of the page for context.

Apologists claims

Estuaries and salt water

Apologists claim that the Quran is referring to different bodies of water have different densities which causes them not to mix, creating a barrier between them, and even that the descriptions show advanced knowledge of science that could not have been known to a human. You can see the images referenced in the link which are repeated on many Islamic websites.

The first claim is around fresh water from rivers meeting seas/oceans of salt water, with the transition stage known as estuaries:

Note that in the above referenced claim in the book (Introductory Oceanography, Thurman), they have changed it by adding the words “Zone of Separation” and “The partition onto Figure 4 by the apologists - the book itself does not claim such a thing.

However critics point out, as above, that a partition zone is not an accurate way to describe a barrier in that it doesn't block the water, and that the seas do mix - they are constantly mixing - this water is called Brackish Water. This is changing the meaning of the words to fit a natural phenomena

• This description could easily apply to someone sailing nearby or over one of these, as the colours are often different (as seen in the image X), leading people to assume there was an actual barrier between the two waters, and assuming they didn't mix - as there's no science about mixing bodies of water in the barrier stated in the Quran verses. Hence no-body was able to discover anything new from the verse, and as observable (and arguably incorrect as we will discuss below), it is certainly not a miracle.
• - such as this kind of sea https://ecobnb.com/blog/2018/11/denmark-two-seas/ - explore - two salty bodies of water?
• Density of salt water is more than freshwater. This was first discovered by Aristotle. “The drinkable, sweet water, then, is light and is all of it drawn up: the salt water is heavy and remains behind.” -Aristotle (382 BC to 322 BC)^[4]
• There are many different types of estuaries (e.g. salt wedge, Fjord-type, Slightly Stratified - you can read about them here), however despite what it may look like on the surface they all mix to varying degrees - which is not a logic inference of having a barrier between them that they cannot passhttps://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/est05_circulation.html

• In Quran 25:53 We are told that there are specifically the two seas(l-baḥrayni), one freshwater (palatable and sweet), and one seawater (salt and bitter), and that there is a barrier that it is forbidden to be pass. Yet this happens in many places (i.e. more than two) all across the world - why would it be talking about two seas with the definite 'al' particle (arguably it happens with all sweet and salty water/less dense water). Why is would be talking about two specific bodies of water, which are repeatedly referred to when so may other things - this does make sense in its historical context
• The sea isn't permanently there, they completely change over time. Even the estuaries didn't exist when the Earth was made, so God letting the two bodies going free and a permanent barrier if false.
• It doesn't say riverنھر (Nahar) and sea, which would have been a more accurate way to describe it if the mixing zone isn't part of either sea being mentioned but a 'barrier' - although to be fair every large body of water was referred to using this word in classical Arabic. Also arguably 3 bodies of water, it could have stated something along the lines of one is mixed blocking the others - which would have been a closer description to a barrier. Should describe one as a river in this case
• Estuary water sweet and palatable or filled with dirt? Estuary water often is salty as well (not just sweet), and dirty. Not an accurate description^[5]

There is no need to describe something inaccurately, as they don't describe many other natural processes

Anyone who rode over the seas could write the same thing assuming there is a barrier between the two seas

A good easy to read guide on these issues for those interest is CostalWiki https://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Salt_wedge_estuaries

Two actual seas

Secondly, it states:

• Leap of faith to separate the sweet and salty seas from the other two 'seas'
• Again, using the definite particle 'al' and barrier between them implies this is for two specific seas, while this phenomena occurs in many places, even the North Atlantic, South Atlantic the Pacific Oceans have different salt levels.^[6]
• For the second point about the difference between the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans not mixing , this is not true, as Piers Chapman - Oceanography - Texas A&M University writes in Water Encyclopaedia Ocean Mixing http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Mi-Oc/Ocean-Mixing.html

• BBC Science focus article on Atlantic and Pacific oceans mixing, and that previous videos showing non-mixing are incorrect https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/is-it-true-that-the-pacific-and-atlantic-oceans-dont-mix

Refutation of the claim main points

• Problem - the seas do mix - get source, there is no barrier between them - the definition of a barrier is literally something that blocks (so has been stretched here)
• Partition forbidden to pass - uses term for never - however entre sealine changes over time with rivers broken down and destroyed - and current 'seas' 'barrier' breaks down over time
• This happens everywhere all across the world - why talking about two seas with 'al' particle (happens with all sweet and salty water/less dense water) - historical context
• Doesn't say riverنھر (Nahar) - although to be fair every large body of water was referred to using this word in classical Arabic. A specific word for ocean or lake did not exist either. Also arguably 3 bodies of water, it could have stated one is mixed blocking the others - which would have been a closer description to a barrier
• Salt vs seawater - is estuary water sweet and palatable or filled with dirt?
• Much better ways to write this verse that would actually fit with the science (give examples)
• Link historical context of premeal waters to the whale story too
• Coral does not occur in fresh water, which causes coral bleaching ^[7]
• Scientific claim - Quran says absolutely nothing about different densities, hence no-one ever thought it did until many years after the discovery - Scientist William Hayes denouncing miracle claim

Whether the two seas mentioned in the Qur'an referred to these mythological seas or a more general inviolable barrier between bodies of salt and fresh water, critics argue that the verse in question is scientifically wrong.

Historical context - Moses and Al-Khidr

The two seas in Islamic literature

• Someone who has this foresight makes sense coming from god's sea - and disappears there after Moses keeps asking questions
• Not actually named in Quran (only called a servant of God)- only hadith name him
• the Islamic whale swimming in the ocean with Earth on it's back

Islamic Views

Hadith

In the two most authoritative hadith collections, we see in Sahih Bukhari that Muhammad is recorded as saying that when going into the seven heavens on a night journey (see Buraq), the rivers in paradise came to Earth via the Nile and Euphrates. This clearly backs up the idea that fresh water comes in via a freshwater cosmic ocean

And this idea is backed up in Sahih Muslim:

Commentaries

Al-Qurtubi, a prominent Sunni Scholar

Similarly Ibn Kathir

later commentaries after the flat earth model was rejected by astronomers state this barrier refers to land

This is obviously incorrect as coral doesn't form in fresh water, let alone springs. And the rivers are especially not connected - so is not a barrier between two seas?

large lakes referred to as seas, there is not a barrier between them. There are many lakes, springs and lagoons all over the world, they are not one body of water as the quran claims.

(https://islamqa.info/en/answers/165094/tafseer-of-the-verse-he-has-let-loose-the-two-seas-the-salt-water-and-the-sweet-meeting-together-between-them-is-a-barrier-which-none-of-them-can-transgress-ar-rahmaan-5519-20)

The Biblical and Judeo-Christian background literature

The story of Moses and his servant is one of four stories in Surah al-Kahf. Modern academic scholarship has identified antecedents of each story in the lore of late antiquity. This particular story is almost unanimously considered to derive from a legend about Alexander the Great and his search for the water of life. For details see the section on the four stories in Surah al-Kahf in the article Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature.

Other religions an cosmic waters

This may be compared to the ancient Akkadian myth of the Abzu, the name for a fresh water underground sea that was given a religious quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the Abzu underground sea, while the Ocean that surrounded the world was a saltwater sea. This underground sea is called Tehom in the Hebrew Bible. For example, Genesis 49:25 says, "blessings of the heavens above, and Tehom lying beneath".^[8] Wensinck explains,^[9] "Thus it appears that the idea of there being a sea of sweet water under our earth, the ancient Tehom, which is the source of springs and rivers, is common to the Western Semites". Similarly in Greek mythology, the world was surrounded by Oceanus, the world-ocean of classical antiquity. Oceanus was personified as the god Titan, whose consort was the aquatic sea goddess Tethys. It was also thought that rainfall was due a third ocean above the "Firmament of the Sky" (a vast reservoir above the firmament of the sky is also described in the Genesis creation narrative).

External links

• https://archive.wikiislam.net/wiki/Meeting_of_Fresh_and_Salt_Water_in_the_Quran - Previous Wikiislam page on this 'miracle'
• Waters that Never mix - YouTube video

References