Allah
said in the Qur'an:
{Or
(the unbelievers' state) is like the darkness in a deep sea.
It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are
clouds. Darkness, one above another. If a man stretches out
his hand, he cannot see it...}
(Qur'an 24:40}
This verse mentions
the darkness found in deep seas and oceans, where if a man stretches
out his hand, he cannot see it. The darkness in deep seas and
oceans is found around a depth of 200 meters and below. At this
depth, there is almost no light. below a depth of 1,000 meters
there is no light at all (Oceans Elder and Pernetta p.27).
Human beings are not able to dive more than forty meters without
the aid of submarines or special equipment. Human beings cannot
survive unaided in the deep dark part of the oceans, such as
at a depth of 200 meters.
Scientists have
recently discovered this darkness by means of special equipment
and submarines that have enabled them to dive into the depths
of the oceans.
We can also understand
from the following sentences in the previous verse, "..in
a deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above
which are clouds,..." that the deep waters of seas and
oceans are covered by waves, and above these waves are other
waves.
It is clear that
the second set of waves are the surface waves that we see, because
the verse mentions that above the second waves there are clouds.
But what about the first waves? Scientists have recently discovered
that there are internal waves which "occur on density interfaces
between layers of different densities." (Oceanography,
Gross, p. 205).
The internal
waves cover the deep waters of seas and oceans because the deep
waters have a higher density than the waters above them. Internal
waves act like surface waves. They can also break just like
surface waves. Internal waves cannot be seen by the human eye,
but they can be detected by studying temperature or salinity
changes at a given location.
