In a verse of the Qur’an, the “fecundating” characteristic of the winds and the formation of rain as a result are mentioned.
(And We send the fecundating winds, then cause water to descend from the sky, therewith providing you with water in abundance.) (Surat al-Hijr, 22)
In this verse, it is pointed out that the first stage in the formation of rain is wind. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the only relationship between the wind and the rain that was known, was the wind’s driving clouds. However, modern meteorological findings have demonstrated the “fecundating” role of the winds in the formation of rain.
This fecundating function of the wind works in the following way:
On the surface of oceans and seas, countless air bubbles form because of the foaming action. The moment these bubbles burst, thousands of tiny particles, with a diameter one hundredth of a millimeter, are thrown into the air. These particles, known as “aerosols”, mix with dust carried from land by winds, and are carried to upper layers of the atmosphere. These particles carried to higher altitudes by winds come in contact with water vapor up there. Water vapor condenses around these particles and turns into water droplets. These water droplets first come together and form clouds, and then fall on the earth in the form of rain.
As seen, winds “fecundate” the water vapor floating in the air with the particles they carry from the sea and eventually help the formation of rain clouds.
If winds did not possess this property, water droplets in the higher atmosphere would never form and there would be no such thing as rain.
The most important point here is that this critical role of the winds in the formation of rain was stated centuries ago in a verse of the Qur’an, at a time when people knew almost very little about natural phenomena…
The picture above shows the stages in the formation of a wave. Waves are formed by the wind blowing above the surface of the water. With the wind, water particles start to move in a circular motion. This movement soon forms waves, one after the other, and bubbles formed by the waves spread in the air. This is the first stage in the formation of rain. This process is declared in the verse as "We send the fecundating winds and then cause water to descend from the sky." |