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Shahzad Ahmed, London, UK
In their quest to search for life beyond our planet, astronomers look for one simple thing: water. In fact, ‘follow the water’ has become the mantra of NASA whilst searching for any signs of potential life on other planets. [1]
But if life is simply a product of profoundly complex organic material, why only search for water? Well, the short and simple answer is that water is not only a vital property that acts as a solvent for various substances, but it also provides an all-important ‘liquid medium in which they can then move, interact with other substances and take part in the key chemical reactions that define life.’ [2] Scientists refer to this as the ‘primordial soup’ which consisted of a mix of inorganic molecules that gradually turned into biomolecules.
Yet, it is surprising that whilst scientists only discovered this as recently as the last century, the Holy Qur’an speaks of this great scientific truth 1400 years ago:
‘And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?’ [3]
The idea of a watery beginning being a vital stage in the preparation of organic material for life is a much more recent discovery that gained momentum only in the last century. It was in the 1920s that this idea of a primordial soup was first put forth independently by Alexander Oparin and then by J.B.S. Haldane. Later, in 1952, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey put this theory to the test by demonstrating it through experimentation. They put water in a flask (replicating the ocean) connected to a gas chamber that contained methane, ammonia and hydrogen (the composition of the atmosphere of early Earth) to represent a simple model of the earliest stages of the creation of life on Earth. The results were utterly ground-breaking: when water was heated and the steam entered the gas chamber along with electric discharges, they found the production of amino acids, which are essentially the basic building blocks for proteins and, subsequently, DNA. [4,5]
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A diagram of the Miller-Urey experiment.
Water is undoubtedly a crucial ingredient for life, serving as the essential foundation for all living organisms. It plays a fundamental and vital role in sustaining life in all forms, from the simplest organisms to the most complex ecosystems. The fact that the Holy Qur’an makes this profound assertion about water, declaring it to be the primary source of life fourteen centuries ago, is a testament to its deep wisdom and perfect knowledge. At a time when scientific understanding of our natural world was still in its infancy, the Holy Qur’an’s declaration of water as the fundamental factor for the emergence of life demonstrates a level of insight and knowledge far beyond the intellectual capabilities of that era. This statement not only illustrates the Holy Qur’an’s timeless and divine nature but also undeniably establishes that its author is none other than the Creator of the universe.
ENDNOTES
1. https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/digging-deeper-to-find-life-on-ocean-worlds/
2. https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/search-water-beyond-earth
3. The Holy Qur’an, 21:31.
4. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth, Part V, Section II. https://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_5_section_2.html
5. https://www.quantistry.com/blog/primordial-soup-quantistrylab-quantum-nanoreactor
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