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Ice ages and Sea level fluctuations
In earth’s past history when the sea level was low, the continental area was much wider than it is today. The reason for the sea level fluctuations is said to be continental glaciations. That is, in the past of the earth when its average temperature was low the evaporated water of the oceans covered most of the continental land in the form of glaciers and ice sheets, causing huge sea level falls.
Continental glaciations has been a major cause of sea level fluctuations, creating a rise and fall of 130 metres (425 ft) from present-day sea level.
Consequently, during periods when the sea level was low, the continents were nearly 25 per cent larger then they are now. Similarly, the planet earth has also witnessed several periods in its history such as cretaceous period when more than 40 per cent of its present continental area was flooded due to the melting of continental glaciers (Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets), causing huge sea level rises.
The periods in earth’s history when continental glaciers have been formed due to the fall in the average temperatures of the earth is called ice ages or glacial periods. The intermediate periods between the two glacial periods when the continental ice sheets melted due to rise in its average temperature, causing rise in sea levels are called interglacial periods. The planet earth is constantly witnessing these periods of glaciations and inter-glaciations on regular intervals at a known rate of time. We too are passing today through one such interglacial period of the earth. Hence, there exists an apparent indication in this hadith with respect to both the real proportion of land and oceans on the earth and the sea level fluctuations due to glacial and inter-glacial periods of the earth’s history.
The inhabited and barren parts of the land
After the proportion of land and oceans, the hadith deals with the barren and inhabited parts of the land and their proportion and states that the inhabited portion of the land represents 1/5 of the total area of the planet earth while the barren portion too is 1/5. This foretold fact about the geographic feature of the planet earth bears enormous connotations too in the light of modern geographical discoveries. Its details are as follow:
Linguistically, the words barren, Arabic Kharab, and inhabited, Arabic Umraan, are opposites. The word Umraan is derived from amr, yamuru, which is used to denote the existence of life in anything. The word Umr, meaning life, is one of its derivations, which means the life span, or the period of stay of life in a body. Consequently, the word Umraan is used to denote inhabited and populated area or region of the land. Thus, this word in the hadith means the inhabited part of the planet earth by plants, since plants are attributed as forms of life. The other word barren, Arabic Kharab is its opposite, used to denote destructed or barren land which has no signs of life or which cannot support life at all. Qur’an too describes the soil inhabited by plants as one having life and the soil without plants as dead and barren in more than one place.
Proceeding on these lines, the barren portion of the land on the planet earth could be divided into three parts:
1. Barren due to submergence
2. Barren due to continental glaciation
3. Barren due to deserts
Barren due to submergence
It has been discussed earlier that the actual area of the land is much wider than it exists today. The reason for the present shortfall in the continental area is the rise in sea levels due to the melting of continental glaciations. It has been described earlier that these submerged parts of the land constitute about 11.3 per cent of the total area of the planet earth, while its area above the present sea level constitute about 29.2 per cent.
Barren due to continental glaciation
The second cause of bareness is the continental glaciation, i.e. the ice sheets that cover large areas of the continental land. Thus, the Antarctic continent and Greenland are almost completely covered with thick ice sheets, causing for a complete lack of plant life in these regions. The average ice thickness in these regions is between 2 to 4 kilometers. Antarctica is almost completely covered with ice sheets, while Greenland’s about 4/5 of the total area is covered by the ice. The continental glaciers and ice sheets cover about 11% of the total land area of the planet earth, which constitute 3.21 per cent of total area of the earth. ([29.2 x 11] / 100 = 3.21) (See Figure 1)
Barren due to deserts
The third kind of the barren area is in the form of deserts. The majority of the planet earth’s deserts is situated in the subtropical regions, and is generally considered as hot and barren region. They receive little rainfall, and hence cannot support abundant plant and animal life. According to the geodesic estimates, all the deserts of the planet earth occupy about 1/7 of the total land area of the earth, which constitute about 4.17 per cent of the total area of the earth (29.2 / 7 = 4.17). (See Figure 2)
The summery of the fact about the planet earth’s geographical features discussed above has been given in the following table.
Table 1: The proportion of land and oceans, and barren and inhabited area of the land on planet earth
As it is evident from the above table, the ratio of oceans and land on the planet earth is 3:2. That is the oceans occupy about 60 per cent (3/5) of its total area, while the land occupies about 40 per cent (2/5) of its area. Similarly, about 19 per cent of the total area of the earth, which is part of the land area, is considered barren and constitute roughly 1/5 of the earth’s total area, and another about 22 per cent of the area of land is inhabited, constituting roughly another 1/5 of the earth’s total area. In this way, the facts mentioned in the hadith are corroborating completely with the modern geographical discoveries. (See Figure 3)
Now let us take on the next hadith, which has been narrated by ibn Abi Hatim. It states that the proportion of the barren land on the planet earth is 4/5 and that of inhabited land represents 1/5 of its area. The statements of this hadith are self explanatory in the light of above-mentioned geographical statistics. The barren portion mentioned in the hadith includes both the area covered by ocean, which is 3/5. and the barren part of the land, which constitute 1/5 of the total area of the earth. They are regarded as barren because they don’t support plant life. The next statement of the hadith states that inhabited portion of earth constitute 1/5 of the total area of the earth. This has been explained earlier.
Scientific marvel of the hadith
As it is evident from the above analysis, there exists a complete conformity between the hadiths and the geographical discoveries of the twentieth century. Mere few words of the hadith are elaborating such minute geographical features of the planet earth in such a beautiful way. The first logical conclusion, which is deduced from this, is that the source of this sort of information cannot be a human being. It must then be a Being, under whose reach, domain and observation everything persists. Similarly, there must exist some sort of contact between Him and the man through which this sort of information is passed to the man before he could assume the job of scrutiny and exploration of the natural phenomena, which goes on to prove the concept of revelation. It also proves that not only the Qur’an is the word of God, but the hadith too qualifies to be revelation from the God. Hence the Qur’an says:
He (Prophet) does not say of (his own) desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him. (Najm: 3-4)
What grabs our attention more here is that the two hadiths discussed here are not the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed (Pbuh) himself. Instead the first hadith is the saying of a Prophet’s companion’s companion, which is called hadith maqtoo, while the second hadith, in fact, is a saying of the Prophet’s companion which is called, hadith mauqoof, since Abdullah ibn Amr is a companion of the prophet Mohammed (Pbuh) while Hassan ibn Atiya is companion’s companion. Thus, it further proves the principles of the hadith scientifically that all the sayings of companions and companion’s companion are considered valid and accurate and their source of knowledge is indeed the Prophet Mohammed (Pbuh) and that of the Prophet himself is revelation from the god.
(Aneesur Rahman Nadvi
Fellow, Furqania Academy Trust, Bangalore
anees_nadvi2003@yahoo.com)
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