The sky is a beautiful thing. It is huge and stretches for miles and miles across the earth, covering the globe with its gorgeous blue color. But it is also essential for our survival, because it has a protective property to it that we hardly notice in our everyday life. In this article, we will look at a verse of the Qur’an about the sky and try to understand its background through science.
The Qur'an about the Sky
And We made the sky a protected ceiling, but they, from its signs, are turning away.
In this verse Allah talks about the sky as a “protected ceiling”. What exactly does this mean? When we talk about a ceiling the first thing that comes to our minds are its protective properties. It protects us from the heat of the sun, the destructive power of the hail and the bitter cold. Well, this is exactly what the sky does for the earth aswell. Here´s how:
Protection against freezing cold of the space
The atmosphere greenhouse effect is the process by which the earth’s atmosphere traps heat from the sun. This effect is necessary because without it, the Earth would be too cold to sustain life.
Without the greenhouse effect, all of the heat that the sun shines on earth would be reflected back into space, and temperatures would drop dramatically. In fact, they might even fall low enough to freeze off most of our planet’s water. The greenhouse effect works by trapping the heat in our atmosphere with the help of the so called greenhouse gasses. Because of this warming process, temperatures remain at a comfortable range of around 70°F (21°C) as if an intelligent power knew the ideal temperature for us and adjusted it for our well being.
Protection against the UV rays of the sun
The atmosphere protects the earth from the uv rays of the sun. The ozone layer, located high in the stratosphere, absorbs most of these harmful rays, which is a form of radiation that can cause skin cancer. If it weren’t for this layer, life as we know it would not exist on Earth.
Protection against meteroids
The atmosphere protects the earth from meteors, a term used to describe small rocks that come from outer space. Without the atmosphere, these meteors would hit Earth with much greater force, damaging life on Earth. The atmosphere stops these meteors by friction. Once these meteors come into our sky at high speed, they suddenly have to penetrate a sea of molecules, unlike when they were in space, where there are no molecules to slow them down. The friction that occurs between the meteors and the molecules causes a very high temperature that burns the meteor. Hence the flash of light we see a meteor entering our sky.
Protection against cosmic radiation
The magnetosphere is the area around the earth that is shaped by the magnetic field of our planet. The shape of this field is roughly doughnut-shaped, with a tail on one side and an open end on the other.
The magnetosphere protects the earth against cosmic radiation because it acts as an electromagnetic shield. It deflects charged particles created by solar wind and other sources of radiation that would otherwise reach us without it. Without this protection, we would be exposed to harmful levels of radiation every day!
As we can see, this invisible ceiling over our heads called the sky protects us from many invisible threats that would otherwise cause very dangerous diseases and even wipe out life on earth. How loving and great is our Creator who protects us from these dangers, yet many of us turn away from Him, as He said in that very verse.
