by Adiel Ismail
The recent overflowing at the Athlone Waterwaste Treatment Plant reminds me of the wise words of the Professor Mohammad Abdus-salaam Karaan delivered at a function in 2016. He talked about the wonders of nature and, particularly, the importance of water and the respect it deserves.
Karaan said that by studying the cycle in nature one could anticipate something long before its occurrence. That could often be witnessed by a springbok who knew it would rain long before humans knew it.
Karaan often had to engage water scientists since our country runs on waterborne sanitation, like the British and this requires that sewerage be released into the rivers running to the ocean. He said water had memory and, once it changed, it was difficult to undo.
Karaan quoted Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto’s best-seller Hidden Messages in Water that describes how water reacts to emotion. Beautiful emotions give rise to beautiful crystals in the corresponding frozen water when viewed under a microscope, compared to the crystals formed by bad emotions.
Karaan also referred to the magnetic property of water. In a bluegum tree 30m or taller, the water in a thin xylem vessel does not fall due to its weight and gravity, but rather clings to the sidewalls due its magnetic property and capillary action.
Further, Karaan said cooldrinks froze from the bottom up while water froze from the top down. He said that when snowcaps, where most of the fresh water was conserved, on the poles melted, it created waves in the oceans that prevented the oceans from becoming a mass of stagnant water and, hence, sustained marine life.
As a water droplet falls to the earth it picks up nutrients, such as free nitrogen in the atmosphere, and binds to it before dropping onto the soil as feed for the plants. Karaan said that everything he had learnt about hydrology, pedology and geophysics, was encapsulated in the single verse in the Qur’an 2:55: “And you see the earth barren, but when We send down upon it rain, it quivers and swells and grows (something) of every beautiful kind.”
Prof Karaan explained the verse in minute detail, using magnetic energy and forces exerted by a germinating plant, unimaginable to us. The quivering referred to in the Qur’an more than 1 440 years ago, was confirmed by the “Brownian movement”, named after its discoverer, scientist Robert Brown in 1827. Brown observed that soil particles that collided with water moved like they were vibrating. The grain of soil swelled upon absorbing the nutrient-filled water in addition to receiving an electric shock. The water then searched for a seed. Only a seed that satisfies the conditions for germination will allow the water to penetrate it with its nutrition.
Karaan said some of the fat left by its parent plant, the electricity and nutrition brought along by the water, would start the seed’s growth. But the seed knew that, due to its limited nutrients provided by the water, it must break out of its surrounding shell in search of nutrition by the roots, assisted by gravity and the leaves in search of sunlight to enable photosynthesis.
Importantly, every statement Prof Karaan made in his talk was supported by a verse quoted from the Qur’an. I hope that we will take heed of the importance of water and show respect for it.
* Adiel Ismail, Mountview.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Argus
* Do you have something on your mind; or want to comment on the big stories of the day? We would love to hear from you. Please send your letters to [email protected].
All letters must have your proper name and a valid email address to be considered for publication.