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wa-huwa lladhī maraja l-baḥrayni hādhā ʿadhbun furātun wa-hādhā milḥun ʾujājun wa-jaʿala baynahumā barzakhan wa-ḥijran maḥjūran
It is He who merged the two seas: this one sweet and agreeable, and that one briny and bitter, and between the two He set a barrier and a forbidding hindrance.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Furqan - Verse 53
53. “And He it is Who had made the two seas join and flow together, one palatable and sweet, and the other salt and bitter; and between the two He has made a barrier and inviolable obstruction.”
Again this noble verse argues on Allah’s magnificence by mentioning His blessings in the system of creation. Consisting with mentioning descending of enlivening drops of rain in the previous verses, it refers to not mixing of sweet waters and salty ones, and says:
The Qur’anic word /maraja/ is derived from the word /maraj/ that means ‘to mix or to send and to deliver free’, and here it means to set salty water and sweet water beside each other. The Arabic word /‘aǒb/ means wholesome, pure and cool. And the word /furat/ means sweet and delicious. The Arabic word /milh/ means ‘salty’, and the word /’ujaj/ means ‘bitter and warm’. So /‘aǒb/ and /furat/ are opposite in meaning with /milh/ and /’ujaj/. The word ‘Barzakh’ means a bar and partition between two things.
But the phrase ‘Hijran Mahjura’ (inviolable obstruction), as was said in the 22nd verse of the current Surah, is an expression that was used by Arabs when they met a person whom they feared. They said it for protecting themselves. They wanted to say, ‘excuse and protect us and be away from us!’ Anyway, this noble verse depicts one of the wonderful manifestations of Allah's might in the world of creation, how an invisible veil and an undetectable bar is set between salty and sweet seas and it does not allow them to get mixed.
Of course, today we know that this undetectable bar is ‘the density difference of sweet and salty water’ or it is so-called ‘specific gravity’ of theirs which causes them not to be mixed for a long time. Some commentators have tried to find out where such two salty and sweet seas are located on the earth that they do not mix. But this problem has been solved for us, for we know that all great sweet rivers that empty into seas form a sea of sweet water in seashore and send salty water back and this situation continues for a long time. For the different degree of their density, they avoid mixing with each other and say to each other: ‘Hijran Mahjura’.
It is interesting that because of flow and ebb, water of seas comes up and goes down two times a day as the result of the moon’s gravitation. This sweet water, which forms a sea, goes forth into the land at the estuary of the same rivers and, the places around there. Since ancient times, men have taken this matter into consideration and have dug canals in such places of sea and farmed many lands irrigated by this sweet water that spreads in vast areas by means of flow and ebb.
Just now, there are millions of palm trees in the south of Iran, which are irrigated in this way. They are located very far from the sea. When rain falls less, and the water of great rivers that empties into the sea decreases, and sometimes salty water increases, local farmers get worried, for they fear that it harms their farming. Usually this is not so. This ‘pleasant and sweet’ water which is placed besides ‘salty and warm’ water does mix with it, and this is a great capital for them.
It needs not mentioning that the existence of natural reasons in such issues does not devaluate them. What is nature? It is nothing except Allah’s will and intention that has bestowed such attributes to these creatures. It is interesting that whenever man flies over them with airplane, it is clearly seen that these two waters have got various colours and do not get mixed. This makes man remember this Qur’anic point. Moreover, locating this verse among the verses that are about ‘faith’ and ‘faithlessness’ may refer to this matter that sometimes in a society or city, or even in a home, there are faithful persons who are like sweet and pleasant water along with unfaithful persons who are like salty and warm water.
They have two various ideas and opinions and they have pure deeds and impure deeds, but they do not get mixed.