In Surah An-Nur (The Light, 24:43), the Quran declares: "Do you not see that Allah drives the clouds, then joins them together, then piles them up, and you see the rain coming forth from their midst? And He sends down from the sky, from mountains [of clouds], hail, and strikes with it whom He wills and turns it away from whom He wills. The flash of its lightning almost takes away the eyesight."
This verse describes with remarkable precision the stages of cloud formation and hail production.
The historical context
In the 7th century, the formation of clouds and hail was a complete mystery. No one understood how clouds formed, accumulated, and produced rain or hail.
The scientific confirmation
Modern meteorology has confirmed each stage described in the verse:
- "Allah drives the clouds": Clouds are driven by winds. Meteorologists have discovered that cumulonimbus (storm clouds) form when winds push small cloud masses toward a convergence zone.
- "Then joins them together": Small cloud masses gather and merge to form larger clouds.
- "Then piles them up": Clouds accumulate vertically, forming cumulonimbus that can reach 10-12 km in altitude. The upper part of the cloud, where the temperature is very low, freezes and forms ice crystals.
- "Rain coming forth from their midst": Rain falls from the lower part of the cloud, where water droplets have agglomerated.
- "Mountains [of clouds]": The Arabic term jibal (جبال) means "mountains." Meteorologists have confirmed that cumulonimbus have a mountain-like shape, with summits that can reach 12 km in altitude.
- "Hail": Hail forms in cumulonimbus when water droplets are carried by updrafts to the cold regions of the cloud where they freeze, then fall and rise several times, accumulating layers of ice.
The Quranic verse thus precisely describes the process of cumulonimbus formation and hail production, a process that meteorology only understood in the 20th century through work on cloud physics.