And We Sent down Iron

Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala) says: “And We sent down iron, in which there is great might, as well as many benefits for mankind.” (Surah Al-Hadid, 57: 83)

The verse tells us about the source of iron in the earth and confirms that it was brought down from space. This leads us to the study of the way iron is synthesized in the Universe.

Specialists have found out that 98% of the universe consists of hydrogen and helium, which are the lightest elements[1] the remaining 2% comprises the other 105 heavier elements. This has made researchers conclude that atomically heavier elements are synthesized from lighter ones, and that this takes place through nuclear fusion[2] that is accompanied by tremendous energy.

Researchers have found that there are stars with temperature ranging between 300,000 million and 400,000 million degrees c.[3], which makes the synthesis of iron inside them possible. When the amount of iron synthesized reaches 50% of the mass of the star and its entire core has changed into iron, the process comes to a standstill completely and the star explodes. On exploding, the star’s fragments scatter hither and thither in the vast Universe, and enter, through Allah’s predestination, the gravity fields of other celestial bodies that need iron. We see this happen even now, as we see iron meteorites come to earth. An example is what happened in the South of the Sudan when a 90 ton meteorite fell onto the city of Juba. The bulk of a meteorite usually burns when colliding with the atmosphere. The arrival of 90 tons of pure iron to the earth means that the mass of the meteorite had been several times its size when it reached the earth.

Iron meteorites fall onto the earth, the moon and other celestial bodies, which makes scientists imagine the earth, on separating from the sun, as a pile of ash.

Specials say that four and a half billion years ago the Earth was formed in massive conglomeration and bombardments of meteorites and comets. The immense amount of heat energy released by the high-velocity bombardment melted the entire planet, and it is still cooling today. Denser materials like iron from the meteorites sank into the core of the Earth, while lighter silicates, other oxygen compounds, and water from comets rose near the surface.

Iron constitutes more than 30% of the Earth’s mass, for the Earth consists of a solid iron core surrounded by an outer core composed of mostly iron in its liquid state and then the mantle, which is composed of iron, magnesium, aluminum, silicon and oxygen silicate compounds. The crust is the outer rocky layer that contains a good amount of iron. The following figure shows the concentration of metals in the Earth’s various layers. We notice that the inner core is composed mostly of solid iron, while the outer core surrounding it is composed of molten iron with about 10% sulfur. Thus, iron is a significant component in the structure of the Earth’s seven layers.

Professor Armstrong, a well-known astronomer in America, who works at NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), answering our question about the way iron was formed, said: “I will tell you how all the elements in the earth were formed. We have discovered it. I myself carried out several experiments to prove what I say to you. In the structure of various elements, different atomic particles, such as electrons and protons and others, gather. To be bonded in the atom of each element, these particles require tremendous energy. In calculating the energy required to form one atom of iron, it was found to be about four times as much as the energy of the entire solar system.”[4]

When Professor Armstrong was asked about the time when scientists discovered the fact that iron came down to the Earth, he said that it had been discovered by the experimental scientists during the last fourth of the twentieth century. Prior to that time none of the specialists or researchers had mentioned anything in relation to this fact, and none of the publications of experimental science had mentioned this fact thitherto.

Physicists have managed to synthesize heavier elements from lighter ones[5] and have been able to calculate the energy required to synthesize every element and have found that to synthesize a single atom of iron we need four times the energy found in the entire solar system. That has made them sure that iron could not have been synthesized in the earth or the solar system, but it must have been created in a star outside the solar system and then came down to earth.

The commentators’ sayings:

Let’s see what the scholars of Qur’anic commentaries said regarding the verse:

The commentators divided in two groups in this respect: some interpreted the utterance literally. They said: “(We sent down iron) means that Allah sent down iron with Adam from the heaven to the Earth.” That was the saying of Ibn ‘Abbas and ‘Ikrimah. Al-Tabari, al-Qurtubi and al-Wahidi have a similar opinion.

Some commentators found themselves forced to interpret the utterance as meaning something implied, for in their opinion it could not be imagined that iron came from the sky or space, for they saw iron, in their time and environment, produced from underground. Thus they interpreted the expression “We sent down iron” as meaning “originated” or “created”. Al-Hasan said that and so did Ibn Kathir, al-Tha’alibi and al-Shawkani.

We notice from their statements that they interpreted the expression “We sent down” as “We created or made”, and there is a lot of difference between sending down and creating or making. But it was the limited human knowledge in those times that forced the commentators to divert the expression from its explicit meaning.

The Aspect of the Miracle

Man could not detect the fact that iron came down to the Earth from space till he possessed such scientific devices as made him discover what happened and is still occurring in the depths of distant stars to produce iron, and after he managed to change some light elements into heavier ones and calculated the thermal energy required to achieve that, and after having known that he cannot synthesize iron from lighter elements, for that would require as much energy as four times that of the whole solar system. Moreover, mining iron from underground made people think that iron is unlikely to have come down from space to the Earth and made them believe that it had been created along with other terrestrial elements.

Therefore, experimental sciences had not said anything whatsoever about this fact prior to the last fourth of the twentieth century. Similarly, many commentators, including contemporary ones who lived in the twentieth century, had to suggest for the expression “And We sent down iron” a meaning it does not bear.

Who, then, informed Muhammad (Peace be upon him) of this fact, which human beings had not discovered till the last fourth of the twentieth century, and which had remained a secret till then? Who other than He Who sent down the Qur’an to His slave to be a warning to the worlds, and Who says: “And We sent Our Messengers with Clear Signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of Right and Wrong), so that mankind may keep up justice. And We sent down iron, in which there is great might, as well as many benefits for mankind, that Allah may know who it is that will help Him (His Religion) and His Messengers in the unseen. Verily, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty.” (Surah Al-Hadid, 57: 83)[6]