The Miracle of Iron
Allah has made clear to us that His book, the Quran has been revealed as a reminder to the whole world.
“This is no less than a reminder to (all) the worlds. And you shall certainly know the truth of it (all) after a while.” (The Holy Quran, Chapter 38, Verses 87-88.)
Thus, the Quran is a reminder for all of mankind until the Last Hour. It contains information that man discovers in due time. Because this Quran was revealed from Allah’s knowledge and every single verse in it was revealed with Allah’s knowledge, as He Himself said:
“But Allah bears witness that what He has sent unto you He has sent with His (own) knowledge…” (The Holy Quran, Chapter 4, Verse 166.)
Every single verse contains divine knowledge, but mankind is constantly developing. In attaining higher levels of scientific understanding, mankind is then capable of discerning the divine knowledge contained in a given verse. Thus, coming to know that this verse has been revealed from Allah, with the ever continuing process of human progress and development, man will come to find the clue that enables him to understand another verse, and so on. In this way mankind will continue to understand more and more verses. This is the wondrous characteristic of the Quran.
Professor Armstrong works at NASA, otherwise known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where he is a well-known scientist. He was asked a number of questions about Quranic verses dealing with the expertise in Astronomy. When asked about Iron and how it was formed. He explained how all the elements on Earth were formed. He stated that the scientists have only recently come to discover relevant facts about the Iron formation process. He said that the energy of the early solar system was not sufficient enough to produce elemental iron.
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. In other words, the entire energy of the earth or the moon or the planet Mars or any other planet is not sufficient to form one new atom of iron, even the energy of the entire solar system is not sufficient for that. That is why Professor Armstrong said that the scientists believe that iron is an extraterrestrial that was sent to earth and not formed therein. As mentioned in the Quranic verse:
“And we sent down Iron, in which is Great might, as well as many benefits for mankind.” (The Holy Quran, Chapter 57, Verse 25)
When we take into consideration the literal meaning of the word “sent down” which is “being physically sent down from the sky”, we realize that this verse implies a very significant scientific miracle. This is because, modern astronomical findings have disclosed that the Iron found in our world has come from the giant stars in outer space. The heavy metals in the universe are produced in the nuclei of big stars. Our solar system, however, does not posses a suitable structure for producing iron on its own. Iron can only be produced in much bigger stars than the Sun, where the temperature reaches a few hundred million degrees. When the amount of iron exceeds a certain level in a star, the star can no longer accomodate it, and eventually it explodes in what is called a “nova” or a “supernova”. As a result of this explosion, meteors containing iron are scattered around the universe, and they move through the void, until attracted by the gravitational force of a celestial body.