Obstruction of water

Barrier between sweet & salt water

55:19 ►“ مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ “
55:20► ” بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ لا يَبْغِيَانِ “
“He has let free the two bodies of flowing water, meeting together: Between them is a Barrier which they do not transgress.” [Al-Qur’an -Surah Ar-Rahman -55:19-20]

In the Arabic text the word barzakh means a barrier or a partition. This barrier, however, is not a physical partition. The Arabic word maraja literally means ‘they both meet and mix with each other’. Early commentators of the Qur’an were unable to explain the two opposite meanings for the two bodies of water, i.e. they meet and mix, and at the same time there is a barrier between them. Modern Science has discovered that in the places where two different seas meet, there is a barrier between them. This barrier divides the two seas so that each sea has its own temperature, salinity and density.¹ Oceanologists are now in a better position to explain this verse. There is a slanted unseen water barrier between the two seas through which water from one sea passes to the other.
But when the water from one sea enters the other sea, it loses its distinctive characteristic and
becomes homogenized with the other water. In a way this barrier serves as a transitional homogenizing area for the two waters.
This phenomenon is also mentioned in the following verse of the Qur’an:
 27:61 ►“ أَمَّنْ جَعَلَ الأرْضَ قَرَارًا وَجَعَلَ خِلالَهَا أَنْهَارًا وَجَعَلَ لَهَا رَوَاسِيَ وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ حَاجِزًا أَإِلَهٌ مَعَ اللَّهِ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لا يَعْلَمُونَ “
“And made a separating bar between the two bodies of flowing water?” [Al-Qur’an -Surah An-Naml -27:61]

This phenomenon occurs in several places, including the divider between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean at Gibralter. A white bar can also be clearly seen at Cape Point, Cape Peninsula, South Africa where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean.
But when the Qur’an speaks about the divider between fresh and salt water, it mentions the existence of “a forbidding partition” with the barrier.
 25:53 ►“ وَهُوَ الَّذِي مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ هَذَا عَذْبٌ فُرَاتٌ وَهَذَا مِلْحٌ أُجَاجٌ وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخًا وَحِجْرًا مَحْجُورًا “
“It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water:one palatable and sweet, and the other salty and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, to be passed. [Al-Qur’an- Surah Al-Furqan- 25:53]


Modern science has discovered that in estuaries, where fresh (sweet) and salt water meet, the situation is somewhat different from that found in places where two salt water seas meet. It has been discovered that what distinguishes fresh water from salt water in estuaries is a “pycnocline zone with a marked density discontinuity separating the two layers.”¹ This partition (zone of separation) has a salinity different from both the fresh water and the salt water.²
This phenomenon occurs in several places, including Egypt, where the river Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
These scientific phenomena mentioned in the Qur’an was also confirmed by Dr. William Hay, a well-known marine scientist and Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado, U.S.A.

¹ Principles of Oceanography, Davis, pp. 92-93.
¹ Oceanography, Gross, p. 242. Also see Introductory Oceanography,
Thurman, pp. 300-301.
² Oceanography, Gross, p. 244 and Introductory Oceanography,
Thurman, pp. 300-301.