By: Moulana Aneesur Rahman Nadvi

Devastations of Impact Events
Now the question arises here is what will be the effects of impact events on Earth? According to scientists, it will depend on three things: first, the volume of the colliding object, second the speed of the colliding object. And third, whether the collision is taking place on dry land or the oceans? Hence, the greater the size of the colliding object, the larger the destruction will be. An object of 50-100 meter size carries enough destructive power to wipe out a major city or a small European country. Similarly, the level of destruction will increase progressively with the increase in size of the impactors, until it reaches a 2 kilometer size which is considered critical and the devastation caused by it would be global. The dust arising from this collision will block the sunlight from reaching the ground for a long time affecting the entire planet through engendering a period of dramatic cooling and reduced plant growth. A collision with an object of more than two kilometers wide will cause extinction of living species on a large scale. Evidence of this is present in the geological history of the planet Earth. A 10-kilometer object that struck the Earth some 65 million years ago, not only wiped out the dinosaurs but also two-thirds of all species living at the time. Similarly in an impact event that occurred more than 250 million (25 crore) years ago, more than 90% of the planet’s creatures disappeared bringing an end to the Permian period. Geologists have attributed at least 7 out of 25 major extinctions in the geological record to the large impact events.25

The scale of devastation of the impact events secondly depends on the velocity of the collision of these colliding objects. According to scientists, the grater the speed of the colliding objects, the greater will be the devastations caused by them. Hence, astronomers believe that the objects coming from outside of our solar system will be more destructive compared to the objects coming from within our solar system because their velocity will be much greater.

Thirdly, the scale of devastation of the impact events depends on whether the impactor is hitting the ocean or land. Since Earth’s two-third surface area is covered by water, majority of impact events do take place in oceans. The collision of these celestial bodies on oceans will create giant tsunamis, causing great catastrophes in all the coastal cities and regions of the world on the one hand, and on the other, the gigantic quantities of water and salt injected into the atmosphere may severely affect the climate and even wipe out our protective ozone shield temporarily.26

A Terrifying Impact Event on Earth
It has been stated above that there occurred numerous impact events in the geological history of the Planet Earth which caused the surface of the planet to be completely battered several times. We will discuss here a brief description of only one impact event so that the horrific nature of these impact events could accurately be understood. This horrific impact event took place on Earth about 65 million (6.5 crore) years ago. A 10-kilometer asteroid or comet crashed into the sea, leaving the earth changed forever. The energy released due to this horrific collision was equivalent to billions of Hiroshima bombs detonated simultaneously. This collision created a huge fireball hotter than the sun that vaporized the oceans and excavated a crater of 180 kilometers across in the crust. It tore the atmosphere apart and expelled over a hundred trillion tones of molten rock into the space, later to fall across the globe, roasting the animals alive like oven grill. This impact event immediately flattened an area as bigger than Europe.

On the other hand, the magnitude of this collision caused great earthquakes on the ground; a series of horrific storms, floods and tsunamis followed which destroyed thousands of kilometers of area off the coastal area. The matter didn’t stop here. Bill McGuire explains the post collision scenario in the following words:

“In the following weeks, smoke and dust in the atmosphere blotted out the Sun and brought temperatures plunging by as much as 15 degrees Celsius. In the growing gloom and bitter cold the surviving plant life wilted and died while those herbivorous dinosaurs that remained slowly starved. Life in the oceans fared little better as poisons from the global wildfires and acid rain from the huge quantities of sulphur injected into the atmosphere from rocks at the site of the impact poured into the oceans, wiping out three-quarters of all the marine life. After years of freezing conditions, the gloom following the so-called Chicxulub impact would eventually have lifted, only to reveal a terrible Sun blazing through the tatters of an ozone layer torn apart by the chemical action of nitrous oxides concocted in the impact fireball.”27

According to scientists, it might have taken hundreds of thousands of years for the Earth to return to its normal post-Chicxulub event.

When will the next impact event take place on Earth?
This brief discussion about the history of impacts events on Planet Earth and the possibilities of its occurrences in the future shows how vulnerable is our planet to these objects. All the planets in our solar system, including the Earth, are always at the risk of collisions. Innumerable meteorites (about 2.5 million according to latest estimates) are hitting the Earth’s outer atmosphere daily; the known asteroids that can hit the Earth are more than 20 million; similarly, there are comets whose discovered number is around 7 thousand, but scientists say that their actual number may be in the billions or trillions. The Planet Earth has completely been devastated several times by these impact events in its past history. So now the question arises here is, do scientists have any clue as to when this will happen again on the planet? It is interesting to note here that the question of the possibility of impact events on earth for scientists is no longer a matter of if, but it is a matter of when. Some scientists believe that such major impact events occur on the earth once in a few million years. Therefore, humans do not need to be afraid for the time being. Nevertheless, a group of scientists believe such catastrophic events can happen anytime and anywhere on earth. Even though scientists have discovered about 50,000 comets so far, and have identified their orbits, nevertheless, there might be billions of comets in the Oort Cloud that for unknown reasons can enter our solar system and wreak havoc across the solar system including Earth at any time, and humans will get no time to survive.

Agreement between Hadiths and Modern Scientific Discoveries
An overview of the scientific researches and discoveries carried out on war-footing in the past three decades with regard to the impact events on Earth in the past and the possibilities of its occurrence in the future prove that the torment of the heavenly stones which mankind has been warned of in the hadiths refer to this horrible natural phenomenon. Therefore, the occurrence of these collisions is not only possible, but it is almost certain to happen in the near future scientifically, whether it might be from meteorites; asteroids, comets or the objects present in the Orot Cloud. Here we will briefly discuss the words mentioned in the hadiths and their literal connotations in this context, so that the harmony between the Hadiths and modern scientific findings can be established and their scientific marvel could be proved.

• In the hadiths, the substance of these celestial objects has been described as rocky. According to modern scientific researches, the substance of meteorites and asteroids consists primarily of rock and minerals, while the outer shell of the comets is composed of dust, ice, and frozen gases such as carbon dioxide methane, and carbon monoxide, but its nucleus is made up of solid rock and minerals. When a comet enters our solar system from outer space and passes close to the Sun, it warms and begins to release gases and dust, this produces a tail to the comet. When these comets collide with the earth they are solid rocky.

• According to the hadiths, these stones are extremely hot. The word “Razf” has been used in some hadiths for this, which denotes heating by the sun or fire. Meteorites, asteroids and comets have lower surface temperatures, but as soon as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they burn and turn into fireballs. Comets are extremely cold when they are outside the solar system. But as soon as they enter our solar system, the surrounding dust, frozen gases and water separate from them because of the radiation of the Sun, they turn into a fireball. The temperature of the nucleus of comets is extremely hot (several hundred degree Celsius), and when they hit the Earth, they form the shape of fireballs. In this way, the literal meaning of the word “razaf” (heated by the fire or the Sun) prove to be valid in the light of modern scientific discoveries.

• According to the hadith, these heavenly stones will collide with the earth with enormous speed. The word “kadaf” has been used in the hadith for this, which means to throw with full force, which is in harmony with the modern scientific researches. Meteorites, asteroids, and comets normally enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 20 kilometers per second (72 thousand kilometers per hour). As mentioned above, the magnitude of the devastation caused by the collisions of these celestial bodies depends on the speed of that particular object. Therefore, the more the speed of a colliding object, the more the devastation caused by it will be.

• The theories presented by scientists with regard to the future impact events, especially the Shiva hypothesis related to the Oort Cloud, and the theory of the Taurid Complex correspond to the events reported in the hadith.

• Modern geological studies have proved that impact events have occurred in the geological history of Earth time and again, which led to the extinctions on large scale bringing an end to various biological periods on the Earth. The study of the hadiths too conveys that this will also be the case this time when impact events occur on the planet and it will eliminate the creatures on it, which has been termed as ‘Qiyamah’ doomsday in the Qur’an and the Hadith.

• The torment of raining down the heavenly stones, which led to the terrible destruction of the people of Lot, imposed on them for their involvement in a particular kind of sin (homosexuality), making the mankind suffer from this torment again, is most likely to be due to the re-enactment of the act of the People of Lot (homosexuality) by the humans today. (to be cont.)

References:
1 – In the second volume of this book, we have discussed in detail these extinctions that occurred in the geological history of Planet Earth and their causes from Islamic perspective in detail.
2 – Global Catastrophes, Bill McGuire, P. 103.
3 – Global Catastrophes, Bill McGuire, P. 106; See the youtube video: ‘bU1QPtOZQZU’ in order to understand this horrific event on earth.