By: Moulana Aneesur Rahman Nadvi

Inflammability of Smoke
The fourth characteristic of smoke which has been mentioned in hadiths is that it will be a flammable gas. Two separate phrases have been used in the Hadith to describe this characteristic. The first phrase which has been used in the narration by Tabri is as follows: “The smoke will ignite the people.”20 The Arabic word haja, yaheeju, haijan means ‘to ignite’ or ‘to inflame’. According to the second phrase of the hadith, the condition of the people will be like the one with roasted head.21

Let us try to understand this phenomenon in the light of modern scientific discoveries. As it has been discussed earlier, hydrogen sulfide is a flammable gas. A flammable gas is burnt in the atmosphere when mixed with an oxidant and provided with a source of ignition. Flammable range is defined as the percent of vapor in the air necessary for combustion to occur and is referred to as the explosive limit. The flammable/explosive limits of some gases and vapors are given below:

The flammable range of gas can be understood with the example of methane. If the ratio of methane in the atmosphere compared to the air is 5.3%, then it can lead to catching of fire or explosion with the provision of a source of ignition. All the gases listed in the above table are considered to be extremely explosive and inflammable gases. Propane is LPG gas used to cook food in homes. In the same fashion hydrogen sulfide gas too is considered an extremely explosive and inflammable gas. Its flammability limit is 4.3 – 46 percent. It means that presence of mere 4.3 percent of this gas in the atmosphere may lead to catching of fire immediately.

In this context, if we read the hadiths once again regarding the flammability of smoke dukhan, we can understand them easily without any difficulty. According to the first hadith, “The smoke will ignite the people,” while according to the second hadith, the condition of the people will be like the one whose head has been roasted in the fire. It is easy to infer from the predictions of the hadiths that H2S gas will be discharged in huge quantities in the atmosphere. As far as the question of presence of a source of ignition is concerned, there could be a number of things that may become a source of ignition in the context of increased global warming. The intensity of global climate change, increase in the temperature, forest fires or others are among the few sources which can easily play this role. For details on this topic, see the discussion presented in the previous pages under “Fire of the Planet Earth”.

A comparative study of the hadiths and the modern scientific discoveries in this regard reveals that the hydrogen gas will be released into the atmosphere nearing to doomsday in such huge quantities that it will cause the emergence of fire in the atmosphere almost everywhere, and the condition of humans will get worsen and ruined completely, and their bodies will become like heated and cooked meat and their heads like that of roasted head of a sheep in a furnace. In this way, humans will not only fall prey to the devastating internal diseases due to the hydrogen sulfide gas, but their bodies will swelter and get roasted badly externally too, and they will lose all of their internal comfort and external beauty.

Devastations of Hydrogen Sulfide in the Earth’s Past
Scientists have been able to find out by studying geological records of earth, which have been preserved in the sediments, rocks and mountains that the hydrogen sulfide gas had been released into the earth’s atmosphere more than once in the Earth’s past. At the time of each release, the Earth witnessed deadly disasters on global scale which resulted in mass extinctions.

According to the scientists, the Earth’s oceans have witnessed intervals in the Earth’s past where oceans became depleted in oxygen. These events are called oceanic anoxic events or just anoxic events. It was during these periods that oceanic animals and plants were killed on large scale due to oxygen deficit. As a result, the fatal hydrogen sulfide gas was released into the atmosphere from their decomposed bodies causing devastations on global scale. Many scientists advocate the existence of strong relationship between anoxic events, global warming and climate change.

Invasion of H2S on Ozone Layer
Another shocking discovery came across by the paleontologists and biostratigraphists that as the emission of hydrogen sulfide in the atmosphere have proved to be lethal and destructive to the land and sea creatures in the past, it has also resulted in opening a new doorway to destruction bigger than this. This is the direct attack of hydrogen sulfide gas on the ozone layer, leading to the complete destruction of Ozone layer causing the extinction of all forms of life from the Planet Earth. Geologist Peter Ward gives details of this twin phenomenon -emission of H2S and destruction of ozone Layer – that have occurred in the Earth’s past:

“Their (Lee R. Kump and Michael) studies indicate that enough H2S was produced by such ocean upwellings at the end of the Permian to cause extinctions both on land and the sea. And this strangling gas would not have been the only killer. Models by Alexander Pavlov of the University of Arizona show that the H2S would also have attacked the planet’s ozone shield, an atmospheric layer that protects life from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Evidence that such a disruption of the ozone layer did happen at the end of the Permian exists in fossil spores from Greenland, which display deformities known to result from extended exposure to high UV levels.”22

The same scientist gives more details of the chain of incidences that occurred after the emission of this gas and depicts the destruction and extinction of land and sea creatures in the following words:

“Oxygen-breathing ocean life would have been hit first and hardest… As the H2S gas choked creatures on land and eroded the Planet’s protective shield, virtually no form of life on the earth was safe.”23

The Real Cause of the Earth’s Extinctions
Therefore, the phenomenon of release of hydrogen sulfide gas which has been predicted to occur in detail in the Quran and Hadith has, in fact, occurred several times in the Earth’s past history and has been implicated in several mass extinctions. Scientists are now widely acknowledging the fact that the global warming and climate change invoked emission of H2S gas was the sole responsible for all the previous extinctions that had occurred on the planet Earth.

When H2S will be released?
As this lethal gas was responsible for the extinction of creatures in the past, it is going to be the final happening before the extinction of current creatures of the Planet Earth. Geologists have also found the level of carbon dioxide when this deadly gas was released into the Earth’s atmosphere in those periods. Based on this, scientists are predicting the approximate timing of release of this destructive gas in the future. Peter writes:

“Most troubling, however, is the question of whether our species has anything to fear from this mechanism in the future: If it happened before, could it happen again? Although estimates of the rates at which carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere during each of the ancient extinctions are still uncertain, the ultimate levels at which the mass deaths took place are known. The so-called thermal extinction at the end of the Paleocene began when atmospheric CO2 was just under 1,000 parts per million (ppm). At the end of the Triassic, CO2 was just above 1,000 ppm. Today with CO2 around 385 ppm, it seems we are still safe. But with atmospheric carbon climbing at an annual rate of 2 ppm and expected to accelerate to 3 ppm, levels could approach 900 ppm by the end of the next century, and conditions that bring about the beginnings of ocean anoxia may be in place. How soon after that could there be a new greenhouse extinction? That is something our society should never find out.”25

It should be borne in mind that the estimates of emission of CO2 in the atmosphere mentioned in the above statement are according to the current rate of its emission. But as it has been described earlier in detail that there might be the occurrence of some unforeseen incidents (e.g. methane clathrate explosions and burning out of carbon in the Amazon forest) on Planet Earth as a feedback to the increased global warming once the global warming crosses a specific limit, which may lead to staggering increase in global warming on the Earth suddenly and abruptly. This catastrophe might happen anytime, for which we will not have to wait until the end of next century or even the end of this century itself.

The Great Seizure
The Holy Qur’an eloquently hints at this deadly phenomenon – destruction of ozone layer – after the release of smoke in Surah Dukhan soon after the mentioning of smoke. The Qur’an regarded it as the “great seizure”.

“Then wait for the day when the sky will bring an apparent smoke, which will engulf the people, it will be a painful torment. [They will say], “Our Lord! Remove from us the torment, surely we will believe. [But] how shall they get lesson from it, seeing that an apostle had come to them explaining them the truth. Yet they turned away from him and said, “He has been taught [by others], and a madman.” We shall remove the torment for a while and you will return [to disbelief]. The day when We shall seize them with the great seizure, We will surely take revenge.” (Qur’an: 44:10-11)

Abdullah bin Masood who has described the “smoke” dukhan as a punishment on disbelievers of Makkah, has considered the “great seizure” to be the battle of Badar, in which disbelievers of Makkah were defeated. While Ibn Abbas, Hasan and the other companions of Prophet (PBUH) were of the opinion that “great seizure” in this verse has been referred to mean doomsday and it is the opinion of most scholars of Islam. According to them both these events –release of smoke and the great seizure will take place in succession at the time of doomsday. Therefore according to our interpretation, if the great seizure is interpreted in terms of destruction of ozone layer, which is highly probable in the light of Qur’an, hadith and modern scientific investigations, then according to the Quran, this will be the great seizure of human beings on the earth, in which all living creatures, including human beings will perish. This has been termed as ‘extinction of all species’ in scientific terms. Extinction, in scientific terms, is the termination of all individuals of a given species. Therefore as the studies of geologist Peter Ward had pointed that after the hydrogen sulfide inflicted destruction of the ozone layer, all forms of living creatures – small, medium and large – on the earth, including the microbes living in the depths of oceans will be destined to die out due to the sun’s ultraviolet radiations. Therefore, this incident will prove to be the last one with humans and other creatures on the planet, and will end with wiping them out completely.

Extinction and the Trumpet of Death
The extinction of all species from planet earth has been termed as blowing of ‘trumpet of death’ in Islamic sources. According to this, when the trumpet of death will be blown, all the living creatures will be wiped out of Planet Earth and there won’t be a single living creature on it. Modern scientific researches too seem to endorse this concept absolutely. Hence there exist complete corroboration between Qur’an, hadith and modern science.

Another point of consideration here is that despite putting mammoth efforts by human beings in order to fill the ozone hole and restore the ozone layer, when Hydrogen Sulfide gas will be discharged from oceans, the complete destruction of ozone layer seems to be inevitable phenomenon. Nothing can prevent it from being destroyed completely. This has been carved in the stone, and which have been predicted to happen in the Qur’an and hadith. 28

Nature’s Revenge
The Holy Qur’an has regarded the emission of ‘smoke’ (H2S gas) and the great seizure as the Almighty God’s revenge. After describing the smoke and the great seizure as a nightmarish torment for human beings in Surah Dukhan’s verses 10-16, it concludes on the note “We will surely take revenge.” It means that the revenge of nature will be completed from humans through the release of hydrogen sulfide gas and the destruction of ozone layer. The question that arises here is revenge for what?

The release of hydrogen sulfide is actually a vengeance by the nature for the ungratefulness of human beings towards the universal and bodily gifts and blessings bestowed upon him by the Almighty Allah. The way God created the Planet Earth and made it fit for human beings; the number of life supporting systems He has integrated in it, and the necessary and luxurious objects He has amassed in it required by man; In fact, all these amenities and systems of Planet Earth will cease to exist after the intensification of climate change and the release of hydrogen sulfide gas. We have discussed the disintegration of all these natural systems in detail in previous pages. The last and decisive episode of this chain will be reflected in the form of destruction of ozone layer.

Just as Almighty Allah has made the Planet Earth inhabitable for human beings by bounding it with a plethora of diverse systems, He has created various systems inside the human body in the same fashion; made him a perfect human being; and made him a living being. But as it has been explained earlier, with the gradual emission of H2S gas in the atmosphere, all organs and internal systems of human body will be disabled and cease to function one by one gradually. Finally, the man will be deprived of all of his senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch and all of his body organs will be paralyzed, and his whole body will become like a burned and roasted head. Ultimately, human beings will get deprived of all of their inward and outward blessings, and his body will become a living corpse. In fact, one of the basic themes of the Holy Qur’an is to invite the man towards his Creator through the contemplation on the universal and bodily blessings bestowed upon him by the Creator. Therefore, as retribution to his ingratitude of the graces and blessings, he will get deprived of all of these worldly and bodily graces and blessings in this world itself. This is the revenge of nature!! So take warning, O people of vision.

In a nutshell, as the signs and clues of this dual catastrophe – release of hydrogen sulfide gas and the destruction of ozone layer – with all of its details are preserved in the geological records of our planet, these twin catastrophes have got mentioned miraculously in the Holy Qur’an and hadith with all of its minute details in the same fashion. This is a unique example of the most comprehensive and multi-dimensional miracles of the Qur’an and hadith.

Evidence against the Theory of Evolution
It has become clear from the above discussion that the release of H2S is going to be the death blow for all earthly creatures. Earth creatures will have to face two-dimensional destruction from poisonous and dangerous gas. Firstly, human beings will be killed while suffering from dangerous diseases from the release of poisonous H2S gas itself. Secondly, the creatures of earth will be completely wiped out and go extinct as a result of attack of H2S gas on ozone layer and destroying it completely. Not only the small and big creatures of land and oceans will have to face extinction, but the microbes in the shallow water too will have to face extinction, as it is evident from the researches of Peter Ward. This phenomenon falls against the theory of evolution, which says that life is continuously evolving on Planet Earth for billions of years, and this evolution will continue in the future too. Since geological evidences suggest that hydrogen sulfide gas had also been released several times in the earth’s past, and has caused extinction of earth’s creatures, hence this is a categorical evidence against biological evolution that it neither happened on Planet Earth in the past nor will it take place in the future. However, it continues to support Islamic philosophy of universe that the series of periodic creations and destructions of the creatures on the earth is continuing, and it will continue in the same way in the future too. For a detailed discussion of this topic, see the second part of this book. ***(To be cont.)

References:
20 – Tafseer Tabri, Tabri, V. 22, P. 17, Researched By: Ahmed Mohammed Shakir.
21 – Ibid.
22 – Peter D. Ward, Impact from the Deep, Scientific American, P. 70, October 2006.
23 – Ibid.
24 – Ibid.
25 – Ibid.
26 – Tafseer Al Durr al Mansour, Jalaluddin Siyouti.
27 – For a detailed discussion on this topic refer second volume of this book.
28 – We have discussed the topic “Destruction of Ozone Layer” in the Nov-Dec 2017 issue of Tameer-e-Fikr.