The Power of the Sea

وَإِذَا مَسَّكُمُ ٱلضُّرُّ فِى ٱلْبَحْرِ ضَلَّ مَن تَدْعُونَ إِلَّآ إِيَّاهُ ۖ فَلَمَّا نَجَّىٰكُمْ إِلَى ٱلْبَرِّ أَعْرَضْتُمْ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ 

 كَفُورًا ﴿٧٦﴾

" And when harm touches you upon the sea, those that you call upon vanish fom you except Him (Allah, Alone). But when He bring you safe to land you turn away (from Him). And man is ever unggrateful." 

(Sr, Al-Isra;17:67)

The water that fills the ocean and seas, lakes and rivers, atreams and channel, all comes from one source: with atoms of oxygen, which together form water.

  It flow constantly, never changing, bringing life. but does water always brind life? No. Sometimes water is the strongest and harshest force on earth; it sweeps away everything that stand in its path no matter what it is. It causes disaster and floods in which rocka and solid objects are distroyed. Hence, we see in the ocean such beauty and depth, such awe-inspiring force that could be a cause for potential danger and fear.

   Pheraps the most amazing phenomenon occuring at sea are the storm and hurricanes which last for  three or four days, nonstop, with waves as high as mountains and throughs as deep as valleys, with waves seemingly reaching up to the sky with no land or horizon to be seen.

   Waves which are usually 25 feet high may reach a height of 130 feet during the storm. If you realize that a foot-high wave has a destructive force of six thousand pound, you can imazine the exent of the destruction that can be wrought by these waves.

    According to recoads, in 1872 a strong wave in Scotland dislodged an iron anchor weighing 1,700,000 lbs, and another wave carried a rock weighing 175 thousand pound to a height of 100 feet! In 1737, in port of Babjok there was a storm which killed 300,000 people and wrecked 20,000 ships.

   

( أَوْ كَظُلُمَٰتٍۢ فِى بَحْرٍۢ لُّجِّىٍّۢ يَغْشَىٰهُ مَوْجٌۭ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ مَوْجٌۭ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ سَحَابٌۭ ۚ ظُلُمَٰتٌۢ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ إِذَآ أَخْرَجَ يَدَهُۥ لَمْ يَكَدْ يَرَىٰهَا ۗ وَمَن لَّمْ يَجْعَلِ ٱللَّهُ لَهُۥ نُورًۭا فَمَا لَهُۥ مِن نُّورٍ ﴿۰٤﴾ أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱلطَّيْرُ صَٰٓفَّٰتٍۢ ۖ كُلٌّۭ قَدْ عَلِمَ صَلَاتَهُۥ وَتَسْبِيحَهُۥ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ )

"O (the state of a disbeliever) is like the darkness. In a vast deep sea, overwhelmed with waves topped by waves, topped by dark clouds, (layers of) darkness upon darkness: if a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it! And he for whom Allah has not appointed light, for him there is no light."
( Sr, Al-Noor; 24:40)

Then suddendly the sky clears, the wind drops and the sea becomes calm. In the face of these natural forces, man in his weekness can do nothing but invoke the prises of Allah, the Almighty, may He be Exalted.
 

بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمْرًۭا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ ﴿٧١١﴾

  "The Originator of the heavens and the Earth. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it : Be! - and it is." (Sr, Al-Baqarah; 2:117)