31. Allah's Scientific Miracles In The Quran: The Miraculous Iron

Iron is one of the elements highlighted in the Qur'an. And We also sent down iron in which there lies great force and which has many uses for mankind…(Qur'an, chapter 57 verse 25) The word “anzalnaa,” translated as “We sent down” and used for iron in the verse, could be thought of having a metaphorical meaning to explain that iron has been given to benefit people. But, when we take into consideration the literal meaning of the word, which is, “being physically sent down from the sky,” as in the case of rain and Sun rays, we realize that this verse implies a very significant scientific miracle.  Not only the iron on Earth, but also the iron in the entire Solar System, comes from outer space, since the temperature in the Sun is inadequate for the formation of iron. The Sun has a surface temperature of 6,000 degrees Celsius (11,000oF), and a core temperature of approximately 20 million degrees (36 million degrees Fahrenheit). Iron can only be produced in much larger stars than the Sun, where the temperature reaches a few hundred million degrees. All this shows that iron did not form on the Earth, but was carried from supernovas, and was “sent down,” as stated in the verse.  In the expression “We also sent down iron” in the verse, the word “also” may well be referring to that idea. However, the fact that the verse specifically mentions iron is quite astounding, considering that these discoveries were made at the end of the 20th century. There would be no protective magnetic field, no Van Allen radiation belts, no ozone layer, no metal to make hemoglobin , no metal to tame the reactivity of oxygen, and no oxidative metabolism. Moreover, iron oxide particles were used in a cancer treatment in recent months and positive developments were observed. As a result of this technique, first performed on the 26-year-old Nikolaus H., no new cancer cells were observed in the patient in the following three months. A liquid containing iron oxide particles is injected into the tumour by means of a special syringe. These particles spread throughout the tumour cells. This liquid consists of thousands of millions of particles, 1,000 times smaller than the red blood corpuscles, of iron oxide in 1 cm3 that can easily flow through all blood vessels.  The patient is then placed in a machine with a powerful magnetic field. This magnetic field, applied externally, begins to set the iron particles in the tumour in motion. During this time the temperature in the tumour containing the iron oxide particles rises by up to 45 degrees Celsius .   In a few minutes the cancer cells, unable to protect themselves from the heat, are either weakened or destroyed. The spread of this technique is a major development in the treatment of this potentially lethal disease. In the treatment of such a widespread disease as cancer, the use of the expression “iron in which there lies great force and which has many uses for humanity” in the Qur'an is particularly noteworthy. Indeed, in that verse, the Qur'an may be indicating the benefits of iron for human health.