Two seas meet. What keeps them apart?
مَرَجَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ ﴿١٩﴾ بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ لَّا يَبْغِيَانِ ﴿٢٠﴾
Surah Ar-Rahmaan · 55:19–20
Meaning (M. Pickthall, 1930): He hath loosed the two seas. They meet. There is a barrier between them. They encroach not (one upon the other).
The reflection
Two seas meet, yet neither overruns the other. Why?
In the chapter ar-Rahman: "He hath loosed the two seas. They meet. There is a barrier between them".
Al-Sa'di writes: the two seas are the fresh and the salt. The fresh pours into the salt, yet God placed a barrier of land between them, so neither overruns the other. From the fresh, people and crops drink; in the salt are fish, pearls and coral, and on it the ships sail.
Ibn Kathir writes: the barrier is of land, so that neither spoils the other. Each keeps its nature, for people to benefit. And God knows best.
Sources
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim
- al-Sa'di, Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman
- Quran text: Tanzil Project (tanzil.net)
- English meaning: M. Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930)
