The Qur’ān on the Origin of Life in Water

The origin of life is now such a basic scientific fact that it is accepted without hesitation. This could lessen one’s appreciation for these verses.

Yet it must be borne in mind that the Arabian peninsula is a desert land without a single lake or river, these verses describe something unimaginable to those at the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

The verse is categorical and states a universal reality – that the source of all ‘life’ and everything ‘living’ is water. Water is the main element of all living organisms.

It has been proved that the percentage of water in a human body is 71% in an adult and 93% in an embryo that is a few months old.

All vital actions and processes like nutrition, excretion, growth and reproduction cannot be undertaken without water: photosynthesis, the exchange of solutions between cells due to the capillarity of aquatic solutions as they pass through the cell wall [osmosis] and the building of new cells and tissues that help growth and reproduction. The absence of water equates ‘death’ of every living organism.

Scientists, having studied millions of life forms that live in innumerable ecosystems globally, conclude that for any ‘living’ organism to exist, water must be present.

Even astronomers, investigating the existence of life forms on other planets, seek the presence of water when considering the possibility of life on that planet.