The Miracle of the Sun, Seasons and Distribution of Landmass

 

ﺒﺴﻤ ﺎﷲ ﻠﺮﺤﻤﻦ ﻠﺮﺤﻳﻤ

For quite some time since I discovered it personally one day, I was quite amazed at one of the signs of Allah. Only He knows how much we can endure in temperatures. He takes three elements and makes them balance in such beautiful harmony that I stand in awe. Subhan’Allah!

Geography is one of my very favourite subjects – it tells us so much about the earth that shows how finely tuned it is, and how the Creator has made it so delicately balanced. For example, I discovered something quite interesting about the sun, the seasons and the distribution of land.

The distance between the sun and the earth differs throughout the year. On one end of the year is the perihelion, and on the other end, the aphelion. This is when the sun is closest to the Earth, and furthest from the earth respectively. It has got nothing to do with the seasons of summer and winter, but is a fixed time of the year, despite the season. The perihelion falls around early January, and the aphelion around early July. This means that the perihelion falls in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer and the aphelion in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. In other words, the Southern Hemisphere’s summer would be more hotter and their winter more colder, due to the sun’s distance co-inciding with the seasons down south. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer falls when the sun is furthest from the earth, and their winter when the sun is closest to earth, making their seasons milder in comparison.

Now this is where things get interesting...

It just so happens that the continental lands of the northern and Southern Hemispheres are not equally distributed. There is far much more land up in the north than the south. Just look at an atlas of the world and you will see how much space America, Greenland, Russia, Europe, Asia and North Africa take up. Compare that to the space that most of South America, southern Africa, Australasia and Antarctica take up.

I was fascinated at this. Why is there so much land in the north and so little in the south? Then when I learned about the sun’s journey and the co-inciding of the seasons, I figured out that I may just well know the answer – it is part of Allah’s protective care for us. Because the seasons would be more intense in the south, there is less land further south. Antartica is the coldest place on earth – not the Arctic. If England, for example, or Canada were 50 degrees latitude in the south instead of the north, their winters would probably be colder, and their summers hotter, due to the sun’s distance from the earth.

I may be wrong, and there are other factors such as climatic regions and the ozone layer that come into play – but I saw this as a great sign of Allah’s provision for us. Without us even knowing it, He is there looking after us.

So now that summer is coming here to us in the Southern Hemisphere, wear your sunblock and hat when you enjoy the beach! J

Salaam

Saadiqah

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