Surah 39:21
"Do you not see that God has sent down water from the sky, and put it into the earth as springs, (and) then by means of it He brings forth crops of various colors, (and) then they wither, and you see them turning yellow, (and) then He makes them broken debris? Surely in that is a reminder indeed to those with understanding."
Claimed Miracle: Meteorology
APOLOGIST CLAIM
"The Quran miraculously outlines the complete water cycle, detailing how water falls from the sky and enters the earth."
Refutation & Exegesis
The Quran frequently mentions rain falling from the sky to nourish the earth and form springs, as seen in 39:21. However, this describes a linear, readily observable process known to any agrarian society. Crucially, the Quran omits the foundational, unseen upward half of the water cycle: evaporation and condensation. Classical scholars such as Ibn Kathir and Said bin Jubayr understood this verse literally—that all water on Earth, including underground springs, physically originated from the sky—rather than as a miraculous blueprint of the global hydrological cycle.
Dehistoricization
Apologists frame the observation that rain falls and creates springs as miraculously unknowable, ignoring that this linear process is universally observable to any ancient agrarian society. The text completely misses the invisible component of evaporation.