Rayleigh Scattering In Quran

📖Quran 2:187
Until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night] –

The Sun’s Light Reaches the Sky Before the Sun Appears:

1. The “white thread” of dawn refers to the first light that appears before sunrise. This light is emitted by the Sun before it fully rises, indicating that the Sun is already producing white light even before it becomes visible.
2. The sky changes colors (black → blue → white) due to the Sun’s presence, proving that the Sun’s original emission must be white since white light contains all colors.
3. No Sun = Black Sky: At night, when the Sun is absent, the sky appears black. This is consistent with the fact that the sky’s original color (in space) is black, and it only appears blue or white due to Rayleigh Scattering when sunlight interacts with the atmosphere.

Scientific Confirmation

Modern science confirms that the sun’s light is white, which contains all colors of the spectrum.
The atmosphere scatters shorter wavelengths (blue, violet, etc.), but before sunrise, the light that appears is white—matching the Quranic description.

Air molecules and airborne particles scatter white sunlight as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. This is done by a combination of Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering. As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to an observer, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam by air molecules and airborne particles, changing the final color of the beam the viewer sees.

Reference: Sunrise – Wikipedia

When the Sun is high overhead, it only passes through a little of Earth’s atmosphere, appearing white. As it lowers closer to the horizon, it appears with a cooler color-temperature, appearing red at sunset/sunrise, but progressing to orange, yellow, and eventually white as it rises higher, just as the Moon does.

Reference: What color is the Sun?

📖Quran 81:1 | Quran 77:8
When the sun is wrapped up [in darkness] [And] when the stars are obliterated.

When the sun is wrapped up, signifying the end of the world when it loses its light and becomes darkened, when discussing the end of stars, including the sun, and the resulting changes in the sky, it falls under the broader concept of stellar evolution. Stellar evolution covers the entire life cycle of stars, including their birth, various stages of existence, and eventual death or transformation into other forms. The end of stars and the changes in the appearance of the sky are indeed aspects of this concept.

📖Quran 70:8
On the Day when the sky will look like tar.

In Arabic, “مُهْلِ” can indeed have dual meanings, representing both “tar” (murky oil), which refers to black or thick black substances. Additionally, the Arabic word can refer to molten copper. Moreover, copper can acquire a blackened appearance on its surface due to the formation of black copper oxides when subjected to high temperatures and specific conditions, notably oxidation. This process of oxidation can lead to the copper taking on a black coloration. Therefore, the verse refers to the original color of the sky as black because when there are no sun and stars, the sky naturally appears black.

Reference: Rayleigh Scattering

Additional Information

In this article, we described how the Quran explains the original color of the Sun and the sky, aligning perfectly with modern scientific understanding. The Sun’s white light, the scattering of light through the atmosphere, and the appearance of the sky as blue or black are all phenomena that can be explained by Rayleigh scattering and modern atmospheric science. By linking these scientific concepts with Quranic verses, if you have any questions or find anything wrong in this article, please feel free to leave your comments or corrections. We welcome your feedback.