Page 194 - For Men of Understanding

types of bacteria, on the other hand, transform ammonia into nitrate (NO ).
3
(Lightning also plays an important role in the transformation of the nitrogen in
the air into ammonia.)
At the next stage, living things that produce their own food, such as green
plants, absorb nitrogen. Animals and human beings that cannot produce their
own food can meet their nitrogen need only by eating these plants.
The nitrogen in animals and human beings returns to nature through their
faeces and their corpses which bacteria decompose. While doing so, bacteria
not only perform the task of cleaning but also release ammonia, the main
source of nitrogen. While a certain amount of ammonia is converted to carbon

by some other bacteria and mixes with the air, another part is converted to
nitrate by other types of bacteria. Plants use them and the cycle continues.
The lack of bacteria in this cycle alone would bring the end of life. Without
bacteria, plants could not meet their need for carbon and would soon become
extinct. It is not possible to talk of life in a place where no plants exist.

THE EARTH’S PRESERVED AND PROTECTED ROOF:
THE ATMOSPHERE
Though we are generally not aware of them, many meteorites fall on the
earth as well as on other planets. The reason why these meteorites, which form
giant craters when they fall on other planets, do not harm the earth is that the
atmosphere exerts very strong friction on the falling meteors. Meteors cannot
withstand this friction for long and lose immense mass by being burned. Thus,
capable of causing great disasters, this danger is averted thanks to the atmos-
phere.

In the Qur’an, this characteristic in the creation of the atmosphere is
explained: "We made the sky a preserved and protected roof yet still they

The Van Allen radiation belts.
Outer Van Allen belt Magnetic field lines
Inner Van Allen belt

New belt

192 For Men of Understanding