49 Preface لِنُحيِيَ بِهِ بَلدَةً مَيتًا وَنُسقِيَهُ مِمّا خَلَقنا أَنعامًا وَأَناسِيَّ كَثيرًاYusuf AliThat with it We may give life to a dead land, and slake the thirst of things We have created,-1 cattle and men in great numbers. The whole cycle of water-sea, clouds, rain or hail or snow, rivers, and sea again-is a remarkable illustration of the processes of nature making God’s providence visible to us. The salts of the sea sanitate and purify all the filth that pours into it. Water action, in the form of rain, frost, glaciers, rivers, lakes, etc., is responsible for the building up and configuration of the crust of the earth, and is the chief agent in physical geography. A parched desert quickly comes to life under the action of water. All drinking water, whether derived from rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs, springs, wells, or waterworks of any kind, are ultimately traceable to rain. The connection of life with water is intimate. The physical basis of life itself, protoplasm, is, in great part, water: see 25:54 below.